Wang Zikun's father, Wang Peicheng, worked as a shop assistant for many years and worked hard all his life. He has little education, but he is diligent and studious. He taught himself many ancient books and wrote well. He once compiled a dictionary for Wang Zikun, which was classified by homophonic sounds, such as "One, Clothes, Reliance and Benefit", and later copied some couplets and riddles (such as "Huanghuagang is a girl with a yellow flower in her hand; Grass carp under grass bridge, listening to grass "; "The ancient trees in front of the rocks are all dead. This is not firewood; Baishuiquan goes to ten fields and five belongs to me "; "Two people with two mouths and two soils are everywhere in the world. Anyone who can guess, half a catty of beef and a pot of wine "(hit the word" wall "), novels (such as the popular romance of Journey to the West and the Republic of China) are sent back from time to time. My father went home every few years and taught Wang Zikun to use abacus for the last time. Father and son have deep affection, but it's a pity that his father died young. That year, Wang Zikun 1 1 years old. Mother Guo Xiange is a rural woman, hardworking all her life, warm and sincere to people.
The whole family mainly lives on the land rented by the landlord by their mother, brother and sister-in-law. Young as he is, he has to work. Often at dawn, barefoot helps plow the fields, and you can wash your feet and wear shoes after dinner.
Schooling career
1940, Wang Zikun finished primary school with Mr. Murakami. With the strong persuasion and help of Wang Shaocheng, a teacher who teaches in the ancestral temple, Wang Zikun finally rushed out of the predicament and went to the Third Central Primary School in Ji 'an County, Gujiang Town, which is 10 miles away from home. He has been smart and studious since childhood, and can bear hardships and stand hard work. After school, on holidays, he comes in the wind and goes in the rain, transplanting rice, cutting rice, firewood and herding cattle. Difficulties have cultivated his simple quality and honed his tough character. No one has counted how many roads Wang Zikun has walked and how much farm work he has done in the past two years. But he used the time of walking, herding cattle and fetching water to read books and calculate problems, which is still a story that villagers talk about. Where there is a will, there is a way. With two years' hard work, Wang Zikun achieved excellent results, scored 120 on many math exams, and won the first place in the unified examination of Chinese in the county.
Wang Zikun has never forgotten the affection of his hometown for him. 1987, with deep affection for the people in his hometown and ardent hope for the younger generation in his hometown, he generously donated the manuscript fee and the science prize to his alma mater, Fengjiang Primary School in Gujiang Town, Ji 'an County, and set up a "Hongfeng Scholarship" to donate thousands of books to this primary school.
1942, Wang Zikun was admitted to Ji 'an Middle School. It was War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's time, when prices soared and people were poor. He can't afford the tuition and may drop out of school at any time. With the help of relatives and friends and the head teacher Gao Kezheng, he barely finished junior high school and was admitted to a public fee student in the National No.13 Middle School. No.13 Middle School was a national key middle school in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period. Many teachers come from big places and their teaching quality is very high. Wang Zikun's grades improved even faster.
Wang Zikun has a wide range of interests since middle school, paying special attention to methods. In high school, he studied Sun Tzu's Art of War and copied the book twice from beginning to end. One is a gift for my classmates when I graduated, and the other one is always with me. Later, he wrote a talk about scientific discovery, which was related to this.
From 65438 to 0948, Wang Zikun ended his middle school life. His thought is more mature and he has a clearer learning goal: learning mathematics. At that time, he was faced with the problem of going to college, but he was penniless and didn't even have the money to go to the exam. Thanks to the generous help of his classmate Lu, he embarked on a journey to Changsha.
This summer, five universities enrolled students in Changsha, and Wang Zikun signed up and all passed the exam. Among the five universities, Wuhan University is the best. He chose the Mathematics Department of Wuhan University and won one of the two scholarship places in the department, thus solving the tuition problem.
