Post-Graduate Research Supervision
I welcome inquiries regarding graduate student supervision. See my research projects page for details.
I can supervise graduate research in many areas including
- Textual and mathematical analysis of a historical work
- Mathematical themes from ancient mathematics
- Ethnomathematics
- Crisis and Change
- History of Mathematics in the classroom
Current and Recent PhD Students
Sahana Cidambi
My research focuses on the astro-mathematical and commentarial traditions of the school of astronomy founded by Gaṇeśa Daivajña (1507 CE). I am editing, translating, and analyzing a work on mathematical astronomy of Gaṇeśa called the Grahalāghava (epoch 1520 CE), a Sanskrit treatise that is known for its brevity and ease of application in Indian calendar creation. This text famously rejected the canonical reliance on trigonometry and instead uses algebraic approximations for its calculations. By comparing and investigating some of the several commentaries produced on the Grahalāghava, I have gleaned much insight about mathematical thought of the time and the profound impact of Gaṇeśa's methodology. (With Prof. Kim Plofker, Union College, USA.)
Keshav Melnad
My research explores the contributions made by seventeenth century astronomer Haridatta of Mewar, Rajasthan, who composed a text called the Jagadbhūṣaṇa (epoch 31 March 1638). This text concerns the preparation of the calendar using a set of cyclic planetary tables, one of the first such table-texts of its kind in India. I will be preparing a critical edition, translation and commentary of the text as well as an analysis of the numerical data in the tables on the basis of eight manuscripts and will consider more broadly the historical context in which such a table-text flourished.
(Externally supervised through Indian Institute of Technology Bombay)
Elizabeth Cornwall
My research focuses on the origin of the tangent function as a key idea in the history of trigonometry in Islamic, Sanskrit, Latin, and early modern sources. I not only consider textual sources, including works by al-Biruni, Abu’l-Wafa’, al-Khwarizmi, al-Battani, and Habash al-Hasib, but consider evidence from data in numerical tables, and physical artefacts such as sundials, gnomons, and astrolobes. (With Prof Glen Van Brummelen, Quest University, Canada, and Prof John Hannah, University of Canterbury.)
Rev. Jambugahapitiye Dhammaloka
My research examines the use of mathematical concepts and operations in the context of the broader exact sciences in second millennium India, in astral sciences and śilpa literature (the literature on architecture, sculpture, and paintings in Sanskrit) in particular. It is based on a Sanskrit treatise called Siddhāntaśekhara, the first known work on mathematical astronomy in second millennia, written by Śrīpati, a prolific writer, in 11th Century AD. The 13th and 14th chapters of this work consisted of 92 verses altogether have been devoted to arithmetic and algebra respectively, and are very important in examining the mathematical history in the era. Critical edition and translation of these two chapters are the base of my research and technical analysis is being carried out with the help of traditional and modern mathematical methods. (With Prof Agathe Keller, Paris VII, France, and Prof Kim Plofker, Union College, USA.)
Anuj Misra
My research focuses on mathematical and scientific exchanges that flourished at the Mughal court of seventeenth century India. I’m editing, translating, and analyzing a work on mathematical astronomy called the Sarvasiddhāntarāja (1639 CE), a Sanskrit treatise written by the Hindu astronomer Nityānanda, royal astronomer at court of Shāh Jāhān. This text is known to be amongst the first siddhāntic texts that incorporate Ptolemaic and Islamic astronomy within the Indian canonical tradition, and by critically examining the structural and mathematical content of the 132 verses that form the golādhyāya, I've been able get some insight into the modality of scientific exchanges that thrived during the reign of the Mughals. (With Prof Kim Plofker, Union College, USA.)
Rosalie Hosking
My research concerns sangaku, mathematically orientated votive tablets appearing in Shinto and Buddhist Shrines all over Japan between the 17th and 19th centuries. I have travelled to many shrines in Japan to document these mathematical tablets and transcribe, translate, and analyse their mathematical contents. In particular I am interested in the ways in which the historical authors devised and solved the problems posed on these tablets using only mathematical techniques available at the time. I am also interested by the use and integration of the diagrams that appear on these tablets and how they stand in relation to the mathematical and aesthetic aspects of the historical artifact.
Recent Masters’ thesis students
- Sanaa Bajri, Arithmetic, Induction, and the Algebra of Polynomials; Al-Samaw’al and his “Splendid Book of Algebra (2010-11)
- Rosalie Hosking, The Entailment of Context-Dependence and Pluralism in Edo Period Mathematics (2010-11)
- James Davies, Changes of Setting and the History of Mathematics: A New Study of Frege(2009)
- Bronwyn Rideout, Pappus Reborn: Pappus of Alexandria and the changing face of analysis and synthesis in late antiquity (2009)