Varghese Mathai | |
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Born | India |
Alma mater | Illinois Institute of Technology B.A. (1981) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. (1986) |
Known for | Mathai-Quillen formalism T-duality in a background flux Fractional and Projective Index theory |
Awards | Australian Mathematical Society Medal[1] (2000) Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.[2] (2011)
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Pure mathematics, Mathematical Physics |
Institutions | Elder Professor of Mathematics, The University of Adelaide |
Thesis | Heat Kernels, Thom Classes and the Index Theorem for Imbeddings (1986) |
Doctoral advisor | Daniel G. Quillen |
Mathai Varghese is a mathematician at the University of Adelaide. His first most influential contribution is the Mathai–Quillen formalism,[6] which he formulated together with Daniel Quillen, and which has since found applications in index theory and topological quantum field theory. He was appointed a full professor in 2006. He was appointed Director of the Institute for Geometry and its Applications in 2009. In 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.[7] In 2013, he was appointed the (Sir Thomas) Elder Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. In 2017, he was awarded an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship.[8] In 2021, he was awarded the prestigious Hannan Medal[9] and Lecture from the Australian Academy of Science, recognizing an outstanding career in Mathematics. In 2021, he was also awarded the prestigious George Szekeres Medal[10] which is the Australian Mathematical Society’s most prestigious medal, recognising research achievement and an outstanding record of promoting and supporting the discipline.