Influenced by the revolution, Wang Zikun quickly improved his consciousness. I have also written articles such as "Fallen leaves piled on the lower floors", "Luxury goods" and "Consumption". The former is a short story published in 1948 New Century magazine. The latter is an economic paper published in 1949 Wuhan Dagang newspaper. These articles were progressive at that time. After four years in college, Wang Zikun has gradually cultivated his self-study ability that will benefit him for life.
1952, when Wang Zikun graduated from university, he was originally sent to Peking University for postgraduate study. When reporting to Beijing, the plan suddenly changed and Wang Zikun was assigned to the Mathematics Department of Nankai University. From then on, he began his teaching career. He worked in Nankai University for 32 years and was transferred to Beijing Normal University as president until 1984.
Wang Zikun loves education. In his mind, nothing is more interesting than seeing a batch of new people grow up, and some of them have their own hardships. During the period of 1955, when Wang Zikun was teaching at Nankai University, he was recommended to study in the Department of Mathematical Mechanics of Moscow University. At that time, there was no such course in the domestic mathematics department, but the five-year undergraduate students in the Soviet Union began to learn this course from the third grade. During his study at Moscow University in the Soviet Union, Wang Zikun actually needed him to complete the five-year course of graduate students with the same major in the Soviet Union. Wang Zikun failed to live up to the great trust of the people of China. In the past three years, he spent most Sundays in libraries and classrooms. During the holiday, he gave up the opportunity to travel along the Volga River and stayed at school to study hard. His girlfriend Tan Deling (now a professor at the Institute of Soviet Literature of Beijing Normal University) is also studying at Moscow University. They didn't dare to waste time at all, but encouraged each other and reported them to the people of the motherland with excellent results.
Wang Zikun's mentor in the Soviet Union was Kolmogorov, the founder of modern probability theory, and Dubrohini, who was still very young and talented at that time. At that time, the graduate students studying probability theory in Moscow University all wrote papers when they were undergraduates. Wang Zikun only taught himself probability theory for three months before going abroad, and now he has to read it from the beginning. The learning task is very arduous. Dubrosien helped Wang Zikun to make a good study plan, and began to read Holmes's Theory of Measurement, and then read Dube's Theory of Stochastic Processes. Dubrosini's guidance is very specific and patient, and Wang Zikun is still grateful to him. From 65438 to 0958, the classification of birth and death process, the crystallization of Wang Zikun's three years' hard work, was unanimously passed at the academic defense meeting of Moscow University, and the school awarded him an associate doctorate. Wang Zikun made many Soviet friends during his stay in Moscow. After graduation, I could have arranged some time to visit friends and travel. But he was so bent on returning to China to serve his country that he didn't even go to the tour organized by the school. During his stay in the Soviet Union, Wang Zikun maintained a diligent and thrifty style, and all the living expenses saved after graduation were turned over to the state. When he got home, he didn't even buy a small cup.
Wang Zikun returned to China in 1958, which was during the Great Leap Forward. He first went to the Institute of Mathematics to translate for a Polish statistician. He was told that he could go to the south with this expert. Wang Zikun was indifferent and immediately returned to work at Nankai University.
Academic career
After returning home, Wang Zikun continued to study probability theory. This paper mainly studies an important class of stochastic processes, namely Markov processes. In reality, the evolution process of many objective objects is accidental (called randomness in mathematics), and people can't accurately predict their future, but only their possibilities. This process is called stochastic process. For example, the total population of the world changes with time and is random. We can't accurately predict the world population in 10 years, but only measure the possibility that the population will be within a certain range (for example, between 6 billion and 7 billion), so the evolution of the total population is a random process. Similarly, the annual rainfall in a certain area, the number of cancer patients, the trajectory of artillery shells, Brownian motion of particles in liquid and so on are all random processes. It can be seen that stochastic processes are very common. Strictly speaking, almost all realistic movement processes are random, but the degree of accident is different. There is a stochastic process, when its present situation is known, its future development does not depend on the past history. We call this stochastic process Markov process. Russian mathematician Markov first studied it. For example, the Brownian movement mentioned above, the number of people entering a department store, the total number of some animals in the forest and so on. Can be approximately regarded as a Markov process.
