Announcement: International Conference on Zero

The Zero Project is a non-profit organization based in the Netherlands. We aim to elucidate the origin of the numeral “zero” in the history of mankind as to date the issue remains unresolved [website: (www.TheZeroProject.nl)]. Featured video on the Zero Project by media partner Dr Robert Lawrence Kuhn of the American TV series Closer to Truth. Click on the link to cast your vote for India!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUVN7E1wiBs&t=11s.

Our online International Conference-cum-Workshop on Zero from October ’21 to April ‘22, is co-organized by Professor Sharda Nandram of Vrije Universiteit, the Netherlands. Join us on this exciting expedition led by expert guides from across diverse cultures, to find fresh evidence of the invention of the number zero. It changed the course of history, just as the domestication of fire or the invention of the wheel did. Yet zero’s origin remains shrouded in mystery. We will visit far-flung places, lost in time: in North and South Africa, Central America, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Far East.

In his endorsement at the launch of the Zero Project in 2016, the renowned India-expert, Dr Johannes Bronkhorst, Emeritus Professor, University of Lausanne), wrote: It can reasonably be argued that the discovery (or should we say invention) of the number zero was an event whose importance went well beyond the simplification of numerical notation that it made possible. Unfortunately little is known about the origin of this digit. Strong indicators point to India, but research so far has done little beyond giving us some rough idea as to the date when this digit came into use (or had come into use). If research sponsored by the Zero Project will shed light on this last question, not only Indologists and historians of mathematics will be grateful. Understanding how and why the great inventions were made that made modern science and technology possible, concerns all mankind. And the invention of zero certainly ranks among the greatest.

www.TheZeroProject.nl  •  info@zerorigindia.org

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