Biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan.
                     BIOGRAPHY 
OF SRINIVASA 
RAMANUJAN
Who Was Srinivasa Ramanujan?
• Srinivasa Ramanujan was a mathematical 
genius who made numerous contributions in 
the field, namely in number theory. 
• The importance of his research continues to 
be studied and inspires mathematicians today.
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Early Life
• Srinivasa Ramanujan was born on December 
22, 1887, in Erode, India, a small village in the 
southern part of the country. 
• Ramanujan attended the local grammar school 
and high school and early on demonstrated an 
affinity for mathematics.
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Applied Mathematics
• When he was 15, he obtained an out-of-date 
book called A Synopsis of Elementary Results 
in Pure and Applied Mathematics, Ramanujan 
set about feverishly and obsessively studying 
its thousands of theorems before moving on to 
formulate many of his own.
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Publication
• Ramanujan continued to make strides in his 
mathematical work, and in 1911, published a 
17-page paper on Bernoulli numbers in the 
Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. 
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Post as a shipping clerk
• Seeking the help of members of the society, in 
1912 Ramanujan was able to secure a low-
level post as a shipping clerk with the Madras 
Port Trust, where he was able to make a living 
while building a reputation for himself as a 
gifted mathematician.
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Cambridge
• After initially thinking his letters a hoax, 
Hardy became convinced of Ramanujan’s 
brilliance and was able to secure him both a 
research scholarship at the University of 
Madras as well as a grant from Cambridge.
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Bachelor of science degree
• During their subsequent five-year mentorship, 
Hardy provided the formal framework in which 
Ramanujan’s innate grasp of numbers could 
thrive, with Ramanujan publishing upwards of 
20 papers on his own and more in 
collaboration with Hardy. 
• Ramanujan was awarded a bachelor of science 
degree for research from Cambridge in 1916 
and became a member of the Royal Society of 
London in 1918.
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Death
• Ramanujan died of his illness on April 26, 
1920, at the age of 32. 
• Even on his deathbed, he had been consumed 
by math, writing down a group of theorems 
that he said had come to him in a dream. 
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Modern-day mathematics
• Ramanujan's published papers 37 in total  
Berndt reveals that a huge portion of his work 
was left behind in three notebooks and a 'lost' 
notebook. 
• These notebooks contain approximately 4,000 
claims, all without proofs. Most of these 
claims have now been proved, and like his 
published work, continue to inspire modern-
day mathematics.
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The Man Who Knew Infinity
• A biography of Ramanujan titled The Man Who 
Knew Infinity was published in 1991, and a 
movie of the same name starring Dev Patel as 
Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons as Hardy, 
premiered in September 2015 at the Toronto 
Film Festival.
Source: www.biography.com