Sunder's Page SUNDER'S HOME-PAGE

This is me.

I do mathematics at my institute.

What follows might give you an idea of the sort of things I will be doing, am doing, and have been doing here.

  • Advanced Instructional School on Operator Theory/Algebras, at IMSc, February 1-21, 2016.

  • Lecture Series on (easy) Quantum Groups, by Moritz Weber, at IMSc, January 5-24, 2015.

  • Master-Class in Modular Theory of von Neumann algebras, November 24-December 05, 2014.

  • IMSc-ISI Joint Workshop on Subfactors at IMSc, December 30,2013-January 10, 2014.

    Here are a workshop and a conference my colleague Vijay had little choice `organising' - (the poor chap had me doing some back-seat driving, to boot!) - because I couldn't possibly be obviously organising them myself:

  • Instructional Workshop on Subfactors and Planar Algebras, March 26 - April 3, 2012.

  • SunderFest 2012, April 4 - April 6, 2012.

    Here are some announcements of conferences/workshops I have conducted in the past:

  • ATM Workshop on Operator Algebras, January 30 - February 11, 2012.

  • Instructional workshop on the Functional Analysis of Quantum Information Theory, December 26, 2011 - January 6, 2012.

  • Satellite Conference on Operator Algebras, August 9 - 13, 2010.

  • Instructional workshop on Free Probability , July 26- August 6, 2010.

  • Workshop on von Neumann algebras, Ergodic theory and Geometric Group theory , February 2 - 13, 2009.

  • My Curriculum Vitae

    Here are the pdf files of some talks I have given at assorted places:

    1. Planar algebras and 1+1-dimensional TQFTs (lectures given at UBC, Vancouver in September 2006)
    2. Hopf C^*-algebras and their quantum doubles - from the point of view of subfactors (lecture given at Max-Planck Institut in Bonn in August 2007)
    3. $II_1$ factors and Ergodic Theory (lecture given at ISI, Bangalore in February 2008)
    4. Non-crossing partition and 2-cabled Temperley-Lieb planar algebras (lecture given at BIRS, Banff in March 2008)
    5. von Neumann algebras and free probability (lecture given at the Ramanujan Math. Society at Bangalore in May 2009)
    6. Catalan numbers (lecture given at CESCI, Madurai to school students on August 25, 2009.)
    7. Free probability: classical and free CLTs (lecture given at ISI, Bengaluru in November 2009)
    8. On the GJS construction for graphs: I. Presentation of two categories (first of two-part lecture given along with Vijay Kodiyalam at Vanderbilt University in May 2010)
    9. Hilbert von Neumann modules (lecture given at ISI, Bengaluru in January 2011)
    And here are some talks I have given in Chennai:
    1. Temperley-Lieb algebras and non-crossing partitions (lecture given at the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics)
    2. When is a knot not the unknot? (lecture given at IMSc)
    3. Braids (lecture given at Ethiraj College)
    4. The Perron Frobenius Theorem (lecture given at Chennai Mathematical Institute)
    5. Transfinite considerations (lecture given to finishing school students at IIT, Madras)
    6. Self-adjoint operators and their spectra (lecture given at IIT, Madras in April 2011)

    Here are the pdf files of a course of lectures I gave (at IIT Kanpur, ISI Kolkata and at IISc Bangalore during 2008-'09) as part of the "Panorama of Mathematics" series organised by the National Board for Higher Mathematics. The course was titled "Operator algebras - Stage for non-commutativity", and consisted of five lectures, as follows:

    1. $C^*$-algebras: the Gelfand Naimark Theorems
    2. K-theory of $C^*$-algebras
    3. von Neumann algebras
    4. $II_1$ factors and subfactors
    5. The Jones polynomial invariant of knots

    Here are the pdf files of a course of lectures I gave at IIT, Bombay, in April 2007, on "Temperley-Lieb algebras"

    1. Temperley-Lieb algebras
    2. Wenzl's theorem
    3. von Neumann algebras, II_1 factors and their subfactors
    4. The standard invariant of a subfactor

  • To view a lecture I gave at IIT Bombay on Paul Halmos, click here for the first part, and here for the second part.

    Here are the pdf files of a course of lectures I gave on von Neumann algebras at IISc, Bangalore in March 2006.

    Here is an announcement of some lectures a couple of us gave to beginning undergraduate students in the Chennai area:

  • Spirit of Enquiry Lectures in Mathematics

    More material on the linear algebra course which I taught.

  • To see a `.pdf' version of my book Functional Analysis: Spectral Theory, click here .


