Prof. Manjul Bhargava is a Canadian-American mathematician of Indian origin known for his contributions to number theory. He currently serves as the R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and the Stieltjes Professor of Number Theory at Leiden University. He has made several contributions to mathematics, especially to the number theory. He developed several new techniques of counting objects in algebraic number theory which revolutionized the ways in which fundamental arithmetic objects in algebraic number theory are understood. His research has given rise to several exciting applications. Along with number theory he also made important contributions to the representation theory of quadratic forms, to interpolation problems and p-adic analysis, and to the study of ideal class groups of algebraic number fields.
He was given the Clay Research Award in 2005. The same year he also won the Leonard M. and Eleanor B. Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics In 2012, Bhargava became the inaugural recipient of the Simons Investigator Award.
In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal “for developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers, which he applied to count rings of small rank and to bound the average rank of elliptic curves.” He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of India, in 2015.