Varghese Mathai
Mathai Varghese is a mathematician at the University of Adelaide. His first most influential contribution is the Mathai–Quillen formalism, which he formulated together with Daniel Quillen, and which has since found applications in index theory and topological quantum field theory. He was appointed a full professor in 2006. He was appointed Director of the Institute for Geometry and its Applications in 2009. In 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. In 2013, he was appointed the (Sir Thomas) Elder Professor of Mathematics at the University of Adelaide, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Australia. In 2017, he was awarded an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship. In 2021, he was awarded the prestigious Hannan Medal and Lecture from the Australian Academy of Science, recognizing an outstanding career in Mathematics. In 2021, he was also awarded the prestigious George Szekeres Medal which is the Australian Mathematical Society’s most prestigious medal, recognising research achievement and an outstanding record of promoting and supporting the discipline.
Varghese Mathai | |
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| Born | India |
| Alma mater | Illinois Institute of Technology B.A. (1981) Massachusetts Institute of Technology Ph.D. (1986) |
| Known for | Mathai-Quillen formalism T-duality in a background flux Fractional and Projective Index theory |
| Awards | Australian Mathematical Society Medal (2000) Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. (2011)
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Pure mathematics, Mathematical Physics |
| Institutions | Elder Professor of Mathematics, The University of Adelaide |
| Thesis | Heat Kernels, Thom Classes and the Index Theorem for Imbeddings (1986) |
| Doctoral advisor | Daniel G. Quillen |