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Invited talk on how to discover Rogers-Ramanujan identities by Dr Gaurav Bhatnagar
Date: April 23 2025
Time: 03:30 – 04:30 pm
Venue: Auditorium
NIIT University had the privilege of hosting an invited talk by Dr Gaurav Bhatnagar, an expert in number theory and special functions, who delivered an engaging and thought-provoking talk titled How to Discover the Rogers-Ramanujan Identities on April 23, 2025 in the auditorium from 3:30-4:30 pm. This talk was more than a mathematical exposition; it was a journey through the minds of great mathematicians and a celebration of intellectual curiosity.
What was unique about Prof. Bhatnagar’s lecture was not just the explanation of these identities, but his approach to understanding how one might arrive at such elegant insights through exploration, pattern recognition, and above all having an innovative mindset.
The audience composed of students, faculty, and math enthusiasts was particularly fascinated by the way Prof. Bhatnagar blended mathematical rigor with storytelling. His presentation bridged the gap between historical context and modern mathematical thinking. He also highlighted the interplay between intuition and proof, suggesting that both are essential in the journey of discovery. One of the memorable messages from the talk was the importance of developing a sense of mathematical aesthetics: learning to appreciate the beauty, elegance, and symmetry of ideas, beyond their utility.
Dr Gaurav Bhatnagar is a PhD in mathematics from the Ohio State University. He has taught mathematics to many students, at Ohio State, in Delhi University, Department of Computer Science, Ashoka University, as well as in his garage and over the internet. He works in the area of special functions, combinatorics and elementary number theory. The common thread is Ramanujan’s mathematics. In addition, he is interested in providing a discovery approach to Ramanujan’s identities. To know more about his work, take a look at his https://gauravbhatnagar.org/
