Qualification

Geetha Venkataraman did a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. She stood first in The University of Delhi in BSc (Hons) Mathematics. She was awarded an Inlaks scholarship to read for a second BA (Hons) in Mathematics (equivalent to a Masters) at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral degree, DPhil, is from the University of Oxford. A Burton Senior Scholarship from Oriel College, University of Oxford supported her research for the doctorate. Professor Venkataraman’s doctoral work was in Group Theory, (part of abstract algebra); she researched questions regarding the enumeration of finite groups.

Past Experience

August 2010 — Professor of Mathematics, School of Liberal Studies and School of Undergraduate Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi.
2009 – July 2010 Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
Nov 2007 – April 2009 Associate coordinator (Mathematics), Institute of Life Long Learning, University of Delhi (On deputation).
– 2007 Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
2003 – 2006: Reader in Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
1998 – 2003: Senior Lecturer in Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
1993 – 98: Lecturer in Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.
1991 – 93: Tutored students of BA (Honours) Mathematics at Queen’s College and Oriel College, University of Oxford.

My Zone / Area of Expertise

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS AND INTERESTS

Venkataraman continues to work on various aspects of finite group theory, including questions related to enumeration of finite groups. She is also interested in questions regarding classification of finite groups on the basis of properties related to order of elements, conjugacy classes, subgroups etc.

Apart from her interest in Group Theory and related areas she is deeply interested in popularising mathematics, mathematics education and issues related to women in mathematics.

PROFESSIONAL DISTINCTIONS/AWARDS

Member, Executive Committee, Indian Women and mathematics (sponsored by National Board of Higher Mathematics), (2016-2019)
Member, Editorial Board of Resonance, a Journal of Science Education for a period of three years, (2015-2017)
Reviewer for Mathematical Reviews of the American Mathematical Society (April 2014 onwards)
Member, Advisory Committee for Technology Vision 2035-Education Sector (TIFAC, Govt. of India) (2012-2014)
Member, Editorial Board of Little Mathematical Treasures, Ramanujan Mathematical Society. (2012-2015)
Member of Zonal Committee, North Zone, Project titled `Indian Women and Mathematics’ awarded by National Board of Higher Mathematics, DAE, Govt. of India. (2013-2018)
Member, Indian National Presentation team for International Congress of Mathematical education (July 2012)
Invited to be one of seven members of the Local Organising Committee, International Conference of Women Mathematicians (ICWM), Hyderabad, August 17-16, 2010. (This was a 2-day meeting prior to International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2010 at Hyderabad.)
Nominated by University of Delhi to attend the Third Blended Learning Workshop at Open University UK as part of team from ILLL. (2008)
Appointed a senior fellow of the Mathematical Sciences Foundation, Delhi. (2002)
Appointed a member of the Council of Editors of Resonance, a journal of science education for a period of three years, (2000-2003).
Awarded sponsorship for two years by the Department of Science and Technology for a research project, housed at St. Stephen’s College, titled Enumeration of types of ﬁnite groups and associated topics, under the Young Scientists Scheme, (1997-1999).
Elected to the Burton Senior Scholarship at Oriel College, University of Oxford, for the years 1991-1993
Elected to an open scholarship by the Governing Body of St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, (1989)
Inlaks Scholarship (1988-1990) to study for a second BA (Hons) in Mathematics at St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
Rajpal Memorial Prize for the best woman student in St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, (1987)

ACADEMIC CONSULTANCIES:

Invitee, Sub-Committee on Mathematics for reduction of middle school syllabus, Government of Delhi, January 2016
Member, Selection Committee for selection of Assistant Professor Mathematics (permanent) at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, Delhi, (March 2015)
Member, Subject Expert Committee, to review scripts of a 13 part video serial on Mathematics being produced by Vigyan Prasar, Govt. of India
Participated in a consultative meeting to discuss the curriculum for the undergraduate programme at TISS, Hyderabad. (2012)
Participated in a consultative meeting for a proposed School of Undergraduate Studies at the Ambedkar University, Delhi (2009).
Participated in a two day workshop on Perspectives and Future Prospects in Higher Mathematics held at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore (2006)
Have proofread mathematical manuscripts and refereed papers for language and mathematics. (Texts and Readings in Mathematics (TRIM), Hindustan Book Agency and Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences, (Math. Sci.).)
Have participated in activities related to Examinations of the University of Delhi as paper setter and Head examiner. Have done moderation related work for question papers of IGNOU.