    Literary pursuits

    (Almost all the contents of this section may also be found in the blog http://differentstrokes-vss.blogspot.in/) I have been increasingly mobility challenged of late due to the onset of a neurological condition known as multiple sclerosis; and perforce, I have had to notice the different ways that society excludes people like me, not deliberately, but for want of consciously thinking of the need for a more inclusive and accessible society. What started as irritation and unproductive annoyance changed to a decision to do something about it. For a start, I thought I might attempt to keep writing small pieces with the hope of reaching more people's consciousness on this matter. This `second career ' of mine started with an article called Stairway to Heaven, or ... which appeared in Current Science (Sept. 10, 2011), and was subsequently written about in The Hindu (Bangalore edition, Sept. 12, 2011). I used a preliminary version of this piece to convince a sympthetic editor of the Times of India to let me write a bi-monthly column titled Different Strokes for Different Folks whose blurb describes the raison d'etre for this column as my `wish to use this space to periodically (roughly two Saturdays in a month) remind people of the concerns of the differently abled'. (This column existed for more than a year until, for seemingly mutually acceptable reasons, this arrangement came to an end.) I shall keep updating this page as more and more pieces appear.

  • Questionnaire, ToI, August 20, 2011.

  • Wheels within wheels, ToI, September 10, 2011.

  • Role Models, ToI, September 24, 2011.

  • Kings of the road, ToI, October 8, 2011.

  • As an off-shoot of this column, I gave my first ever invited non-mathematical talk, A second career, on 19/10/2011.

  • A breath of fresh air, ToI, October 24, 2011.

  • We talk a good game!, ToI, October 29, 2011.

  • Places I love to hate, ToI, November 19, 2011.

  • Oversight, ToI, November 26, 2011.

  • What they say, ToI, December 3, 2011.

  • Ingenious hurdles to access, ToI, December 24, 2011.

  • The Wrights' problem, ToI, January 07, 2012.

  • In a world of their own, ToI, January 21, 2012.

  • Imply vs. Infer, ToI, February 4, 2012.

  • Attention to detail, ToI, February 18, 2012.

  • All-Encompassing Inclusion is Possible, ToI, March 3, 2012.

  • What Can We Do, ToI, March 24, 2012.

  • Spare a thought for the elderly, ToI, April 7, 2012.

  • Is it so hard to treat people with dignity?, ToI, April 21, 2012.

  • Is going legal the only way?, ToI, May 5, 2012.

  • My great grand-aunt, ToI, May 19, 2012.

  • Do ATMs have to have steps?, ToI, June 02, 2012.

  • Let us learn to hear you, ToI, June 16, 2012.

  • Whither universal design, ToI, June 30, 2012.

  • Time for some sensitivity, ToI, July 14, 2012.

  • Two for the price of one.

  • What is not accessibility, ToI, August 04, 2012.

  • Who is mad?, ToI, August 18, 2012.

  • Ingenuity revisited, ToI, September 1, 2012.

  • Technologically disabled, ToI, September 15, 2012.

  • My personal Santa, ToI Online, September 29, 2012 (http://www.blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/DifferentStrokes/entry/my-personal-santa).

  • Knee-jerk denial of reality, ToI Online, October 13, 2012 (http://www.blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/DifferentStrokes/entry/knee-jerk-denial-of-reality).

  • Short-sighteness, ToI Online, October 27, 2012 (http://www.blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/DifferentStrokes/entry/Short-sightedness).

  • Another very special person

  • Shades of perceptions

  • My editorial debut

  • Whiter than white

  • When Herbie goes flying

  • Signing away one's rights

  • Scenes we'd like to see!

  • Now that the connection with ToI has come completely unhinged, and as all my writing on this theme appears in my blog http://differentstrokes-vss.blogspot.in/ I shall stop duplicating effort of posting them here as well. So, although `my literary pursuits' still continue, they will no longer be recorded here.

    Research

    My research interests have centered around Hilbert space and focused on operators, operator algebras, subfactors, planar algebras, and free probability.

    List of publications

    Monographs


    Papers


    Personal Information: Address (Residence): E1, Block III, Shivani Apartments; 40, East Coast Road; Thiruvanmiyur; Chennai 600 041, India. PHONE(IMSc): (044) 2254 3210,2254 3100 PHONE(Home) : (044) 2451 6082 FAX(IMSc) : (044) 2254 1586 TELEGRAMS : MATSCIENCE, MADRAS 600 113 E-MAIL : sunder@imsc.res.in

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