Prof. Verma graduated from Purdue University (USA) with a Ph. D. in mathematics in 1987. He held positions of assistant professors at University of Kansas during 1987-89 and at Louisiana State University during 1989-1990. He joined IIT Bombay in 1990 as a lecturer. He was appointed professor in 1998, Head of the department during 2006-2009 and Professor (HAG) in 2011. He served as the Chief Vigilance Officer of IIT Bombay during 2010-2012.
Prof. Verma was a Fellow of the ICTP during 2001-2007. He was elected as a Fellow of NASI (India) in 2008 and INSA in 2013. He served on the committee for Advanced Training in Mathematics Schools of the National Board for Higher Mathematics during 2004-2011. Since 2011 he is the secretary of the Apex Committee of the National Centre of Mathematics established jointly by TIFR and IIT Bombay.
Professor Verma has made substantial and fundamental contributions to the important area of mixed multiplicities in commutative algebra. His research in this area has had a great impact in neighbouring fields. The study of Hilbert functions and blow-up algebras have been greatly enriched by his work. His interpretation of mixed volumes as mixed multiplicities has given a purely algebraic proof of a well-known theorem of Bernstein.
