(December 22, 1887-April 26, 1920)
Born in Erode, India
Largely self-taught
Sent samples of his work to three English mathematicians (1912)
Invited by G.H. Hardy to work with him at Cambridge
Contributed to number theory, infinite series and continued fractions

He won a university scholarship, but it was withdrawn after he failed almost all his non-math courses.
When he was 21, he wed a nine year old girl. (Although he apparently did not consummate the marriage until she was 17 or 18.)
He would work thirty straight hours, then sleep for twenty.
In his private notebooks, he usually wrote just the final result without the steps to reach it, so after his early death other mathematicians had to spend a lot of time proving his results.

Despite his own achievements, Hardy said that his greatest contribution to mathematics was discovering Ramanujan.
Hardy said that Ramanujan's theories 'must be true, because if they were not true, no one would have the imagination to invent them.'
He was one of the youngest scientists ever named a Fellow of the Royal Society (1918).
He was mentioned in the film 'Good Will Hunting,' with the title character being compared to him.

Credit: C. Fishel

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