Overview
A passionate personal account of a mathematician who followed in the footsteps of the enigmatic Indian genius Srinivasa Ramanujan
Provides a deeply moving account of spirituality and self-discovery; doubt and vindication
Retraces the life, career, and legacy of Ramanujan and those who have followed
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Table of contents (34 chapters)
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Front Matter
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My Life Before Ramanujan
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Front Matter
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Keywords
About this book
Ono describes his rocky path through college and graduate school, interweaving Ramanujan’s story with his own and telling how at key moments, he was inspired by Ramanujan and guided by mentors who encouraged him to pursue his interest in exploring Ramanujan’s mathematical legacy.
Picking up where others left off, beginning with the great English mathematician G.H. Hardy, who brought Ramanujan to Cambridge in 1914, Ono has devoted his mathematical career to understanding how in his short life, Ramanujan was able to discover so many deep mathematical truths, which Ramanujan believed had been sent to him as visions from a Hindu goddess. And it was Ramanujan who was ultimately the source of reconciliation between Ono and his parents.
Ono’s search for Ramanujan ranges over three continents and crosses paths with mathematicians whose lives span the globe and the entire twentieth century and beyond. Along the way, Ken made many fascinating discoveries. The most important and surprising one of all was his own humanity."
Reviews
“To many, mathematics is seen as an impenetrable wall of logic, symbols and formulas. I would highly recommend this book to those who want to get a meaningful glimpse of what is behind the wall and how the wall can be penetrated. There are too few books that describe the artistic, creative and human, and even spiritual aspect of the mathematical enterprise. ‘My search for Ramanujan’ is therefore a welcome addition to this literature.” (V. Kumar Murty, London Mathematical Newsletter (LMS), newsletter.lms.ac.uk, January, 2017)
“This is an intellectual autobiography and confession of the American number theorist Ken Ono … . book is accessible to any interested reader, mathematician or not. … the numerous photographs appear both in a center color plate section and in black and white where they belong in the text. … Very well written and a good study of how one mathematician’s career developed.” (Allen Stenger, MAA Reviews, maa.org, July, 2016)
“It is clear that the author, giving this account of his life, has great admiration for Ramanujan and feels deeply indebted to him which shows on almost every page of this book. … The book is amply illustrated with grayscale images, which are duplicated in color version in a separate section. All technicalities of the mathematics are avoided so that the book can be read by anyone.” (Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society, euro-math-soc.eu, May, 2016)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Amir D. Aczel is a bestselling author and historian of science. He received his PhD in Statistics from University of Oregon. Dr. Aczel was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004, and he is currently a visiting researcher at Boston University's Center for the Philosophy & History of Science. He has written articles that have been published by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Jerusalem Post, and the Huffington Post.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: My Search for Ramanujan
Book Subtitle: How I Learned to Count
Authors: Ken Ono, Amir D. Aczel
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25568-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Mathematics and Statistics, Mathematics and Statistics (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-25566-8Published: 12 April 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-25568-2Published: 20 April 2016
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 238
Number of Illustrations: 37 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour
Topics: Number Theory, History of Mathematical Sciences, History of Science