Prof. K. Ramasubramanian of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, has been conferred the Award of Maharshi Badarayan Vyas Samman in recognition of his research.
The award is given to young scholars of Sanskrit, Pali/Prakrit, Arabic and Persian in the age group of 30 to 40 years, who have made a breakthrough in the interdisciplinary studies involving contribution of these languages or the ancient Indian wisdom, to the process of synergy between modernity and tradition. The award carries a one-time cash award of Rs. 1.00 lakh along with a sanad and a shawl, which will be presented by the President of India.
Overview of the Work:
Prof. Ramasubramanian is one of the authors who prepared the Explanatory Notes of the celebrated work Ganita-yuktibhasha (Rationales in Mathematical Astronomy) of Jyeshthadeva (c. 1530) which brings out the seminal contributions of the Kerala School of astronomers and mathematicians in the field of Mathematical Analysis. Their contributions include the discovery of power series expansion of Sine and Cosine functions and the development of infinite series (and fast convergant approximations) for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. They also developed new models of planetary motion that gave a correct accouunt of the heliocentric motion of the interior planets, Mercury and Venus, for the first time in the history of Astronomy.
The book Ganita-yuktibhasha has already been published by Hindustan Book Agency, New Delhi in two volumes and is being reprinted by Springer. The flier and advertisement prepared by Springer for their forthcoming publication of this work are available in the links:
http://www.springer.com/productFlyer_978-1-84882-072-2.pdf?SGWID=0-0-1297-173848475-0
http://www.springer.com/math/book/978-1-84882-072-2
Besides this Prof. Ramasubramanian has edited the work 500 Years of Tantrasangraha with Prof. Sriram and Prof. Srinivas published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. The link providing a brief about the work is:
http://www.iias.org/p-500years.htmlOne of the major reasons why not much headway has been made in arriving at a comprehensive understanding of the development of science in India, is that we are yet to develop a community of scholars who are well-versed in Sanskrit to understand the classical texts of our Sastras and at the same time have the necessary expertise in sciences. Prof. Ramasubramanian is a traditionally trained Sanskrit scholar and also holds a doctorate in Theoretical Physics. His investigations of the classical Indian texts have shed a lot of light on the development of Indian Mathematics and Astronomy during the medieval period, especially the work of the Kerala School during the 15th and 16th centuries.
Prof. Ramasubramanian has also completed a rigorous course on Advaita Vedanta (a fourteen semester program) which fetched him the coveted of "Vidvat Pravara" from the Jagadguru Shankaracharya of Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham.
It is these accomplishments that fetched him the Maharshi Badarayana Vyas Samman for the year 2008 awarded by the President of India.
Prof. R. B. Sunoj, Department of Chemistry, has been selected for the National Academy of Sciences India Young Scientist award in Chemical Sciences for the year 2008.
His research interests include: stereoselectivity, catalysis, stability and reactivity of reactive intermediates, kinetic and thermodynamic aspects of chemical transformation
For more details see:
http://www.chem.iitb.ac.in/people/Faculty/prof/rbs.html