Pioneer Mathematicians of Calcutta University

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Established in 1857, Calcutta University has the unique distinction of being the first University in India, where Post-Graduate teaching and research in Mathematics was initiated. The Indian mathematicians, who did pioneering research work in the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century and enriched the University of Calcutta deserve to be brought to the fore. This book is an attempt in that direction.

We have in our book discussed the contributions of the following fifteen mathematicians, who were connected with the University of Calcutta either as an important functionary or as a faculty member or as a student.

1.Sir Asutosh Mookerjee (1864-1924), 2. Prof. Ganesh Prasad (1876-1935), 3. Dr. Shyamadas Mukhopadhyay (1866-1937), 4. Dr. Bibhuti Bhusan Datta (1888-1958), 5. Prof. Haridas Bagchi (1888-1968), 6. Prof. Megh Nad Saha (1893-1956), 7. Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose (1894-1974), 8. Prof. Nikhil Ranjan Sen (1894-1963), 9. Prof. Rabindra Nath Sen (1896-1974), 10. Prof. Bibhuti Bhusan Sen (1898-1976), 11. Prof. Raj Chandra Bose (1901-1987), 12. Prof. Subodh Kumar Chakrabarty (1909-1987), 13. Prof. Manindra Chandra Chaki (1913-2007),14. Prof Anadi Shankar Gupta (1932-2012) and the great lady mathematician Prof(Mrs.) Jyoti Das.

There are fifteen chapters dedicated to the fifteen mathematicians mentioned above. Sir Asutosh Mookerjee has been discussed' over three sub-sections which ultimately combine to one whole chapter. We make a brief review of the contents of the chapters mentioned above.

Sir Asutosh Mookerjee was a versatile man, who almost single-handedly started the school of mathematical research in the country. He did some original research, mainly in the areas of Geometry, Differential Equations and Hydrokinetics. The total number of his personal research papers are seventeen and they were published in different national and international journals of repute. One of his important research paper is entitled ""On the Differential Equation of a Trajectory"" [JASB., 56, 1887, 117-120]. In this paper, Sir Mookerjee considered the solution of the differential equation of oblique trajectory of confocal ellipses as given by the Italian mathematician Mainardi. This solution being extremely complicated and cumbersome, it was impossible to trace the curve from it. Asutosh showed by an ingenious process that Mainardi's inelegant solution could be replaced by a pair of remarkably simply equations. From this, interesting geometrical interpretations could also be made. These elegent equations as established by Sir Asutosh have been incorporated by Prof. A.R. Forsyth (1858-1942) in his classical book on Differential Equations in latter editions. In another of his paper entitled ""Remarks on Monge's Differential Equations to all conics"" [PASB., Feb, 1888], Asutosh successfully gave geometrical interpretation on Monge's Differential Equations to all conics. His interpretation was that ""the radius of curvature of the aberrancy curve vanishes at every point of every conic"". Edwards in his book ""Differential Calculus"" has quoted this interpretation. Asutosh Mookerjee's research papers aroused a lot of interest amongst the British school of mathematicians of those times.