Mangala Narlikar (1943-2023) was an Indian mathematician, professor and writer. She conducted research in mathematics and was well-known for her academic contribution to the field of mathematics.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Mangala Narlikar was born as Mangla Rajwade on 17 May 1943 (age 80 years; at the time of death) in Bombay, Bombay Province, British India (now Mumbai, Maharashtra, India). Her zodiac sign is Taurus. She went to the University of Bombay and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics in 1962 and a master’s degree in Mathematics in 1964, where she ranked first and received the Chancellor’s gold medal. She completed her Ph. D. in mathematics from the University of Bombay in 1981, which is 16 years after getting married.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5’2″
Weight (approx.): 56 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Mangala Narlikar during one of her lectures at the University
Family
Parents & Siblings
Mangala’s father served in a government service job in Mumbai while her mother had finished only one year of college. She had a brother. Six months after she was born, her father died due to cancer. After which, Mangala’s mother along with her grandmother moved back to Pune, where her mother pursued MBBS and became the only female doctor in the family.
Husband & Children
Mangala got married to Jayant Narlikar, who is also an astrophysicist, mathematics researcher, a PhD holder and professor. In an interview, Mangala recalled their first meeting and said,
I was very awkward but he made me feel comfortable by sharing jokes and funny incidents from his days at Cambridge. I found him extremely thoughtful and supportive of my love for Maths. Unlike other men, he had no issues with my intellect and the desire to study more,”
Dr Mangala Narlikar with Jayant Narlikar
They have three daughters, Geeta, Girija and Leelavati. Geeta works in the field of science as a biomedical researcher at the University of California, San Francisco while Girija works as a Director of Engineering at Google and Leelavati is a Faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Maharashtra. Jayant and Mangala are grandparents to five children.
Dr Leelavati Narlikar
Geeta Narlikar
Dr Girija Narlikar
Career
Academics and Research
Mangala Narlikar began her career in academics by working as a research student and then as a research associate at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai. She taught at the University of Cambridge for undergraduate students for two years from 1967 to 1969. Mangala went back to the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research from 1974 to 1980. Her research field was analytic number theory. After she got her Ph. D., she continued working with the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research for three years from 1982 to 1985. During this time, she also taught at the University of Pune for over a decade from 1989 to 2002. She later taught M.Sc. students at the Bhaskaracharya Pratishthan for four years from 2006 to 2010. In 2013 she was appointed as the Chairman of Balbharti where she made several significant developments in the state curriculum. Dhanwantri Hardikar, academic section head of Balbharti Textbook Bureau in an interview said that Mangala was invited to be a part of the board of studies for mathematics. He recalled,
She became the chairperson and was responsible for making mathematics textbooks from Std I to X more interactive,”
Writing
Mangala wrote books mainly about mathematics and believed in making maths interesting and easy for people to understand. She wrote,
I enjoyed writing a book on how to make mathematics interesting and accessible”.
Mangala published numerous scientific papers and books. A few of them are mentioned below.
Articles and Papers
- Theory of Sieved Integers, Acta Arithmetica Volume 38.
- On a theorem of Erdos and Szemeredi, Hardy Ramanujan Journal 3, 41, in 1980
- On the Mean Square Value theorem of Hurwitz Zeta function, Proceedings of Indian Academy of Sciences in 1981.
- Hybrid mean Value Theorem of L-functions, Hardy Ramanujan Journal 9 in 1986.
- On orders solely of Abelian Groups, Bulletin of London Mathematical Society in 1988.
- Several articles on mathematics in the Science Age.
Books
- Ganitachyaa Sopya Vata, a book in Marathi for school children
- An Easy Access to Basic Mathematics, a book for school children.
- A Cosmic Adventure, a translation of a book on Astronomy.
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- Vishwanath Parvati Gokhale Award in 2002 for her book Gargi Ajun Jeevant Aahe in the Marathi language.
- Suryadatta Life Time Achievement Award 2017 for Excellence in the field of Science and Technology.
Death
Mangala died on 17 July 2023 in Pune, Maharashtra. She had been fighting cancer for over a year. Her body will be placed at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) for people to offer their respects.
Facts/Trivia
- Mangala’s main interest in mathematics was in real and complex analysis, analytic geometry, number theory, algebra and topology.
- In an interview, Jayashree Atre, a member of the mathematics committee in Balbharti recalled the 10 years spent working alongside Mangala and her nature of helping people if they were unwell by brewing concoctions in her kettle. She said,
She was a hands-on wife and mother, excelling in everything. We wondered how she found the time to do so much,”
- The mathematician tried introducing an easier way to identify numbers in Marathi to mirror the English way, instead of ‘bawees’ for 22, she suggested ‘vees-don’, but was met with opposition.
- Books and textbooks written by Mangala Narlikar were sold at Rs. 10 so that every child could afford them.
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn