The 2010 SASTRA Ramanujan Prize will be awarded to Wei Zhang, a Benjamin Pierce Instructor at the Department of Mathematics, Harvard University, United States.
According to a release from the Shanmugha Arts, Sciences, Technology, Research Academy (SASTRA) University, Dr. Zhang was the unanimous choice of the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize Committee, comprising a panel of international experts, chaired by University of Florida's Professor Krishnaswami Alladi, for making a profound influence at the young age of 29 in a wide range of areas in mathematics.
Established in 2005, this annual prize is for outstanding contributions by very young mathematicians in areas influenced by Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. The age limit for the prize has been set at 32 because Ramanujan achieved so much in his brief life of 32 years.
The $10,000 prize will be awarded at the International Conference on Number Theory and Automorphic Forms at SASTRA University in Kumbakonam, on December 22, Ramanujan's birthday. Dr. Wei has made far-reaching contributions by himself, and in collaboration with others, to a broad range of areas in mathematics, including number theory, automorphic forms, L-functions, trace formulas, representation theory and algebraic geometry, the release said.
Born in China, Dr. Wei has a 2004 bachelor's degree from Beijing University, and completed his Ph.D in Columbia University under the supervision of Shou Wu Zhang in 2009 and joined Harvard University as a post doctoral fellow.
