Eminent mathematician C S Seshadri passes away at 88

C S Seshadri, a towering figure in the field of algebraic geometry and founder of the prestigious Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI), passed away on Friday night. 88-year-old Seshadri suffered a cardiac arrest and is survived by his two sons.

An eminent mathematician, Seshadri had mentored many young people who were interested in the field of mathematics and was the man behind the CMI. His contributions in the field were so immense that a constant in algebra was named after him.

Known as “Seshadri constant”, it is an invariant of an ample line bundle L at a point P on an algebraic variety. Born on February 29, 1932, Seshadri secured his B.A. (Hons) degree in Mathematics in 1953 from the famed University of Madras and completed his Ph.D in Mathematics five years later from Bombay University.

Condolences poured in for Seshadri with people from all walks of life praising his contributions to Mathematics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed Seshadri as an “intellectual stalwart” who did outstanding work in mathematics.

“His efforts, especially in algebraic geometry, will be remembered for generations. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” he tweeted.

Seshadri, who began his career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, moved to his home town of Chennai in 1984 to the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. In 1989, he launched the School of Mathematics as part of the SPIC Science Foundation, which is now known as CMI.

After having stepped down as Founder-Director of the CMI in 2010, Seshadri continued his contributions to the institute as its "Director-Emeritus" till his last breath.

K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, wrote a long thread on Twitter calling Seshadri’s passing as a “great loss to mathematics in particular and to science and teaching in general.”

“Not content with his extraordinary and widely recognised contributions through research, he established the Chennai Mathematical Institute, now a recognised powerhouse of undergraduate education, and research,” he wrote.