You either love mathematics or you do not. There is no middle ground when it comes to the subject that forms the very basis of everything around you. However, for those who develop a deep affection for numbers and their relationships from an early age, nothing else matters more than diving deeper into the world of mathematics. For Neena Gupta, a mathematician, numbers have always been her passion, so much so that she solved a 70-year-old problem that baffled most experts.
Who is Neena Gupta?
Neena Gupta was born in 1984 in a middle-class family in Kolkata. “My mother never counted practicing math in my study time,” she shared. “She thought it was my hobby.” Her love for math, Gupta said, came naturally to her as her parents were very good at it. “Although I liked all subjects, except literature which I was weak in, math had a certain charm that was hard to describe and then it became a way of life for me,” she said.
She studied at Bethune College until 2006, earning her BSc (Honours) degree in Mathematics. She completed her Post Graduation in Mathematics from the Indian Statistical Institute in 2008 and later her PhD in 2011 with commutative algebra as her specialization. She later became an associate professor at the Statistical and Mathematics Unit in ISI Kolkata and has been working there since June 2014. She was also an INSPIRE faculty at ISI Kolkata from December 2012 to June 2014 and a visiting fellow at TIFR Mumbai in 2012.
Award for Mathematics
One of the highlights in Gupta's career has been winning the Young Scientists Award by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) in 2014. In 2021, she won the DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from Developing Countries. She was acknowledged for her work on affine algebraic geometry and commutative algebra under the guidance of Amartya Kumar Dutta. Particularly, she solved the 70-year-old Zariski Cancellation Problem for affine spaces, posed by Oscar Zariski, one of the most eminent founders of modern algebraic geometry.
The Ramanujan Award for mathematicians under 45 years of age is awarded by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste. It is sponsored by the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India. “I feel honored to receive this prize however, this is not enough. As a researcher, I feel there are a lot more mathematical problems that we have to find a solution for. Getting recognized for the work definitely motivates me to work harder in the research field,” she said while speaking to a local news daily. With this, she became the third woman and the fourth Indian to win an award given to mathematicians under 45 who have conducted outstanding research in a developing country.
What was the Zariski Cancellation Problem?
The Zariski Cancellation Problem is a fundamental problem of algebraic geometry and was described as the world's greatest mathematical problem. In Neena Gupta's own words, “the cancellation problem asks that if you have cylinders over two geometric structures, and that have similar forms, can one conclude that the original base structures have similar forms?”
Awarding the Mathematician
Gupta has been invited as a speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2022. She has received the DST-ICTP-IMU Ramanujan Prize for Young Mathematicians from Developing Countries 2021. She received the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award 2019 and was selected as a TWAS Young Affiliate 2020. She was also awarded the Associateship of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 2013 and the Saraswathi Cowsik Medal by the TIFR Alumni Association for her work on the Zariski Cancellation Problem in positive characteristic in 2013. “It is a message to all the women that they need not fear STEM or mathematics,” she said.
