Sthanumoorthy Neelacanta
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Dr.N.Sthanumoorthy
Born15 July 1947
Nagercoil, India
Died28 January 2020 (age 72)
NationalityIndian
Alma materIslamiah College, Vaniyambadi
Loyola College, Madras
Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (University of Madras)
AwardsCertificate of Excellence , Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award
Scientific career
FieldsMathematics
InstitutionsRamanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (University of Madras)
Doctoral advisorT. S. Bhanumurthy

Neelacanta Sthanumoorthy ( born July 15, 1947 - 28 January 2020 ) was an Indian Mathematician who worked primarily in the Advanced Mathematics domain of Lie Groups & Lie Algebras, Finite and infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody Lie algebras. He was a Former Professor at Ramanujan Insititute for Advanced Study in Mathematics and Emeritus at UGC. University of Madras.[1] .He obtained a Ph.D. degree in Mathematics from the University of Madras in the year 1982 [2]and had 36 research publications on topics closely related to Lie (Super) Algebras.

Early life and education

Sthanumoorthy was born in a Tamil family on 15 July 1947 in Nagercoil, India, as the fourth son of six, to Neelacanta Pillai and Anantham Ammal. He finished his schooling in Nagercoil and joined Loyola College as Lecturer in Mathematics in 1978. He then wanted to pursue a career in Advanced Mathematics and joined as a Professor of Mathematics in Ramanujan Institute of Advanced Study in Mathematics (University of Madras) in 1984.

Research

Prof Sthanumoorthy worked on a research problem suggested by Prof.T.S.Bhanumurthy on "Spectra of de Rham Hodge operator on SO(n + 2)/SO(2) × SO(n)" in the year 1982 and was published in Bulletin Sciences and Math. (France). Some of his other research collaborations include Spectral invariant of the zeta function of the Laplacian on $\operatorname{Sp}(r+1)/\operatorname{Sp}(1)\times \operatorname{Sp}(r)$ [3] , Structure and Root Multiplicities for Two Classes of Extended Hyperbolic Kac-Moody Algebras Eha 1 (1) and Eha 2 (2) for all Cases, Complete Classification of BKM Lie Superalgebras Possessing Strictly Imaginary Property, Root super multiplicities and corresponding combinatorial identities for some Borcherds superalgebras [4].

Contribution

Prof Sthanumoorthy had organized an International Symposium on Kac Moody Algebras in Chennai in 2002 [5], attended by Mathematicians across the globe. The proceedings of the International symposium had been released under the topic Kac Moody Lie Algebras in Contemporary Mathematics Series.[6]. He had been a Guest Scientist and had delivered lectures in USA [7] [8], Max Planck Institute Germany [9], ICTP Italy, and China. He had guided research assistants during his teaching career [10].

Book Written

Prof Sthanumoorthy had authored a book, Introduction to Finite and Infinite Dimensional Lie(Super) Algebras published by Academic Press Elsevier [11], in 2015. It has connections with combinatorics, Differential Equations, group theory, modular forms, singularities, knot theory, statistical mechanics, quantum field and string theory. [12]

Illness and Death

Professor Sthanumoorthy was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis during the beginning of the year 2018 and after a prolonged illness he passed away in the evening hours on Jan 28, 2020.