C. S. Seshadri


C.S. Seshadri FRS was an eminent Indian mathematician. He was the founder and Director-Emeritus of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, and is known for his work in algebraic geometry. The Seshadri constant is named after him.
He was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2009, the third highest civilian honor in the country.

Degrees and posts

He received his B.A. degree in Mathematics from Madras University in 1953 and was mentored by Fr. Racine and S Naryanan there. He completed his PhD from Bombay University in 1958 under the supervision of K. S. Chandrasekharan. He was elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1971.
Seshadri worked in the School of Mathematics at TIFR in Bombay from 1953 to 1984 starting as a Research Scholar and rising to a senior professor. From 1984 to 1989, he worked in IMSc in Chennai. From 1989 to 2010, he worked as the founding director of the Chennai Mathematical Institute. He stepped down from his Directorship of the Chennai Mathematical Institute in December 2010, and continued to be a part of CMI as "Director-Emeritus" till his death in 2020.

Visiting professorships

He has given talks at the ICM.

Awards and fellowships

Seshadri's main work was in algebraic geometry. His work with M S Narasimhan on unitary vector bundles and the Narasimhan–Seshadri theorem has influenced the field. His work on Geometric Invariant Theory and on Schubert varieties, in particular his introduction of standard monomial theory, is widely recognized. Seshadri's contributions include the creation of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, an institute for the study of mathematics in India.

Publications