CURICULUM DEVELOPMENT:

Member of curriculum development/review boards for Shiv Nadar University, Delhi University, Ambedkar University Delhi, Indira Gandhi National Open University and the NCERT. Have also advised on Mathematics Syllabus for the Undergraduate Programme in Ashoka University.

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE:

Programme Coordinator for MPhil and PhD Programme in Mathematics, Ambedkar University Delhi, April 2017- 2019.
Dean Assessment, Evaluation and Student Progression, Ambedkar University Delhi, June 2016-2019.
Officer on Special Duty for Assessment, Evaluation and Student Progession, Ambedkar University Delhi, Jan 2016- May2016
Dean, School of Undergraduate Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi, July 2011 – May 2013.
Chairperson, Admissions, Ambedkar University Delhi for Admissions in 2012.
Chairperson, Library Advisory Committee, Ambedkar University Delhi, February 2015 – January 2017.
Member (mathematics), Academic Coordination Committee, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi, August 2014 – July 2016.
Programme Coordinator (BA Honours Mathematics), Ambedkar University Delhi, June 2013 – June 2014 and 2011– 2012.

COURSES TAUGHT (a selection):

Undergraduate level

Algebra: Group Theory, Ring Theory and Linear Algebra
Analysis: Sequences and Series, Riemann integration and Uniform Convergence, Metric Spaces.
Other courses: Lattices and Boolean Algebra, Elementary Number Theory, Probability and Statistics, Calculus.
To non-mathematicians: Mathematical Awareness, Logic and Reasoning, Quantitative Methods

Post-Graduate Level

MPhil and PhD Group Theory and Advanced Group Theory
Masters Fields and Commutative Rings, Group Theory

Mentorship/ supervision

Supervised summer project on `Cryptography and the Enigma Machine’ for four students, including a DST Inspire Fellow. (2015)
Supervised a group of 5-students in a weekly seminar on `Topology’. The aim is to read James Munkres’s book on `Topology’. (2014-2015)
Supervised 10 undergraduate students of St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi on a project related to Riemann Integration. (2014-2015)
External mentor for a group of students of the Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi working on a project titled ` IT model for parking space management’.

Publications

BOOKS

(RESEARCH MONOGRAPH)

Enumeration of Finite Groups, Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics, 173, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2007. (Co-authored with Simon Blackburn and Peter M Neumann.)
(Text Book)
A Bridge to Mathematics, Sage Publications, India Pvt. Ltd., 2017, co-authored with Amber Habib and Shobha Bagai.
(E-book/lessons)
Mathematical Awareness, Institute of Life Long Learning, University of Delhi, 2009. (Print version of e-lessons, co-authored with Shobha Bagai and Pankaj Jain, https://www.academia.edu/11316838/Mathematical_Awareness)

PUBLICATIONS IN REFEREED JOURNALS

An Autobiographical Account: Woman Mathematician in India, Economic and political weekly 52(17):61-66, April 2017
Through the Symmetry Lens: Part I - Planar Symmetry and frieze Patterns, At Right Angles, Vol. 5, No. 1, March 2016, pp. 5-14.
Through the Symmetry Lens: Part II - Wallpaper Patterns and Symmetry Around Us, At Right Angles, Vol. 5, No. 2, July 2016, pp. 11-16.
On irreducibility of induced modules and an adaptation of the Mackey-Wigner method of little groups. J. Korean Math. Soc. 50 (2013), No. 6, pp. 1213-1222.
E-learning: From the Computer to the Classroom, FORTELL, a journal of English language and literature, issue number 19, September 2010, 6-8.
On ﬁnite groups whose every proper normal subgroup is a union of a given number of conjugacy classes, Proceedings Indian Academy of Sciences (Math. Sci.), Vol. 114, No. 3, (2004), 1-8. (Coauthored with Ali Reza Ashraﬁ.)
Enumeration of ﬁnite soluble groups with abelian Sylow subgroups, Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, Oxford (2), 48 (1997), 107-125.

