Srinivasan Ramanujan was an Indian mathematician known for his substantial contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions. Born in 1887 in Erode, India, he displayed an extraordinary natural ability in mathematics from a young age, largely self-taught from a limited education. His most significant contributions include: 1. **Ramanujan Prime and Partition Formulae**: Ramanujan developed several formulae for the partition of numbers, a topic in number theory. He also discovered "Ramanujan primes," which have implications in understanding the distribution of prime numbers. 2. **Ramanujan's Theta Functions**: He made substantial contributions to the study of theta functions, a type of function that appears in many areas of mathematics, including number theory and analysis. 3. **Ramanujan's Conjecture**: This is related to the Dirichlet series and modular forms. It was later proven as a part of the proof of the Weil conjectures, which are fundamental in number theory. 4. **Infinite Series for π**: He developed rapidly converging infinite series for π, which has been used in computer algorithms for calculating the digits of π to a high degree of accuracy. 5. **Collaboration with G.H. Hardy**: His partnership with the English mathematician G.H. Hardy at the University of Cambridge led to some of his most famous work. Together, they made significant advancements in partitions, hypergeometric series, and prime number theory. Ramanujan's intuition and deep insights into mathematics have left a lasting legacy, inspiring countless mathematicians and researchers. Despite his lack of formal training and a short life—he died at the age of 32—his work continues to influence various areas of mathematics. [[060 People MOC]]