Kenneth S. Williams (Carleton University)

Sarvadaman Chowla (1907 - 1995) was an extremely talented mathematician who earned an international reputation for his research in number theory and related areas. His output was impressive and reflected his special gift for expressing complex ideas simply. Several important theorems (the Bruck-Chowla-Ryser theorem, the Ankeny-Artin-Chowla congruence, the Chowla-Mordell theorem and the Chowla-Selberg formula) are named after him. One of the best-known number theorists from India following in the tradition of Ramanujan, Chowla's fertile and creative imagination justified the title "poet of mathematics" given him by his associates. Chowla wrote over 350 mathematical papers during the period 1926 - 1986. These papers have been collected together and arranged chronologically in three volumes. In addition, the first volume contains a biography of Chowla by James G. Huard, an overview of Chowla's work by M. Ram Murty, V. Kumar Murty and Kenneth S. Williams, recollections of Chowla by a number of famous mathematicians, copies of letters to Chowla by such mathematicians as G. H. Hardy and A. Weil, several photographs, as well as other material.