Kochi: He is the first PhD in Mathematics from Kerala University and is one of the living legends in the subject globally who is much sought after by experts from abroad even now when he is crossing the age of 80 and face health problems. At his house in Yamuna Apartment in Tripunithura, Dr K.S.S. Namboodiripad does not have any complaint though he is yet to get any recognition in his homeland.
Prof John C. Meakin, Professor of Mathematics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, United States, who is now at Cusat as part of the Erudite Scholars-in-Residence Programme, has been visiting Dr Namboodiripad ever since 1977. Eminent mathematicians like Belgian Francis Pasteijn, French Pascal Weil, Chinese V.B. Jing and US -settled Indian Mohan Putcha visited him and stayed with him to understand his research in the branch ‘semi-groups’ of mathematics.
“Nambooripad's seminal contribution is in the structure theory of regular semi-groups. His research papers were published in Memoirs of American Mathematical Society in 1979. Several other research papers appeared in the journals Semi-group Forum, Journal of Algebra, Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Journal of Australian Mathematical Society, Proceedings of the Edinburgh Math Society, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Colloquia Mathematica Societatis Janos Bolyai, Szeged, Hungary and Houston Journal of Mathematics,” says Dr A.Vijayakumar, Professor in Mathematics at Cusat.
Professor Namboodiripad has also taken up assignments as visiting professor in universities of Northern Illinois, Nebraska, Bowling, Green State University and National Science foundation of USA, University of Gent in Belgium and Monash University in Australia. He was the faculty of the Department of Mathematics, University of Kerala from 1975 and head of the department from 1983-1995.
“Namboodiripad’s thesis and memoir provided a seminal contribution to our understanding of the structure of regular semi-groups. His results were way ahead of their time and are still among the deepest results known in the field,” says Prof John C. Meakin, the visiting scholar from USA. Cusat will be honouring Namboodiripad at a special function on Friday.
