Geetha Venkataraman, faculty member of Mathematical Sciences Foundation(MSF) said, “For every 100 permanent faculty members in premier institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research or Chennai mathematical institute, only 10 are women.” Venkataraman was speaking at an international mathematics conference organized in the Capital from January 2-5 to commemorate the birth centenary of Andre weil, a French mathematician Among the various discussions, the most interesting was the symposium on women and mathematics in the 20th century .

Several reasons were cited for the dismal percentage of women mathematicians and researches across the world.. Family responsibility, childrearing and low motivation levels were reasons given for such a low percentage . An interesting observation was made that there are more women pursuing a career in research in biological sciences than maths. Rajendra Bhatia, former professor of Mumbai University, however, had a different view on the entire debate. “In Mumbai University female maths faculty members have outnumbered the male faculty in a big way.” He said. Marie-Francoise Roy,

president, French Mathematical Society, talked about women mathematicians in France and the declining number of young women aspiring to pursue careers as mathematicians. Homage was paid to Andre
Weil, a French mathematician who left Paris at an early age and came to Aligarh Muslim University. He was deeply influenced by the Bhagvadagita and had interacted with s Radhakrishnan, R N Tagore, C V Raman and S N Bose. He has contributed a lot in the field of mathematics and is a role model for many young aspirants.