image: Vyjayanthi Chari is a professor of mathematics at UC Riverside. view more
Credit: I. Pittalwala, UC Riverside.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Mathematician Vyjayanthi Chari at the University of California, Riverside is one of only 50 mathematical scientists from around the world who have been named fellows of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) for 2016.
Chari, a professor of mathematics, is honored for "contributions to the theory of quantum groups and affine Lie algebras, and for service to the mathematical community."
"Dr. Chari has been well regarded by her colleagues for her contribution to mentoring graduate students and postdocs," said Yat Sun Poon, the chair of the Department of Mathematics at UC Riverside. "She is well known among Lie theorists, and very well cited. She is leading UC Riverside's Lie theory research group, and beyond. We are proud of her achievement, and feel fortunate that she is on our faculty."
The "Fellows of the AMS" designation recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics. Among the goals of the program are to create an enlarged class of mathematicians recognized by their peers as distinguished for their contributions to the profession and to honor excellence.
Chari received her doctoral degree in mathematics at the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai), India, in 1988, after which she was a fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. She joined UC Riverside in 1991.
Chari is an expert in representation theory, a fundamental area of mathematics used to understand abstract algebraic ideas by representing them as matrices. It both uses and has a profound impact on many areas of modern mathematics, and plays an important role in physics where it is used to understand the nature's symmetries.
"I am thrilled by this recognition from the mathematical community," Chari said. "I am grateful to Professor Richard Block for his unstinting support over the last twenty-four years. I also thank all my graduate students and collaborators, past and present; the lively interaction with them has made doing mathematics a wonderful and rewarding experience."
Chari has held several visiting appointments in her long career. She was an invited senior participant at the Mittag-Leffler Institute, Sweden; an invited professor at the University of Cologne, Germany; an invited professor at Paris 7, France; an invited research fellow at Brown University, RI; and an invited senior participant at Hausdorff Research Institute for Mathematics, Bonn, Germany. Currently, she is a visiting professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy, where she is giving a set of advanced lectures on her work.
She is the editor of the Pacific Journal of Mathematics and Algebras and Representation Theory. She is the author of nearly 75 research papers, a book, and several edited volumes of conference proceedings. In February this year her research papers were recognized as being highly cited. A few months later, she received the Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentor Award from the UCR Academic Senate.
The AMS was founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship. This is the fourth year of the Fellows of the AMS program. It recognizes some of the most accomplished mathematicians - those who have contributed to the understanding of deep and important mathematical questions, to applications throughout the scientific world, and to educational excellence. In 2012, four UCR mathematicians were named fellows of the society.
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