Kollagunta Gopalaiyer Ramanathan (13 November 1920 – 10 May 1992) was an Indian mathematician known for his work in number theory. His contributions are also to the general development of mathematical research and teaching in India.
K. G. Ramanathan's early life and his family
K. G. Ramanathan was born in Hyderabad in South India. He completed his B.A. and M.A. in mathematics at Osmania University and the University of Madras respectively before going to Princeton to earn his Ph.D; his advisor was Emil Artin. At Princeton, Ramanathan also worked with Hermann Weyl and Carl Siegel. Thereafter he returned to India to team up with K. S. Chandrasekharan at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at Colaba in 1951. At Princeton, for about two years, Ramanathan's neighbour was Albert Einstein, the legendary physicist. He used to sing Carnatic songs of Tyagaraja to Einstein for entertainment.
Ramanathan was married to Jayalakshmi Ramanathan. He had two sons. His father's name was Kollagunta Gopal Iyer, and his mother's name was Ananthalaxmi. His mother died at an early age. He had two sisters and one brother.
Career
At TIFR, he built up the number theory group of young mathematicians from India. For several years, he took interest to study Ramanujan's unpublished and published work. He was an Editorial board member of Acta Arithmetica for over 30 years. He retired from TIFR in 1985.
Awards
Ramanathan was given numerous achievements during his more than 30 years service at TIFR.
Padma Bhushan, 1983
Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, 1965
Fellow of Indian Academy of Sciences
Fellow of Indian National Science Academy
Honorary fellow of TIFR.
Selected publications
On Ramanujan’s continued fraction, KG Ramanathan - Acta Arith, 1984
Some applications of Kronecker’s limit formula, KG Ramanathan - J. Indian Math. Soc, 1987