Shekhar Khare is a mathematician who has made significant advances in the study of the relationship between Galois representations and modular forms, which relate to the study of whole numbers. His skill is in finding ingenious but relatively simple new ideas in these areas.

He is an extremely original mathematician, having worked alongside Jean-Pierre Wintenberger to prove a mathematical theory named Serre’s conjecture, when the proof was originally considered out of reach. In 2011, they jointly received the Cole Prize in number theory for their work.

Beginning his life in Mumbai, India, he went on to complete an undergraduate degree at Trinity College Cambridge. He started his career at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, and is now a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2012, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society as well as a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.