RESEARCH REPORTS AND CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

Curriculum and Pedagogy in Mathematics: Focus on the tertiary level, (Co-authored with Vinayak Sholapurkar and Bhaba Kumar Sharma, Chapter in `Mathematics Education in India: Status and Outlook, Edited by R. Ramanujan and K. Subramaniam, HBCSE, TIFR, 2012, 127-150.)
Enumeration of ﬁnite soluble groups in small varieties of A-groups and associated topics, Research Report, ICICI Centre for Mathematical Sciences, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, 1999.

OTHER ARTICLES

(Related to higher education.)

Close encounters of the `Math ED’ kind, (Co-authored with Shreya Khemani), At Right Angles, December 2012, Vol. 1, No 2, 31-36.
UGC proposal: The Academician’s nightmare, Economic and Political Weekly, March 28, 2009, Vol. XLIV No 13, 10-12.
Revitalising Undergraduate Education, Seminar, 581, January 2008, 79-82.
Teaching Students to Think, Economic and Political Weekly, August 25, 2007, 3449-3451.

BOOK REVIEWS

Of Monsters and Moonshine, a review of `Symmetry’ by Marcus Du Sautoy, At Right Angles, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 2014.
Review of Universal History of Numbers, Volumes I, II and III by Georges Irfah’, The Book
Review India, October 2005.
Review of Groups and Symmetry: A guide to discovering mathematics by David W. Farmer, AMS 1996’, Resonance, Volume 10, October 1999, 91-92.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS (Bird Photographs)

Four bird photographs (16(L), 26(L), 41(L), 64(R)), published in On the Lap of Nature: Let us See Let us Find by Dr Khangembam Shamungou, Loktak Development Authority, Manipur, June 2014, ISBN: 978-81-920708-3-4.
My Bird Photographs: https://ebird.org/media/catalog?searchField=user&userId=USER377574

Seminar / Conferences

ORGANISING COMMITTEE FOR CONFERENCES:

Convenor, Organising Committee, IWM Regional Workshop on Research and Opportunities, IISER Bhopal, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 7-8 October 2017.
Organising Committee, Workshop on `Indian Women and Mathematics’, University of Delhi, Delhi 2-5 April 2015.
of the Local Organising Committee of the Conference titled `National Initiative on Mathematics Education – Northern region Conference’ held at India International Centre in November 2011. This was co-hosted by Ambedkar University Delhi and Shiv Nadar University. The Indian National Science Academy, The National Board of Higher Mathematics and Texas Instruments sponsored the conference.
Local Organising Committee, 2-day meeting prior to International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) 2010 at Hyderabad, hosted by the European Women in Mathematics (EWM), August 15-16.
Organising Committee, Workshop on Geometric Group Theory, University of Goa, Goa, August 9-14 2010. (Satellite event before ICM 2010.)
Organising Committee, Advances in Mathematics: Focus on Women in Mathematics, Jawahar Lal University, New Delhi, October 5-7, 2009.

INTERVIEW BOARDS:

Have served on the interview board for selection of Assistant Professor of Mathematics at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi (2015)
Have served on the interview board for selection of Assistant and Associate Professors of Mathematics at Ambedkar University Delhi (2011)
Have served on the interview board of National Board of Higher Mathematics committee to select students for PhD fellowships and MA/MSc fellowships (2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005)
Have served on interview board for admission of students to BA/BSc Mathematics (Hons) at St. Stephen’s College. (2002, 2007, 2010)
Have served on interview board for selection of teachers for TGT in Mathematics, for Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Birla Vidya Niketan and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya (2007, 2008 and 2009).
Have served on the interview board for selection of students for Kishore Vygyanik Protsahan Yojana. (Past and 20 Have served on the preliminary interview boards for selection of students for Rhodes and Inlaks scholarships.

CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES/ RESEARCH TALKS/ WORKSHOPS/ ACADEMIC VISITS/ POPULAR LECTURES (A selection from 2017-2014):

Enumeration of Finite Groups, invited to deliver a lecture at the Symposium of South Asian Women in Mathematics at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal. (October 2017)
The Method of Infinite descent: A special case of Fermat’s Last Theorem, invited lecture delivered as part of the Professor Mathur Memorial Lecture Series 2017 at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. (October 2017)
Invited to deliver a lecture titled Group Enumerations: History and beyond, at the IWM (Indian Women in Mathematics) Regional workshop on research and Opportunities at IISER Bhopal, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. (October 2017)
Moderated a Panel discussion titled Women in mathematics: Perspectives from Science and Mathematics at the IWM annual Conference at IISC Bengaluru. (July 2017)
Delivered a lecture titled Groups and Symmetry at Ashoka University, Sonepat Haryana. (March 2017)
Invited to be a panelist on a panel discussion titled School and College Mathematics: Bridging the Gap held during a two day conference titled “Innovations in the Mathematics Education: Current Trends and Issues” at Lady Shri Ram College for Women. (March 2017)
Delivered a lecture titled Groups: An exploration through symmetry at the Islamic University of Science and Technology, Awantipora, Kashmir as part of a lecture series instituted under the aegis of the Visitor’s Programme of the Indian Women in Mathematics. (March 2017)
Delivered a lecture titled Solutions of equations and Group Theory at a National Conference on “Emerging Trends in Mathematics and Mathematics Education” held at Maris Stella College, Vijayawada.
Delivered a lecture titled Group Theory: From Origins to Open Questions at Central University Rajasthan as part of a lecture series instituted under the aegis of the Visitor’s Programme of the Indian Women in Mathematics. (February 2017).
Invited to chair a panel titled Challenges faced by women in the field of research held during a Symposium in Mathematics titled “Mathematics and Women in Mathematics at NES Ratnam College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Bhandup, Mumbai. (January 2017)
Invited to be a panelist on a panel discussion titled Women in Mathematics: Status and Outlook being held during the International Conference of The Indian Mathematics Consortium (ICTIMC) in cooperation with American Mathematical Society (AMS). (December 2016)
Enumerating Finite Groups, Colloquium Talk delivered at the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Invited to be a resource person a two day National Workshop on Group Theory, held on 28-29 March 2016 at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. Delivered the inaugural lecture titled Group Actions and Not the Burnside Lemma.
Delivered a lecture titled The Königesberg bridges problem and Eulerian Graphs at Miranda House College, University of Delhi. (March 2016)
Delivered lectures on Symmetry around us at Hindu College and SPM College, Univerity of Delhi. (February 2016)
Delivered a lecture titled `Quantifying Finite groups’ in the seminar series of the Department of Mathematics, IIT Guwahati. (May 2015)
Chaired a Panel Discussion titled `Women in Mathematics: Perspectives’ as part of the three day workshop titled Indian Women and Mathematics organized by Department of Mathematics, University of Delhi. (April 2015)
Marie-Sophie Germain: The Revolutionary Mathematician, invited lecture delivered in the Seminar-cum-workshop titled Innovative practices to enliven mathematics classroom organised by the Department of Education (C. I. E), University of Delhi. (March 2015)
Mathematics and Cryptography: The Enigma of Alan Mathison Turing, invited lecture delivered at Lady Sri Ram College, University of Delhi (February 2015)
The Königesberg bridges problem and Graph Theory, invited lecture delivered in the inaugural Professor Mathur Memorial Lecture Series 2015 at St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. (January 2015)
Panelist, for a panel discussion titled Encouraging women in science will enrich science. This was part of a one-day seminar on Women in Science, organised at Deen Dayal Upadhyay College, University of Delhi under the aegis of Women in Science panel of The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru. (October 2014)
Logic and Reasoning, invited presentation at E-QUAL workshop on critical thinking in undergraduate education organised by Shiv Nadar University. (August 2014)
Quadratic, quartic and cubic equations: A history and more, invited lecture delivered to middle school teachers in a workshop at Sanskriti School Delhi, organised jointly by Azim Premji University and Ramanujan Mathematics Society. (May 2014)
Invited to participate in the British Council’s South Asia Dialogue Series titled Dangerous Demographics – Women, Leadership and the Looming Crisis in Higher Education, Colombo, Sri Lanka (March 2014).
Enumeration of Finite Groups – A brief survey, invited Symposium lecture at the National conference on Advances in Mathematics, Hansraj College, University of Delhi (March 2014).
Women and Mathematics: Then and Now, invited lecture at the Academic Congress on `Gender Knowledge: Understanding Gender – Questions of Justice and Freedom, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi (March 2014).

Projects