I am Sarthak (he/him), a math grad student in his final year at IIT Gandhinagar. My advisor is the wonderful Prof Gadadhar Misra, and we plan to do something functional-analytical for my Master’s project.
Previously, in my undergrad days, I was a physics major at St. Stehphen’s College. There, I took some pure math electives and had my first brush with real math. I immediately knew that the precision and rigor that math provided would be my solace. This led to my physics-to-math switch in 2021, and it was one of the most happy (and dichotomously, tumultuous) decisions I ever made.
I still haven’t committed to anything particular in math. Nevertheless, I have enjoyed the “analytical” side of math a bit more than its “algebraic” side, and that could be due to my physics roots. (Indeed, during my physics days, doing functional analysis rigorously (for QM) had been a goal.) Nevertheless, I have eventually fallen for whatever I have studied so far, sometimes surprisingly (for instance, algebraic topology). Hence, I am still trying to gather as many tools in my kit as possible before taking the next step in my mathematical career.
After all, isn’t it the essence of math not to commit to a single perspective but to try looking at all sides? Wait, that’s the Yoneda perspective, lol!