K. R. Parthasarathy | |
|---|---|
 Parthasarathy in 1975 | |
| Born | Kalyanapuram Rangachari Parthasarathy (1936-06-25)25 June 1936 Madras,Madras Presidency, British India (nowChennai, Tamil Nadu, India) |
| Died | 14 June 2023(2023-06-14) (aged 86) Delhi, India |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Quantum stochastic calculus |
| Spouse | Shyama Parthasarathy |
| Children | 2 |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | Indian Statistical Institute |
| Doctoral advisor | C. R. Rao |
Kalyanapuram Rangachari Parthasarathy (25 June 1936 – 14 June 2023) was an Indian statistician who was professor emeritus at theIndian Statistical Institute and a pioneer ofquantum stochastic calculus. Parthasarathy was the recipient of theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Mathematical Science in 1977 and theTWAS Prize in 1996.
Parthasarathy was born on 25 June 1936 inMadras,[1] into a modest but deeply religiousHinduBrahmin family.[2][3][4] He completed his early years of schooling inThanjavur, before moving back to Madras to complete his schooling fromP. S. School in theMylapore neighbourhood of the city.[5] He went on to study at theRamakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, where he completed the B.A. (Honours) course inMathematics.
Parthasarathy then moved toKolkata to attend the Research and Training school at theIndian Statistical Institute, where he completed his PhD, under the supervision ofC. R. Rao in 1962. He was one of the "famous four" at ISI from 1956 to 1963, alongsideRamaswamy Ranga Rao,Veeravalli S. Varadarajan, andS. R. Srinivasa Varadhan.[6] He was awarded the first Ph.D. degree of ISI.[3]
He received theShanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in Mathematical Science in 1977 andThe World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Prize for Mathematics in 1996.[7]
Parthasarathy was married to Shyama Parthasarathy. The couple had two sons.[5] Parthasarathy died inDelhi on 14 June 2023, at the age of 86.[8]
Parthasarathy started his work ontheoretical probability during his time at theIndian Statistical Institute.[8] He later worked at theSteklov Mathematical Institute,USSR Academy of Sciences (1962–63), as lecturer where he collaborated withAndrey Kolmogorov.[9] During this time, he continued to focus on the foundations ofprobability theory.[8] Later he came to the United Kingdom as a Professor of Statistics atUniversity of Sheffield (1964–68),University of Manchester (1968–70) and later atUniversity of Nottingham where he collaborated withRobin Lyth Hudson on their pioneering work in quantum stochastic calculus.[4][10][11][12]
After returning to India, he spent a few years atBombay University and theIndian Institute of Technology, Delhi, before returning to the newIndian Statistical Institute, Delhi Centre in 1976, where he spent the next 20 years before retiring in 1996.[3] He continued to remain as aprofessor emeritus at the institute until the early 2020s.[8]
Parthasarathy is the namesake ofParthasarathy–Ranga Rao–Varadarajan determinants[13] along withS.R.S. Varadhan,R. Ranga Rao andVeeravalli S. Varadarajan, which they introduced in 1967.[14] The PRV paper arose out of the grand program of Harish-Chandra on the representation theory of real connected semisimple Lie groups.[13] He collaborated with Ranga Rao and Varadarajan to write a paper onrepresentation theory oflie groups referred to as the PRV paper that was the foundation for further research on this topic.[8]
In addition to pioneering contributions toquantum stochastic calculus, some of Parthasarathy's research areas includedquantum probability, foundations ofquantum mechanics,information theory,stochastic processes, andgroup representations. He also served on many governmental committees.[8][5]
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