Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai Biography 
Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai, best known as S. S. Pillai was a world famous Indian mathematician from Tamil Nadu. He hailed from Vallam, and the place now belongs to Thanjavur district at present. Pillai is best known for his contribution to Waring's problem, which is widely regarded as one of the very best achievements in Indian Mathematics since Ramanujan. He passed away on 31 August 1950 in Cairo, Egypt aged only 49. Pillai's conjecture and Pillai's arithmetical function are named after him. He made some amazing contributions towards the definition of several integer sequences.
Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai was born on 5th April in Vallam, near Shenkottai in present day Tamil Nadu. His parents, Subbayya Pillai and Gomati Ammal were natives of Nagercoil of present day Kanya Kumari district. He lost both his parents during his childhood. He lost his mother as an infant at the age of one, and his father in his teens during his last year at school. He completed his studies at Travancore during princely rule. He did his Intermediate course in the Scott Christian College at Nagercoil and graduation from Maharaja's college, Thiruvananthapuram.
He was a research fellowship at the University of Madras in 1927, and later he worked at Annamalai University for long 12 years till 1941. It was during his working years at this university, he conducted his research work on Waring's problem, which made him famous. He has also worked as a lecturer in other universities too. Pillai primes are named after the mathematician Subbayya Sivasankaranarayana Pillai, who asked about these numbers. Pillai sequence is the sequence of integers first defined by S. S. Pillai, and later came to be known by his name.
Published: September 01, 2018
Updated: September 01, 2018
