China's cyber nationalists target maths star Hong Wang over lectures in English
Hong Wang , a contender for a top award, gave lectures at universities in Beijing last month, but instead her overseas experience and use of English made her an unexpected victim of rising nationalism in China.
The 34-year-old mathematician earned global attention last year when a paper she co-authored solved the three-dimensional
Kakeya conjecture – a century-old problem in geometric measure theory.
The study, with implications for imaging, data processing, cryptography and wireless communication, makes her a leading contender for the Fields Medal, regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics. Winners of the prize, awarded every four years, will be announced next year.
Wang was born in the southern city of Guilin. She graduated from Peking University then completed a postgraduate degree in France and a doctorate in the US. She is now an associate professor at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
She will join Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques near Paris as a permanent professor of mathematics starting in September, according to an announcement in May.
Last month, she gave seminars on her research at Peking University, Beijing International Centre for Mathematical Research, Capital Normal University, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with every venue full and bustling with attendees.
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