Why is a Fields medalist teaching math in war-torn Ukraine?

Efim Zelmanov’s foray into wartime education challenges the notion that scientists should stick to their formulas. Are Indian scientists listening?

Mathematician Efim Zelmanov | Photo Credit: Nandita Jayaraj

Efim Zelmanov grew up in the erstwhile Soviet Union, at a time when scientists were considered demigods. They were his childhood heroes. When he was 35, Zelmanov immigrated to the US. By 39 he had won a Fields Medal (considered mathematics’ equivalent of the Nobel Prize); and by 47, he became the youngest mathematician to be inducted into the US National Academy of Sciences.

Credited by one maths journal as “dramatically changing the theory of non-associative algebras,” and having solved one of the oldest problems in the mathematical field of group theory, Zelmanov could easily have co-opted the demigod life, immersed in the esoteric world of abstract algebra. Instead, at 69, he is a champion of maths outreach and an unequivocal critic of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

In 2023, Zelmanov joined a group of Ukrainian mathematicians in creating the International Centre for Mathematics in Ukraine (ICMU), aimed at preserving Ukraine’s mathematics tradition during war. He serves on the centre’s advisory board and takes part in its activities including teaching maths to affected students. It’s no longer possible to fly to Ukraine so Zelmanov’s classes have so far been online, with many students, according to him, logging in from bomb shelters. 

I met Zelmanov at the 73rd Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting, where he was an invited speaker, along with 37 Nobel laureates in physics and chemistry. What could possibly motivate a leading mathematician like him to step so far out of his comfort zone and take a political stand during a war, I asked him. “But I’m closely related to Ukraine!” he replied. “My mother was from Ukraine. I grew up in Siberia, which is part of Russia, and I’m plainly ashamed of what is going on.” 

Ukraine, not unlike India, has a rich science and maths tradition. However, there have been serious setbacks since Russia invaded it on February 24, 2022. According to a UNESCO study in April 2024, “1,443 buildings belonging to 177 public scientific institutions have been damaged” and “12% of Ukraine’s 88,629 researchers and university teachers have been forced to emigrate or are internally displaced.” Among those who could not leave, men between 18 and 60 are forbidden from travelling abroad, as they are required to be available for conscription.

“There are not so many of them (Ukrainian students) at international conferences, so we make all the efforts to keep mathematical life going,” said Zelmanov.  Even with the protective sheath of a US citizenship, there is a price to pay for adopting this stance. Though he has friends and family in Russia, Zelmanov can no longer visit the country of his birth. “I sent money to the Ukrainian army and, well, that is a direct way to Russian prison,” he explained. 

Zelmanov agrees that most mathematicians tend to live in a bubble. “Sometimes keeping their heads down and working is a way to stay sane... but this time it hit very close to the bubble,” he said. According to one report in Science, “at least 100 Ukrainian scientists and scores more students have perished” during the two years of war. Zelmanov told me about a computer scientist he knew who was killed along with his wife when their apartment was bombed. 

One incident that made it particularly difficult for mathematicians in Ukraine and the diaspora to stay apolitical was the death of Yulia Zdanovska. Zdanovska was a 21-year-old mathematician, an Olympiad winner working for Teach for Ukraine, who was killed during the shelling of her home city Kharkiv on March 22, 2022. 

That year, the oldest and biggest maths conference, the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), was scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia. Worldwide calls for boycotting the meeting began right after the venue was announced in 2018; Russia’s human rights violation record was already poor. In 2022, after the invasion, the organisers finally acted. “We strongly condemn the actions by Russia,” they said in a statement. The ICM took place virtually that year. 

Two worlds

The quadrennial Fields Medals were also announced that year. Among the winners was the Ukrainian number theorist Maryna Viazovska, the second woman to ever win the prestigious prize. Viazovska donated her prize money to support Ukraine, and also went on to co-found ICMU, the new maths centre that Zelmanov too is involved in. Viazovska invoked Zdanovska in a video recorded after her win: “What is the point of my work as a teacher if young, talented people are just wasted in this terrible war?”

When I requested Zelmanov for an interview in Lindau, I had an ulterior motive. I was hoping that understanding his reasons for speaking out against an authoritative government would shed some light on why such examples are relatively few back home in India. How is it that we view political conflicts as separate from STEM, whereas the two worlds seem to overlap for the likes of Zelmanov and Viazovska?

The boundaries between these worlds evidently did not make sense to Dhananjay Balakrishnan, a newly minted mechanical engineer from IIT Madras. “I feel like I am doing this stage an injustice if I do not speak about Palestine,” he declared on July 19, during his convocation day speech after being awarded a Governor’s Prize for his all-round proficiency in curricular and extracurricular activities. 

The reactions to Balakrishnan’s speech were mixed. While many appreciated his courage, others accused him of virtue signalling, being selective in his outrage, or mixing politics with science. One Facebook user, who identifies himself as an IIT alumnus, urged IIT Madras to take action against Balakrishnan for “misusing the platform to deliver a political message.” Another X user snarkily asked if he was “an engineering or humanities student?”  

The indignation caused by Balakrishnan’s speech seemed more a reaction to his support for Palestine than the broader point he was trying to make: “As engineers graduating into the real world, it is our job to be aware of the consequences of the work we do. And also to interrogate our own position in these complex systems of power imbalance. I hope that we can incorporate this awareness more into our daily lives, attempting to understand what we can do to liberate the oppressed on lines of caste, class, creed and gender. I believe that is the first step to curb the never-ending cycle of suffering.” 

Is this really so controversial? If you think about it, it was precisely this spirit of integrity and morality that drove mathematicians around the world to resist the ICM 2022 from being held in Russia. It was also what prompted the Indian STEM community to launch campaigns, open letters and statements against the spread of pseudoscience during COVID-19, changes in NCERT science textbooks, and more recently, the involvement of astrophysicists in the “Surya Tilak project” at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. 

Equity for women in science is another topic that Indian scientists are relatively more vocal about. In 2018, about 165 scientists penned a statement calling for the community to take sexual harassment in academia more seriously. On Women’s Day 2023, over 500 physicists framed and endorsed the Hyderabad Charter for Gender Equity in Physics. 

No solidarity from STEM

However, when it comes to specific political events or acts of injustice, the community rarely puts up a united front. For example, in 2022, when hordes of young Muslim girls were not allowed into schools and colleges in coastal Karnataka after refusing to remove their hijabs, there was no solidarity expressed by the STEM community or any of the national science academies, even though many of the girls who ended up dropping out of school were presumably young students of science. Similarly, there is no discourse within the STEM community on the impact of violent conflicts in States such as Manipur. 

An Academic Freedom Index from 2023 ranked India in the bottom 30 per cent. According to the report, “What distinguishes India from other cases is notable pressure on the institutional dimensions of academic freedom— institutional autonomy and campus integrity—combined with constraints on the academic freedom of expression.” Shortly after, over 500 scientists wrote to the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, criticising its prohibition of a discussion on the controversial Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Firefighters put out a fire following a Russian missile attack in Pavlograd, Ukraine, September 6, 2024. | Photo Credit: AP

The new mathematics centre in Ukraine was started to offer students of the war-torn nation a space to continue their research ambitions. What is important to note, however, is that this is not being done as an act of charity. The founders believe that the country needs STEM to rebuild it after war. They say on their website: “Though at this time the major efforts of Ukrainian authorities are concentrated on solving the humanitarian and military problems, we acknowledge the importance of science in raising our economy after the war. It is of vital importance for Ukraine to be a part of the global scientific process.”  

Of course, scientists and mathematicians cannot resolve political conflicts; a majority of them may not even have the bandwidth to frame nuanced opinions about it. But if there’s one thing to learn from Ukrainian mathematicians, it’s that if a political or social issue is impacting higher education negatively, damaging scientific infrastructure and potentially jeopardising the lives and futures of the younger generation, then maybe it is worth some concern for the demigods of our country. 

Nandita Jayaraj is a science writer and co-founder of the feminist science media platform TheLifeofScience.com. She is the co-author of Lab Hopping: A Journey to Find India’s Women in Science.