Nikhil Srivastava Receives Michael And Sheila Held Prize 2021

Nikhil Srivastava, who is an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, along with two other mathematical geniuses have been awarded the 2021 Michael and Sheila Held Prize for solving questions related to the Ramanujan graphs and the Kadison-Singer problem.  

About Michael And Sheila Held Prize

The Michael and Sheila Held Award is awarded by the National Academy of Science to appreciate and support scholars’ contribution towards the field of “combinatorial and discrete optimization, or related parts of computer science, such as the design and analysis of algorithms and complexity theory”. This prize was established in 2017 and is awarded annually to those who have made a remarkable and innovative contribution towards scientific and mathematical discourse. The award winners receive a prize of $100,000 (INR 7,28,735). This year, Adam W. Marcus from EPFL, Daniel Alan Spielman from Yale University, and Nikhil Srivastava from the University of California, Berkeley became the latest award recipient. 

About Nikhil Srivastava’s Work on Ramanujan Graphs

This award is one of the highest levels of appreciation offered by the National Academy of Sciences, and the recipients of this award are rewarded for their path-breaking research. This year, Nikhil Srivastava and Marcus and Spielman were awarded this prize for a paper that they published in 2015, providing solutions to some problems that mathematicians had been struggling with for decades altogether. They have provided solutions for the long-standing questions on Ramanujan graphs and the Kadison-Singer problem. 

You will know the magnitude of their contribution after knowing that this Kadison-Singer problem was first raised in the year 1959 and from then, extensive research was carried out to uncover the solution. Also, in their research, they made certain mathematical connections which will definitely help the entire mathematical society in future research and development. According to the National Academy of Sciences, Nikhil Srivastava, Marcus and Spielman have “uncovered a deep new connection between linear algebra, the geometry of polynomials, and graph theory that has inspired the next generation of theoretical computer scientists”. All this being said, we know what kind of geniuses these three must be and as fellow humans, we can appreciate them and get inspired by their contributions to the modern world. 

As Indians, we are all proud of Nikhil Srivastava and support him with all our heart. We know that it’s such stories which inspire us to move towards greatness. So, follow us at Leverage Edu and keep yourself updated and surrounded by such inspirational and motivational journeys.