Profile of the Visiting Mathematicians

Kenneth Ross

Kenneth Ross is a distinguished harmonic analyst, who has wielded great influence over the development of mathematics worldwide. Between 1971 and 1996 he held leading positions in both the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), including the role of the President of the MAA.

Prof. Ross was educated at the University of Utah and received his doctorate from the University of Washington. He taught at the University of Rochester (1961-1964) and has since been at the University of Oregon. His primary interest is in harmonic analysis, especially when it has a probabilistic flavour. His most recent work has focused on Markov chains and random walks on finite groups and other algebraic systems. Amongst his publications is the encyclopedic and important work "Abstract Harmonic Analysis" (a two volume set), co-authored with Edwin Hewitt, as well as "The Theory of Calculus". Prof. Ross is currently editor of the "Carus Mathematical Monographs".

Kenneth Ross has twice been a visitor to India. In 1971 he lectured at a summer course on harmonic analysis for college teachers and then in 1995 was one of the speakers at an international conference on harmonic analysis.

Prof. Ross will deliver several lectures between the 21^st and 30^th of October 2002. These will be on a variety of topics such as hypergroups, random walks and the Riemann-Stieltjes integral, to name just a few.

Lars Inge Hedberg

Lars Inge Hedberg is a distinguished potential theorist who has an outstanding international reputation and one of the most important Swedish mathematicians. Over the years he has held teaching positions at the Universities of Uppsala, Stockholm and Linköping (in Sweden); at MIT, the University of California (Berkeley) and the University of Michigan (in USA) and the University of Nancy (in France).

In 1977 he was appointed the President of the Swedish Mathematical Society and in 1988 was the President of the Mathematical Physics section of the Physical Society of Sweden. In 1982 the Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded him the "Wallmark Prize". Professor Hedberg is currently Professor Emeritus at Linköping University, where he has been since 1984. Among his publications is "Function Spaces and Potential Theory".

This is his second visit to India. In 1997 he delivered a lecture, in Delhi, under the title "Function Spaces and Applications to Partial Differential Equations".

Prof. Hedberg will deliver several lectures between the 21^st and 30^th of October 2002. These will be on a variety of topics such as potential theory, Fermats last theorem, and Iterations and Chaos, to name just a few.

Prof. Hedberg and Prof. Ross will also be available for discussions with students.