Markov process theory is a very active branch of mathematics in recent decades, and there are many new problems to be explored. If these problems to be studied are compared to a virgin forest, Wang Zikun is one of the pioneers of this forest. In China, Wang Zikun is a pioneer in this field.
Wang Zikun also has a strong interest in teaching. 1958 after studying abroad, he gave lectures and presided over discussion classes every semester. He has taught mathematical analysis, probability theory, stochastic process, Brownian motion and potential, statistical prediction and other courses. 1960, Wang Zikun, who just turned 30, began to take the postgraduate exam. Since then, this work has been uninterrupted except during the Cultural Revolution. Among his students, many were promoted to full professors in the mid-1980s, including two national young and middle-aged experts and two university presidents, many of whom have become the backbone of teaching and scientific research. At the same time, under the auspices of Wang Zikun, several classes of senior teachers were recruited, thus expanding the teaching team of probability theory. In this way, there are quite a few undergraduates, postgraduates and senior teachers majoring in probability theory in Nankai University. Many of them have a rigorous and simple style of study in Nankai University, which is inseparable from Wang Zikun's example.
In order to develop education in China, Wang Zikun devoted himself to teaching and scientific research. After he got married, his wife worked in Beijing Normal University and his family settled in Beijing. He lived a life of cowherd and weaver girl for 26 years. Wang Zikun was glad that it saved him a lot of chores and gave him more time to devote to teaching and scientific research. In his schedule, there are few holidays, and many times he goes home to visit relatives, all on New Year's Eve.
1977, Wang Zikun was directly promoted from a lecturer to a professor, which was the first time that China was promoted after the Cultural Revolution. Only two people were mentioned (the other is He Jiali of Tianjin University), and the Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong also reported it.
1984 in may, Wang zikun was appointed president of Beijing normal university by the State Council. In addition to his busy administrative work, he insisted on taking time out to engage in teaching and scientific research. While he is the principal, there are also many doctoral and master students from Beijing Normal University and Nankai University.
Wang Zikun deeply felt the arduous task of the principal. Because it depends not only on individual intelligence and hard work, but also on the active support of society and the joint efforts of leading institutions. Society is like the sea of Wang Yang, and the university is just one of the ships. Can the ship go smoothly? Depends to a great extent on the waves. He is convinced that to run a school well, it is necessary to have a correct concept of running a school, a high-quality teaching staff and sufficient economic backing, all of which are indispensable and important conditions.
Regarding the general plan of running a school, Wang Zikun believes that a university must first have a clear goal of running a school and a direction of struggle that can mobilize the enthusiasm of the vast majority of faculty and staff. For Beijing Normal University, the goal is to build the school into a domestic first-class, internationally influential and high-level key normal university.
In order to achieve this goal, Wang Zikun and the leaders of Beijing Normal University put forward the twelve-character policy of "high level, multi-contribution, strict management and good school spirit". He believes: "We should create conditions for schools to produce more celebrities, masterpieces and famous majors. A school can only be said to be of high level if it has a group of famous scholars, professors, excellent administrators, excellent teaching and scientific research achievements and more famous majors. Just like a troupe, if it doesn't have famous actors and plays a famous drama, can it still be said to be a good troupe? "
Regarding the "good school spirit", Wang Zikun said: "As Wen Tianyang said,' heaven and earth have righteousness'. The integrity of a school is an excellent school spirit. The school spirit is abstract and concrete, and most of them are not bound by words, but everyone will abide by it and care for it. School spirit does not always exist, just like flowers can be smelled everywhere in the flowers. School spirit has a subtle influence on the formation of students' personality, personality, habits and attitude towards learning. Beijing Normal University should maintain the excellent school spirit of diligence and rigor, unity and enterprising, respecting teachers and loving students. "
Wang Zikun left an inscription for most graduates of Beijing Normal University, "I like to see a new eagle in the spring forest, and a hundred-year-old tree man is also a hero." He said: "The cause of teachers is a glorious cause and a heroic cause. Welcome more outstanding young people from all over the country to join the education cause. "
In 1980s, Beijing Normal University moved towards the goal of "first-class", in which Wang Zikun worked hard and made great contributions.
