Indian mathematician Nikhil Srivastava named joint winner of Michael and Sheila Held Prize
Washington: Nikhil Srivastava, a young Indian mathematician, has been named winner of the prestigious 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize along with two others for solving long-standing questions on the Kadison-Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs.
Srivastava from the University of California, Berkeley, Adam Marcus, the Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Daniel Alan Spielman from Yale University will receive the 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize, the National Academy of Sciences said in the statement.
The prize consists of a medal and USD 100,000.
Srivastava, Marcus and Spielman solved long-standing questions on the Kadison-Singer problem and on Ramanujan graphs, and in the process uncovered a deep new connection between linear algebra, geometry of polynomials, and graph theory that has inspired the next generation of theoretical computer scientists, it said.
They published new constructions of Ramanujan graphs, that describe sparse, but highly-connected networks, and a solution to what is known as the Kadison-Singer problem, a decades-old problem that asks whether unique information can be gleaned from a system in which only some of the features can be observed or measured, according to the Yale news.
Srivastava is currently Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of California.
Their groundbreaking papers on the questions, both published in 2015, solved problems that mathematicians had been working on for several decades, the National Academy of Sciences said.
Their proofs provided new tools to address numerous other problems, which have been embraced by other computer scientists seeking to apply the geometry of polynomials to solve discrete optimisation problems, the academy said.
The Michael and Sheila Held Prize is presented annually and honours outstanding, innovative, creative, and influential research in the areas of combinatorial and discrete optimisation, or related parts of computer science, such as the design and analysis of algorithms and complexity theory.
The prize was established in 2017 by the bequest of Michael And Sheila Held.
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If not in politics, would have probably done entrepreneurship in aerospace: Rahul Gandhi
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said that if he was not in politics, he would probably be doing some entrepreneurship in the aerospace world.
Rahul was responding to a query during a dialogue with the Information Technology (IT) Fraternity at Technopark here.
He said he has been defined as a politician by many, but he actually does a lot of other things.
Rahul, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, said he was of the view that calling someone a politician, technocrat, techie or engineer were "constricting definitions".
"If I was not working for a political organisation, I would probably be doing some entrepreneurship, probably in the aerospace world. I am a pilot, so was my father and also my uncle. So, we have that little strain," he said.
"We should be curious about everything. You should have an open mind to everything and that is when you start to connect the dots," the LoP, who is on a two-day visit to Kerala, added.
VIDEO | Trivandrum, Kerala: During interaction with IT professionals, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) says, "If not in politics would have done entrepreneurship in aerospace, I am a pilot, so was my father."
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) March 7, 2026
(Full video available on… pic.twitter.com/WVYMpGkQmi
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