View source for Harish-Chandra

{{other uses|Harish Chandra (disambiguation)}}
{{short description|Indian American mathematician}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name        = Harish-Chandra
| image = File:Harish-chandra.jpg
|birth_date  = {{birth date|1923|10|11|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Kanpur]], [[India]]
|death_date  = {{death date and age|df=y|1983
|10|16|1923|10|11}}
|death_place = [[Princeton, New Jersey]], [[United States]]
|residence   = [[Princeton, New Jersey]]
|citizenship = [[United States]]<ref>[http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/harish-chandra.pdf A Biographical Memoir]</ref>
|alma_mater  = [[University of Allahabad]]<br/>[[University of Cambridge]]
|doctoral_advisor  = [[Paul Dirac]]

|doctoral_students =
|known_for   = [[Harish-Chandra's c-function]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra's character formula]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra homomorphism]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra isomorphism]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra module]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra's regularity theorem]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra's Schwartz space]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra transform]]<br/>[[Harish-Chandra's Ξ function]]
|signature   =
|footnotes   =
|field       = [[Mathematics]], [[Physics]]
|work_institutions = [[Indian Institute of Science]]<br/>[[Harvard University]]<br/>[[Columbia University]]<br/>[[Tata Institute of Fundamental Research]]<br/>[[Institute for Advanced Study]]
|prizes      = [[Fellow of the Royal Society]]<ref name="frs">{{Cite journal | url = https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1985.0008 | last1 = Langlands | first1 = Robert P. | doi = 10.1098/rsbm.1985.0008 | title = Harish-Chandra. 11 October 1923 – 16 October 1983 | journal = [[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] | volume = 31 | pages = 198–225| year = 1985 | jstor = 769925| doi-access = free }}</ref><br/>[[Cole Prize]] in Algebra <small>(1954)</small><br/>[[Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal]]
|religion    =
}}
'''Harish-Chandra''' [[Fellow of the Royal Society|FRS]]<ref name="frs"/> (<!--'''Harish Chandra Mehrotra'''{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}; -->11 October 1923 – 16 October 1983) was an [[Indian American]] [[mathematician]] and [[physicist]] who did fundamental work in [[representation theory]], especially [[harmonic analysis]] on [[semisimple Lie group]]s.<ref>{{MathGenealogy |id=92483}}</ref><ref>{{MacTutor Biography|id=Harish-Chandra}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Varadarajan | first1 = V. S. | title = Harish-Chandra (1923–1983) | doi = 10.1007/BF03024122 | journal = The Mathematical Intelligencer | volume = 6 | issue = 3 | pages = 9–13| year = 1984 }}</ref>

==Early life==
Harish-Chandra was born in [[Kanpur]].<ref>http://www.hri.res.in/about/harish-chandra/</ref> He was educated at [[BNSD Inter College|B.N.S.D. College, Kanpur]] and at the [[University of Allahabad]].<ref name="www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk">http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Harish-Chandra.html</ref> After receiving his master's degree in Physics in 1943, he moved to the [[Indian Institute of Science]], Bangalore for further studies in theoretical physics and worked with [[Homi J. Bhabha]].

In 1945, he moved to [[University of Cambridge]], and worked as a research student under [[Paul Dirac]].<ref name="www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk"/> While at Cambridge, he attended lectures by [[Wolfgang Pauli]], and during one of them pointed out a mistake in Pauli's work. The two were to become lifelong friends. During this time he became increasingly interested in mathematics. At Cambridge he obtained his PhD in 1947.

==Honors and awards==

He was a member of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]] and a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref name="frs"/> He was the recipient of the [[Cole Prize]] of the [[American Mathematical Society]], in 1954. The [[Indian National Science Academy]] honoured him with the [[Srinivasa Ramanujan Medal]] in 1974. In 1981, he received an honorary degree from [[Yale University]].

The mathematics department of V.S.S.D. College, Kanpur celebrates his birthday every year in different forms, which includes lectures from students and professors from various colleges, institutes and students' visit to Harish-Chandra Research Institute.

The Indian Government named the [[Harish-Chandra Research Institute]], an institute dedicated to Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, after him.