1end of 984; Wang Zikun and professors from Beijing Normal University suggested setting up Teachers' Day. For the first time, he put forward the word "respecting teachers and valuing education". On, China celebrated the first Teachers' Day.
At the beginning of 1985, he and Professor Liu Wen were invited to give lectures at Bargilliat University, Manitoba University and Winnipeg University for two months. Their visit was highly valued by leaders at all levels, experts and scholars in these three universities, and was warmly received. Chinese groups in Regina also held a grand welcome party for them. The local Chinese newspaper reported: "The prelude of this visit will undoubtedly enhance the scientific and technological exchanges between universities in the three provinces of the central and western plains of Canada and related universities in China, which will be mutually beneficial." During the period of 1985, Wang Zikun also attended the awarding ceremony to award him an honorary doctorate in science and the title of honorary scholar of Ma Xing University in Sydney, Australia. Wang Zikun won this honorary degree because of his outstanding achievements in studying probability theory and his contribution in advocating scientific education and research methods. He is the sixth scholar to be awarded an honorary doctor of science in the past 30 years and the second university president in Australia to be awarded an honorary doctor of science. Several domestic newspapers published the news.
Since then, Wang Zikun has served as a deputy to Tianjin Municipal People's Congress, deputy director of the Department of Mathematics of Nankai University, deputy director of the Institute of Mathematics of Nankai University, and director of the Probability Information Teaching and Research Section. Member of Mathematics Group of State Science and Technology Commission, director of Chinese Mathematics Society, member of the Third Committee of China Association for Science and Technology, executive director of China Higher Education Society, executive director of China Dialectics Research Society, vice chairman of China Talent Society, executive director of China Probability and Statistics Society, director of seismological society of china, chairman of China Higher Normal Education Research Association, editor-in-chief of magazines such as China Science, Science Bulletin and World Science, and editor-in-chief of series such as Pure and Applied Mathematics and Foundation of Modern Mathematics.
Wang Zikun is a person who is strict with himself and lenient with others. Meritorious but not pretentious, arrogant but not arrogant. Wang Zikun always fully affirms the work and strengths of his peers. Until now, he has often mentioned Qi's talent, Hu's and Jiang Zepei's abilities, and Deng's firmness and concern for him. Wang Zikun often thanks his collaborators Wu Rong, Zhu Chengxi and Li Zhanbing for their help.
Wang Zikun's motto of self-encouragement fully reflects his feelings: "I respect such people, who are broad-minded and generous to others;" Watching the sword dance in the morning, approaching autumn waters in the evening, watching the sword to inspire and forge ahead, and reading Zhuang to dilute the disputes in the world; Public and forget private, diligent in their duties; Strive to be worthy of predecessors, worthy of today, and worthy of future generations. "
Honorary titles and awards
Wang Zikun has won the following awards and honors:
(1) 1982 won the National Natural Science Award.
(2) 1985 was awarded the "Science and Technology Progress Award" by the State Education Commission.
(3) 1978 won the "National Science Conference Award".
(4) 198 1 won the "National New Long March Excellent Popular Science Works Award".
(5) 196 1, 1979 and 1982 were rated as Tianjin model workers for three times.
(6) 1990 was rated as "excellent popular science writers since the founding of the People's Republic of China" by the National Association of Popular Science Writers.
(7) 1988 was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by Macquarie University in Australia, and was listed in the Who's Who of Australia and the Far East.
(8) Included in Who's Who in the World 152 edition.
(9) 1984 was awarded the title of "Young and Middle-aged Expert with Outstanding Contribution" by the Ministry of Personnel.
(10) 199 1 was elected as an academician of China Academy of Sciences.
