PROF MANJUL BHARGAVA : A MATHEMATICAL GENIUS

                                          

Professor Manjul Bhargava( born 1974 ) : Mathematics, Sanskrit And Music 

Visited MoMath or National Museum of Mathematics, New Your today. MoMath, the National Museum of Mathematics, is an award-winning museum that highlights the role of mathematics in illuminating the patterns and structures all around us.  Its dynamic exhibits, galleries, and programs are designed to stimulate inquiry, spark curiosity, and reveal the wonders of mathematics. Inside the museum, I came to know about Prof Manjula Bhargava. The National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath) has named Dr. Manjul Bhargava, the R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and winner of the 2014 Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics, as the first President of the institution.  A member of the Board of Directors of the National Museum of Mathematics since 2018, Dr. Bhargava assumed this new role in February 2026.

( Outside Mo MATH ,New York )

Manjul Bhargava

Manjul Bhargava, professor of mathematics at Princeton University, was awarded the Fields Medal in 2014,  widely regarded as the Nobel Prize equivalent for mathematics. The award was presented at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul for his “development of powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers” . Bhargava’s work solved questions that had remained open for over a century. He generalised Gauss’s 200-year-old composition law to higher-degree forms, and used this to count quartic and quintic number fields ;  something mathematicians had not been able to do before. With collaborator Arul Shankar, he also proved that the average rank of elliptic curves is bounded, giving the first real statistical insight into one of the central problems in modern number theory. His methods drew together algebra, geometry and combinatorics, and have since become fundamental tools in the subject. He has also spoken at MoMath, the National Museum of Mathematics in New York, on the links between mathematics, music and patterns.

                                          

Manjul Bhargava FRS, born 8 August 1974 in Hamilton, Canada to Indian parents, is the Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics at Princeton, Stieltjes Professor at Leiden, and Adjunct Professor at TIFR, IIT Bombay and Hyderabad. Taught first by his mother Mira, a mathematics professor, and by his grandfather in Jaipur through Sanskrit poetry and tabla, he discovered as a teenager that ancient Sanskrit rhythms encode the Fibonacci sequence. He bunked large parts of school to read classical Indian mathematical texts in Jaipur, later earning his B.A. from Harvard in 1996 with the Morgan Prize, and a PhD from Princeton in 2001 under Andrew Wiles. At 28 he became one of Princeton’s youngest full professors. In his thesis he achieved what Carl Friedrich Gauss could not: a complete generalisation of Gauss’s composition law to higher-degree forms, unlocking the ability to count quartic and quintic number fields. His work with Arul Shankar on the average rank of elliptic curves reshaped modern number theory. A professional tabla player trained under Ustad Zakir Hussain, he sees no division between mathematics, music and Sanskrit. Honours include the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, Fermat Prize, Infosys Prize, the 2014 Fields Medal ; the first for a person of Indian origin , and the 2015 Padma Bhushan. Peter Sarnak called him “at the very top end” of mathematics.

( Prof Manjul with his mother )

( Being honoured by Sri Kalyan Singh )

MoMATH

The National Museum of Mathematics , MoMath is now open in its permanent home at 635 Sixth Ave, at the corner of 19th St and Sixth Ave in New York City. The expanded museum spans more than 44,000 square feet, more than double its former footprint, and features 70 interactive exhibits in total: 31 brand-new experiences created by a worldwide team of mathematicians, alongside 40 beloved legacy favourites.

Upon my visit today I found MoMath designed to make mathematics tangible, playful, and accessible for all ages. The space immediately feels alive, with visitors of every age clustered around hands-on stations. Highlights include a dedicated early learners area for toddlers and preschoolers, multiple flexible classrooms with retractable seating, projectors and curtains for educational programming, and a large hosting space for events, birthday parties and dinners. The design itself celebrates math. Elevator buttons are labelled +1, 0 and -1. Floor tiles change by section, each inspired by a mathematical concept, including a tile based on “the Hat,” a newly discovered aperiodic shape that never repeats. Even the entrance features a pi-shaped door handle.

With soaring ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows, abundant natural light, and a show-stopping spiral staircase, the architecture feels as elegant as the ideas inside. MoMath’s mission is to reveal that mathematics is not just calculation, but pattern, beauty and creativity. It invites visitors to experience math through hands-on play, live demonstrations, and exhibits that connect ancient traditions to modern discovery.

( Avtar Mota )

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