[[Robert Langlands]] wrote in a biographical article of Harish-Chandra:

{{quote|He was considered for the [[Fields Medal]] in 1958, but a forceful member of the selection committee in whose eyes [[René Thom|Thom]] was a [[Nicolas Bourbaki|Bourbakist]] was determined not to have two. So Harish-Chandra, whom he also placed on the Bourbaki camp, was set aside.}}

He was also a recipient of the [[Padma Bhushan]] in 1977.<ref name="Padma Awards">{{cite web | url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | title=Padma Awards | publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India | date=2015 | access-date=21 July 2015}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Publications==
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=Mars | editor1-first=J. G. M. | title=Automorphic forms on semisimple Lie groups | publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] | location=Berlin, New York | series=Lecture Notes in Mathematics | isbn=978-3-540-04232-7 | doi=10.1007/BFb0098434 |mr=0232893 | year=1968 | volume=62}}
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=Dijk | editor1-first=G. van | title=Harmonic analysis on reductive p-adic groups | publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] | location=Berlin, New York | series=Lecture Notes in Mathematics | isbn=978-3-540-05189-3 | doi=10.1007/BFb0061269 |mr=0414797 | year=1970 | volume=162}}
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=Varadarajan | editor1-first=V. S. | title=Collected papers. Vol. I. 1944–1954. | url=https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0387907823 | publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] | location=Berlin, New York | isbn=978-0-387-90782-6 |mr=726025 | year=1984}}
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=Varadarajan | editor1-first=V. S. | title=Collected papers. Vol. II 1955–1958. | publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] | location=Berlin, New York | isbn=978-0-387-90782-6 |mr=726025 | year=1984}}
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=Varadarajan | editor1-first=V. S. | title=Collected papers. Vol. III 1959–1968. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CtvuAAAAMAAJ | publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] | location=Berlin, New York | isbn=978-0-387-90782-6 |mr=726025 | year=1984}}
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=Varadarajan | editor1-first=V. S. | title=Collected papers. Vol. IV 1970–1983. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vFGHSQAACAAJ | publisher=[[Springer-Verlag]] | location=Berlin, New York | isbn=978-0-387-90782-6 |mr=726025 | year=1984}}
*{{Citation | last1=Harish-Chandra | editor1-last=DeBacker | editor1-first=Stephen | editor2-last=Sally | editor2-first=Paul J. | title=Admissible invariant distributions on reductive p-adic groups | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QhweZD8wGHEC | publisher=[[American Mathematical Society]] | location=Providence, R.I. | series=University Lecture Series | isbn=978-0-8218-2025-4 |mr=1702257 | year=1999 | volume=16 | doi=10.1090/ulect/016}}

==Bibliography==

*{{Citation | editor1-last=Doran | editor1-first=Robert S. | editor2-last=Varadarajan | editor2-first=V. S. | title=Proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Representation Theory and Noncommutative Harmonic Analysis, held in memory of Harish-Chandra on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of his birth, in Baltimore, MD, January 9–10, 1998 | publisher=[[American Mathematical Society]] | location=Providence, R.I. | series=Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics | isbn=978-0-8218-1197-9 |mr=1767886 | year=2000 | volume=68 | chapter=The mathematical legacy of Harish-Chandra | pages=xii+551|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mk-4pl9IftMC | doi=10.1090/pspum/068}}
*{{Citation | last1=Srivastava | first1=R. S. L. | title=About Harish Chandra |mr=888666 | year=1986 | journal=Gaṇita Bhãrati. Indian Society for History of Mathematics. Bulletin | issn=0970-0307 | volume=8 | issue=1 | pages=42–43}}
*{{Citation | last1=Varadarajan | first1=V. S. |title=Harish-Chandra|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Harish-Chandra.aspx|journal=Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography |year=2008}}

==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
* [http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/harish-chandra.pdf Biography] by [[Roger Evans Howe|Roger Howe]]

{{PadmaBhushanAwardRecipients 1970–79}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harish-Chandra}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American mathematicians]]
[[Category:People from Kanpur]]
[[Category:University of Allahabad alumni]]
[[Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Institute for Advanced Study faculty]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian mathematicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian physicists]]
[[Category:Indian theoretical physicists]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education]]
[[Category:Indian Institute of Science alumni]]
[[Category:American academics of Indian descent]]
[[Category:Scientists from Uttar Pradesh]]
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