Shreeram Shankar Abhyankar earned his BSc (1951) from Bombay University and the AM (1952) and PhD (1955) from Harvard University. After his PhD he was Research Instructor at Columbia University, NY, USA (1955-56) and then Visiting Assistant Professor (1956-57). After positions at Cornell University (1957-58), Princeton (1958-59) and Johns Hopkins (1959-63), he joined Purdue University first as Professor and then as Marshall Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Professor of Industrial Engineering and Professor of Computer Science. He received a Docteur Honoris Causa (Honorary Doctorate) from the University of Angers, France (1998).

Academic and Research Achievements: Abhyankar's research interests encompassed Algebraic Geometry, Commutative Algebra, Local Algebra, Theory of Functions of several complex variables, Group Theory, Quantum Electrodynamics, Circuit Theory, Invariant Theory, Combinatorics, Computer-aided Design and Robotics. He worked on the Jacobian Conjecture. He had published over 180 papers in mathematics and had written numerous books including Lectures on Algebra, Volume I (World Scientific Press, 2006). He had twenty five PhD students at Purdue and two in India.

Other Contributions: Professor Abhyankar founded the Bhaskaracharya Pratishthan, Pune, India. He was an Alfred P Sloan Foundation Fellow (1958-60).

Awards and Honours: Abhyankar received the Herbert Newby McCoy Award from Purdue University (1973). He received the Lester R Ford Prize from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) (1977), Chauvenet Award of MAA (1978), Medal of Honour from the University of Valladolid, Spain (1990), Medal of Honour from the University of Brasilia, Brazil (2001) and an Honorary title Vidnyan Sanstha Ratna from the Institute of Science, Mumbai (2006). He was a Member of Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Society (1987) and a Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1988).