Latest news with #Shing-TungYau
South China Morning Post
30-03-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
China is ready to start producing its own top mathematicians: Shing-Tung Yau
At 33, he was the first Chinese winner of the Fields Medal – one of the top honours in mathematics. Today, after decades in the US, Shing-Tung Yau is chair of Tsinghua University's Qiuzhen College, which is fast-tracking talented young students through a programme of his own design. Advertisement Yau, who was born in the southern province of Guangdong, was educated in Hong Kong and the US. Now aged 75, he left his position as Harvard University's William Caspar Graustein professor of mathematics in 2022, to return to China in the full-time teaching role. Here, he shares his views on the dynamics and prospects for China's mathematical prowess amid the intensifying rivalry between Beijing and Washington. This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus . For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here. In recent years, many Chinese mathematicians have solved major problems and come into public view. How would you assess China's current mathematical strength? And how does it compare with the US and Europe? In China, the situation is improving rapidly. If we consider mainland China and Hong Kong, it is still far behind America. Advertisement However, it's not a fair comparison because the US benefits significantly from foreign talent. Harvard, for example, has people from China, Germany, and many other countries, and its leadership in mathematics is largely built on immigrants. China also has immigrants, but nowhere near the level of the US, which has been actively recruiting global talent for almost two centuries. However, this trend is changing, as the US has become less welcoming to Chinese scientists. As a result, many Chinese researchers have returned to China, significantly contributing to the development of mathematics.
South China Morning Post
27-02-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Top mathematician Shing-Tung Yau leads China's bid for 2030 maths Olympics
China is vying with Japan and Britain to host the 2030 maths Olympics for the second time, after it first held the event in 2002, an initiative led by eminent mathematician Shing-Tung Yau Advertisement Yau is leading a team of 40 Chinese and international mathematicians in the bid for the 2030 International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), according to the Yau Mathematical Sciences Centre at Tsinghua University. 'The ICM is important for many mathematical researchers as a platform to understand key developments worldwide over the past four years and an opportunity to showcase their academic achievements,' Yau said in an interview with China Science Daily on Tuesday. 'As the level of mathematics in China advances, I think 2030 will be a critical year and an important moment for Chinese mathematics to rise on the world stage. We hope to inspire young Chinese researchers and scholars to stand out in the world through the ICM.' Yau, the first Chinese to win the Fields Medal for his work in differential geometry, retired from Harvard University in 2022 to teach at Tsinghua University and help China become a maths powerhouse. Advertisement He has set up institutions in China such as the maths centre at Tsinghua and the Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, which have attracted top local and international talent.
