Neena Gupta is not the only Indian Woman to have won the Ramanujan Prize - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 26, 2022
A post is being shared on social media claiming that Prof. Neena Gupta is the only Indian Woman to have won the Ramanujan Award. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Prof. Neena Gupta is the only Indian Woman to have won the Ramanujan Award.
Fact: DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize is awarded to Young Mathematicians from developing countries. In 2006, Sujatha Ramdorai became the first Indian and first Indian Woman to win this Prize. Other Indians who won this prize are Amalendu Krishna in 2015, Ritabrata Munshi in 2018 and Neena Gupta in 2021. So, Neena Gupta is the second Indian Woman to win this prize. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
We searched the internet with relevant keywords and found that the Ramanujan Prize (officially called DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize) is being awarded annually to Young Mathematicians from developing Countries since 2005. This prize is given by International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India (DST) and International Mathematical Union (IMU). List of previous winners can be seen here.
In 2006, Sujatha Ramdorai became the first Indian and first Indian Woman to win this Prize. Other Indians who won this prize are Amalendu Krishna in 2015, Ritabrata Munshi in 2018 and Neena Gupta in 2021. As of 2021, only three women won this prize, they are Sujatha Ramdorai (2006), Neena Gupta (2021) and Brazil’s Carolina Araujo (2020).
Prof. Neena Gupta is a Mathematician and Professor at Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. She received the Prize for her outstanding work in affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, in particular for her solution of the Zariski cancellation problem for affine spaces.
To sum it up, Neena Gupta not the only Indian Woman to win the Ramanujan Prize.