CHANDIGARH- Jan 23: Professor A.K. Agarwal of the Centre for Advanced Study in Mathematics, Panjab University, Chandigarh has been elected President (Section of Mathematical Sciences, Statistics included) of the Indian Science Congress Association for the Year 2009-10. In a national level contest he defeated Prof. K. Srinivasa Rao of Andhra University, Visakhapatnam by a comfortable margin. Prof. Agarwal is also the President of the Indian Mathematical Society and President & Editor-in-Chief of the Society for Special Functions and their Applications.Prof. Agarwal did his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1981 and pursued post doctoral research at the Pennsylvania State University, USA on a National Scholarship for Higher Study Abroad, Ministry of Education and Culture, Government of India, 1984-86. After completing his term of the scholarship, he worked as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the Pennsylvania State University for four years 1986-90.
Prof.. Agarwal has collaborated and published joint papers with several eminent mathematicians like Professors George E. Andrews (USA), W. Miller Jr. (USA), David M. Bressoud (USA), Gary 1. Mullen (USA), and E.G. Kalnins (New Zealand). He has published over seventy research papers in journals of national and international repute and published seven books as author /editor. He has visited and lectured at twelve universities in the USA and four in Canada.
Prior to joining the Panjab University as Professor of Mathematics in May, 1998, he was working as Professor and Head, Mathematical Sciences Division, The Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology, Guwahati.