Bengaluru: Arithmophobia, the fear of Mathematics, has always been a common trait amongst students, so common in fact, that it’s almost fashionable. 18-year-old Sebastian Thomas, however, is a far cry from the norm.
Known amongst his friends as the ‘young Ramanujan’, Thomas will probably be the youngest mathematician to crack Ph.D level research work in the country or across the world, claim his teachers. The first year B.Sc. student, who studies at a college in the city, has had an insatiable thirst for numbers, one that he has used all his life.
The widespread Arithmophobia, says Thomas, comes from the way in which the subject is taught in schools. “Math shouldn’t be taught theoretically. Teachers should throw light instead on how Mathematicians arrived at a particular formula — this will feed their curiosity and push them to discover more as well as help them apply what they learn to their lives,” he remarks.
Instead of learning by rote like most schools demand, Thomas would immerse himself in the lives of the people he admired the most, understanding their journeys and stoking his own mind in the process.
Mathematics graduates are a rare breed and even the country's top institutes are forced to hire from abroad.
Sebastian, however, is already working with one of his teachers in college, who happens to be a Research Fellow at Queen Mary University, London.
Ms Maria Thomas has been had 14 years of teaching experience and maintains that she hasn't met anybody quite like Sebastian, neither in India nor abroad.
"I have been doing research along the lines of fin ding a Maximum Tolerated Dose (MTD) for cancer patients, using statistical results."
She joined St. Joseph's College of Arts and Science last November and met the Young Ramajunan through a colleague.
Since then, he has given her his own inputs, opening the doors to a mutual, highly valuable learning process.
Math in cancer treatment, ECG analysis?
Apart from using his research results to discover MTD for cancer patients, the youngster has developed a formula from which ECG Analysis can be done easily without consulting an expert doctor. "As a thorough analysis of an ECG result is pricy at the moment, the formula which I developed while linked with the QT wave interval of the graph will help many people check the condition of the human heart. The results have been error-free and that's more happy news," he says happily.
The civil services aspirant has also bagged the Grand Award in Mathematical Sciences (Gold) and the prestigious Albertian Best Young Scientist Award, which pitted him against students far older than himself. He's been on a travel spree and has earned accolades everywhere he goes.
