Indian mathematician Nikhil Srivastava, along with two others, has been named the winner of the prestigious Michael and Sheila Hero Prize in 2021 for solving long-standing questions about the Kadison – Singer problem and about Ramanujan graphs. Srivastava of the University of California, Berkeley, Adam Marcus, of the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Daniel Alan Spielman of Yale University receive the Michael and Sheila Held Prize in 2021, the National Academy of Sciences of the US in the statement.
The prize consists of a medal and $ 100,000. Srivastava, Marcus and Spielman solved long-standing questions about the Kadison – Singer problem and Ramanujan graphs and in the process discovered a deep new connection between linear algebra, geometry of polynomials and graphite theory that inspired the next generation of theoretical computer scientists. , it said.
They published new constructions of Ramanujan graphs, describing sparse but strongly connected networks, and a solution to what is known as the Kadison – Singer problem. It’s a decade-old problem that asks if unique information can be obtained from a system in which only a few characteristics can be observed or measured, according to Yale News.
Srivastava is currently an associate professor of mathematics at the University of California.
Their groundbreaking articles on the questions, both published in 2015, solved problems that mathematicians have been working on for decades, the National Academy of Sciences said.
“Their evidence has provided new tools to address numerous other problems, which have been used by other computer scientists to apply the geometry of polynomials to solve discrete optimization problems,” the academy said.
The Michael and Sheila Hero Prize is awarded annually and honors excellent, innovative, creative and influential research in the field of combinatorial and discrete optimization, or related parts of computer science, such as the design and analysis of algorithms and complexity theory.
The award was instituted in 2017 by the bequest of Michael And Sheila Hero.