Supporting mathematics, the life sciences, the arts, and animal welfare

TNQ Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation set up in India to support basic research in mathematics and the life sciences. The Foundation also supports the arts and animal welfare.

TNQ Numbers & Shapes

To Support Research in Pure Mathematics

TNQ Numbers & Shapes is an initiative to advance the study of pure mathematics in India.

TNQ Numbers & Shapes activities include:

An annual public lecture by an eminent mathematician
A week long workshop at the Indian Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.
A mathematical retreat
The appointment of and travel support for the TNQ Numbers & Shapes Scholars

TNQ Numbers & Shapes Inaugural Public Lecture

Inaugural Speaker – Professor Yakov Eliashberg

“The Strange and Wonderful World of Symplectic Geometry”

IIT Madras

September 26, 2024

Yakov Eliashberg

Yakov Eliashberg is currently the Herald C. and Caroline C. Ritch Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University. He has received several prestigious awards including the 2024 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Basic Sciences and the Wolf Prize in 2020. For over 30 years, Eliashberg has helped to shape and research in symplectic topology.

2024

Inaugural Workshop

At The Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), Chennai; led by Professor Yakov Eliashberg.

September 23-27, 2024

'Finite-dimensional Technique in Symplectic and Contact Topology'

Lagrangian intersection problem and fixed point of symplectomorphisms
Generating functions and hypersurfaces
Pseudo-isotopies, h-cobordisms, and topology of spaces of Lagrangians and Legendrians
Introduction to the Arborealization Program
Arborealization of polarized Weinstein manifolds

Inaugural Mathematics Retreat

Almora, Uttarakhand
with Professor Yakov Eliashberg

September 29 – October 2, 2024

‘The Nearby Lagrangian Conjecture’

The Nearby Lagrangian Conjecture is one of the most important, yet unsolved, problems in symplectic topology. It states that every closed exact Lagrangian submanifold of the cotangent bundle of a closed manifold is Hamiltonian isotopic to the zero section.

This retreat aimed to develop and extend new techniques, in particular those related to developments in the theory of generating functions and constructible sheaves, to advance the Nearby Lagrangian Conjecture in at least a few special cases.

To Encourage Basic Research in the Life Sciences

In the Life Sciences, TNQ aims at inspiring young students to make a career in basic scientific research and to spur them on to do significant and creative work of their own.

This intiative includes

The TNQ Distinguished Lectures in the Life Sciences
The TNQ Inspiring Science Awards

The TNQ Distinguished Lectures in the Life Sciences

Established in 2008, this lectureship series is presented annually by the TNQ Foundation. The event aims to bring internationally renowned life scientists face-to-face with the Indian scientific community of students, researchers, and faculty members.

Over the years, these lectures have been presented across the major cities of India - Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and New Delhi.

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Previous Speakers

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Webinars/Series during COVID-19

The TNQ-Janelia India COVID-19 Series

The TNQ-Janelia Climate Change Summit

This summit focused on the science of climate change to help us truly understand it as a global phenomenon.

TNQ Inspiring Science Awards

The TNQ Inspiring Science Awards aim to recognise and reward quality science by selecting the best published paper in the life sciences by a student from India each year.

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Evaluation

The Awards jury comprises close to 40 eminent scientists from across the country, organised in four geographic panels to avoid conflict of interest. Every paper is evaluated by a minimum of three jury members. The top two papers from each panel are the finalists, and are re-evaluated by panel chairs, and one internationally renowned scientist who is independent of the jury process. The re-evaluation is done to select the winner. No information on the jury is publicly available.

Supporting the Archives at NCBS

Archives at NCBS is a public centre for the history of science in India, based at TIFR's National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bengaluru. The Archives holds a repository of documents, photographs, oral histories along with resources in the print and audiovisual mode relevant to the history of contemporary biology in India.

TNQ Foundation supports two main programs at the Archives at NCBS:

Program 1

The Obaid Siddiqi Chair in the History and Culture of Science is awarded to a distinguished scholar for a 12-month period, in which the scholar works on a cross-disciplinary approach to bridge the gap between science, social science and humanities, and deliver public lectures on their work. Dr MD Madhusudan was the Obaid Siddiqi Chair for the year 2021-22, Prof. GN Devy was the Chair for the year 2022-23, Prof. Gita Chadha was the Chair for the year 2023-24, and Dr Savithri Preetha Nair was the Chair for the year 2024-25. Dr Samira Sheikh is the Chair for the year 2025-26.

Program 2

The Research Scholars-in-Residence programs are 6-10 months long programs offered to 1-3 researchers from areas such as science, journalism, humanities, arts, social sciences, and archival theory and practice. The scholars engage with the NCBS campus and the public through lectures, installations and coursework, and collaborate with the Archives at NCBS in developing inter-disciplinary research programs.

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Support for the Arts

As part of its commitment to the arts, the TNQ Foundation supports the Kochi Biennale Foundation which presents, biennially, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB), India’s largest contemporary art festival. The Sixth Edition of this multi-venue exhibition will open in the historic port city of Kochi on December 12, 2025 and will remain on view until March 31, 2026.

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Support for the Performing Arts

Call Me Dancer

Call Me Dancer tells the story of Manish Chauhan’s journey in contemporary dance. Manish Chauhan’s training and education at the Kibbutz Centre for Contemporary Dance, Israel, was supported by TNQ Foundation.

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Yeh Ballet

The story of two young boys, Amir Shah and Manish Chauhan, from underprivileged backgrounds in Mumbai who dream of becoming ballet dancers. Both boys were supported by TNQ Foundation. Amir Shah at the Royal Ballet School, London, UK and Manish Chauhan at the Kibbutz Centre for Contemporary Dance, Israel, and later at Peridance, New York, USA were supported by TNQ Foundation.

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Animal Welfare

We support animal rescue programmes at:

Blue Cross of India - Chennai
India Project for Animals & Nature, Masinagudi, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu
Ootacamund Hunt Club – Uthagamandalam, Tamil Nadu