Prof. Vangipuram Lakshmikantham
Do you know why the original donor(s) of this scholarship chose to create a scholarship at SUNY Geneseo?
One of Dr. V. Lakshmikantham’s PHD students, Dr. Srinivas Leelamma, was working at SUNY as a Professor in Mathematics for a very long time. He thought it was for a good cause .
What should we know about him/her/them?
My dad, Dr. V. Lakshmikantham was born in 1926. Until he was nine years of age, he had no formal education, but he did have a photographic memory. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in Mathematics from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. He focused his life mainly in academia. He was influenced by the papers of Professor Aurel Wintner, of Johns Hopkins University and one of the founders of probabilistic number theory. Discovering a flaw in Professor Wintner’s work, he wrote to him and received a kind reply agreeing with his finding. Later Prof. Wintner invited him as a post-doctorate.
He worked at Florida Institute of Technology at Melbourne, Florida,UT Arlington, Texas, University of Rhode Island as the Head of the Mathematics Department. He enjoyed establishing Masters and Ph.D programs wherever he went and always wanted the department to be the best in research and independent thinking. In addition, he published over 400 research publications in academic journals and authored more than 40 books on mathematics. In addition, he founded the Journal of Nonlinear Analysis in 1976; established the International Federation of Nonlinear Analysis (IFNA) in 1991, and organized the first World Congress of NonLinear Analysts in 1992 (WCNA) in Tampa, Florida, 1992.
What would you want the recipients of this scholarship to know about the person for whom it is named?
The Scholarship was named after my dad’s mother or my grandmother who passed away at the age of 42, while my dad was still trying to finish his Ph.D. She always believed that one day her son would be a great mathematician.
What do you hope recipients gain through this scholarship?
My dad always believed in education and wanted to help those who have the brains but are less fortunate to pursue their studies. He would like the scholarship recipients to extend the same generosity to others less fortunate. Iis the hope of my dad that the recipients should also help the the less fortunate when they are able to do it.
-told by Nirupama Lakshmikantham