C.S. Venkitaraman (1918-1994), popularly known as CSV, was born on 14th September 1918 at Chelakkara in Thrissur District of Kerala. He was an eminent mathematician and a dedicated teacher. Tall, erect, well-dressed and with keen searching eyes, CSV had a magnetic personality.

CSV served the cause of mathematics teaching well during his long career as a teacher at Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur. He enjoyed teaching to students at lower levels. He motivated his students properly and was in the habit of drawing illustrations from every day life while introducing new concepts. CSV was a member of Indian Mathematical Society since 1945, and it was CSV who represented Kerala at conferences and meetings for a long time. CSV took pleasure in pursuing mathematics and in particular number theory. He derived a new identity for multiplicative functions of two variables. Vaidyanathaswamy’s identity for multiplicative functions which appeared in Trans.Amer.Math.Soc. in 1931 can be deduced from that of CSV. He was awarded PhD degree by Madras university in 1952 for his thesis entitled ‘Contributions to the theory of multiplicative functions’. A.C. Vasu and R. Sivaramakrishnan were his doctoral students.

Due to CSV’s active interest in research, the Department of Mathematics, Sree Kerala Varma College was recognized as a research centre for Mathematics by the University of Kerala in 1961. CSV’s tenure of office at this college was a golden era of the mathematics department. He didn’t accept principalship as that would deprive him of his passion to do mathematics teaching. CSV passed away on 16th of March 1994.

CSV Trust : His children, well wishers and former colleagues have formed a trust in his memory which organizes several programmes to promote mathematics. CSV memorial prizes are awarded to the toppers of the Regional Mathematical Olympiad (Kerala) . Endowment lectures are being arranged in the annual conferences of the RMS since 1995.