Prof. M. S. Narasimhan completed 80 years recently. As he is one of the pre-eminent mathematicians of the country, it was felt that an International Conference on Algebraic Geometry should be organized celebrating this occasion. The conference will feature talks by well-known mathematicians on several areas that Prof. Narasimhan has made deep contributions to.

Prof. Narasimhan's work has strongly influenced several areas of Algebraic Geometry, Differential Geometry, Representation Theory of Lie groups and Partial Differential Equations. He pioneered the development of the theory of moduli spaces of vector bundles on curves and higher dimensional projective varieties with C.S. Seshadri and S. Ramanan. His work with G. Harder on canonical filtrations on algebraic vector bundles and with K Okamoto on the concrete realisations of discrete series representations of Harish-Chandra have been highly influential in the subject. Several distinguished Indian mathematicians were his former research students.

Prof. Narasimhan has played a key role in the development of Mathematics in India and in developing countries by influencing several mathematicians and by creating structures for promoting research in Mathematics. He was the founding-Chairman of the NBHM. He was a member of the Executive Committee of International Mathematical Union (IMU) from 1982 to 1986 and President of the Commission on Development and Exchange of IMU (1986-94). As head of the mathematics group at ICTP for several years, he has been instrumental in inculcating the research culture among mathematicians from many developing countries.