Pioneer 4 of 21 · 1887-1920
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Contribution. A self-taught mathematician whose work on number theory and infinite series is still studied.
Factor coverage
Favorable entries (helped or barrier absent) and adverse entries (barrier or not overcome) by factor. Factor tags are this site's classification.
Barriers faced
| Factors | Statement |
|---|---|
| Economic Social Educational | Poverty, no contact with active mathematicians, and no degree. |
| Educational | Parallel with Einstein. He neglected other subjects, lost his scholarship, and failed later exams. |
What helped
| Factors | Statement |
|---|---|
| Educational | One book. At 16 he obtained G. S. Carr's Synopsis, about 5,000 theorems, and largely taught himself from it. |
| Social | Local supporters, including Madras Port Trust chairman Francis Spring and mathematician Ramachandra Rao, who helped him get a clerkship. |
| Psychological | Persistence. Earlier letters to British mathematicians were discouraged. In January 1913 he wrote to G. H. Hardy. |
| Social Societal | A sponsor. Hardy's approval raised his status at once. Madras made him a research scholar and Hardy brought him to Cambridge. |
Not overcome
| Factors | Statement |
|---|---|
| Biological | Illness forced his return to India, and he died at 32. |
Pattern summary
| Element | In this case |
|---|---|
| Door-opener | Spring, Rao, Hardy |
| Knowledge source | Carr's Synopsis |
| Institutional support | Madras, Cambridge |
| Built on recent work | Classical mathematics |
| Setback overcome | Failed exams, poverty |
| Barrier not overcome | Illness, early death |
Sources
Also relevant: Bell, A., Chetty, R., Jaravel, X., Petkova, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2019). Who becomes an inventor in America? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(2), 647-713. All references