Arav Karighattam

Arav Karighattam is a mathematician passionate about algebraic number theory and arithmetic geometry, and seeks to understand the mysteries underlying the structure of solutions to Diophantine equations.

In his recent paper, Karighattam determined the ranks of members of a challenging family of elliptic curves using the theory of Heegner points. Karighattam presented his work at the conference “Mordell’s Conjecture 100 Years Later” at MIT as the youngest speaker among graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members.

Karighattam received a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in mathematics with highest honors from Harvard University in March 2024 and was awarded the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding research in his undergraduate senior thesis. He will begin his doctoral studies in mathematics at MIT.

Karighattam grew up in Davis, California and, while being homeschooled, completed most of the undergraduate and graduate courses in mathematics and physics at the University of California, Davis by the time he was 14. He is an avid birder, naturalist and wildlife photographer and won the Youth Award of the 2021 National Audubon Photography Awards for his photo of a Purple Sandpiper in Rockport, Massachusetts. He enjoys writing poetry and playing and composing for the piano and also wants to apply his mathematical skills to mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss.