Indian mathematician

Srinivasa Varadhan had planned to go in&#;to in&#;dustry after gradu&#;ation and as&#;sumed that the field of stat&#;ist&#;ics would be a bet&#;ter pre&#;par&#;a&#;tion. However, after meet&#;ing sev&#;er&#;al math&#;em&#;at&#;ic&#;al prob&#;ab&#;il&#;ists, he real&#;ized that math&#;em&#;at&#;ics was far more in&#;ter&#;est&#;ing and pro&#;duct&#;ive, and switched his sub&#;ject areas, even&#;tu&#;ally win&#;ning the Abel Prize in Math&#;em&#;at&#;ics in

Srinivasa Varadhan — or Raghu to his friends — was born on 2 Janu&#;ary , in Chen&#;nai (formerly called Madras), In&#;dia. His fath&#;er, Ranga Iy&#;engar, was a sci&#;ence teach&#;er who be&#;came the Prin&#;cip&#;al of the Board High School in Pon&#;neri, a small town about 30 km from Chen&#;nai.

After his gradu&#;ation from high school in , Varadhan was ac&#;cep&#;ted at Pres&#;id&#;ency Col&#;lege at the Uni&#;versity of Madras and re&#;ceived both his Bach&#;el&