Theoretical research on probability theory
Wang Zikun's research in mathematics is mainly in probability theory, and his work is progressing with the development of this subject. As early as 1960s, he was one of the leading figures in probability theory in China, and the international status introduced by China can be attributed to his contribution. To sum up, in the early 1960s, he studied the structure of Markov chains, and completely solved the problems of structure and functional distribution in birth and death process. In 1970s, he studied the relationship between Markov process and potential theory, obtained the time and position distribution of Brownian motion and the symmetrical stability process, and studied the statistical prediction of earthquakes. He wrote books such as Brownian motion and potential, probability and statistical prediction. In 1980s, he studied the multi-index Markov process and introduced the multi-index Oststein for the first time in the world. The definition and properties of Uhlenbeck process are studied. In the early 1990s, in addition to the above work, he also engaged in the research of super-process, which is one of the most active topics in the world at present. The above topics were all important international directions at that time. Keeping up with the development of the times and striving to make achievements in the important frontier of scientific research is a major feature of Wang Zikun's mathematical research. The breakdown is as follows:
(1) pioneered the probability method of limit transition, and completely solved the structural problem of birth and death process.
Random motion starts from 0 and can be extended to infinity, so to determine a random process, its motion must be observed in an infinite time (that is, all its finite-dimensional distributions are given). Can a stochastic process be decided in a limited time? That is, after observing some so-called "infinitesimal" characteristics of the process in a short time, can these characteristics be used to determine its behavior in infinite time? This is the problem to be solved by constructivism. This shows that this problem is of great significance and also very difficult. Not every process can be like this. People first began to study some special Markov processes. 1958, almost at the same time, probability theorists W.Feller and Wang Zikun both studied the structure of extinction process, but the methods were different. Ferrer used analytical method, and Wang Zikun used probability method (that is, the limit transition method he pioneered), so they all had their own characteristics. As Juszkiewicz, an expert in probability theory in the Soviet Union, commented, "Ferrer constructed various extensions of the birth and death process after the orbit reached infinity, and at the same time Wang found all extensions of the birth and death process by using the method of limit transition" (please pay attention to the word "all"), which was quoted in his book co-authored with Duncan. The limit transition method was later developed by some people.
(2) 196 1 year, Wang Zikun pioneered the distribution of functional and the distribution of stop time and first arrival time of graduation process by using the difference method, and obtained in-depth results. These two tasks were later developed by some domestic colleagues and praised by some foreign universities and research institutes. Commenting on this research, Professor Kendall of Cambridge University said: "I think this article has many important applications besides those mentioned by the author, for example, in the study of infectious diseases ... This problem is difficult, and the skills proposed in this article are worth studying."
1980, Wang Zikun studied the integral functional by recursive method and published a paper. After the publication of this article, I received letters from 9 countries (USA, France, West Germany, East Germany, India, Czech Republic, Israel, Netherlands, Italy) 17 units (universities or research institutes) asking for brochures of this article.
(3) Research on the general properties of Markov processes (ergodicity, uniformity, recursion, Martin boundary, etc.). ).
(4) After1980, he studied the relationship between Markov process and potential theory, and published papers and monographs. 1983, the multi-index Markov process is studied.
(5) In addition to the study of Markov process, Wang Zikun also initiated the study of stochastic functional analysis in China. Under his leadership, China has done a lot of work in this field.
Most of the research results in (1), (2) and (3) are summarized in Wang Zikun's monograph.
(6) The multi-index Markov process is studied for the first time in China. The definition of multi-index ornstein-Uhlenbeck process is put forward for the first time in the world, and the systematic results are obtained. From single index process to multi-index process, just like from univariate function to multivariate function, it greatly increases the complexity and difficulty of the problem. Oup is an important stochastic process and has important applications in physics. But the predecessors only studied the case of single index, and the multi-index oup was first studied by Wang Zikun. Later, many people continued this research.
In addition, Wang Zikun also engaged in the research of super-process, and achieved some achievements such as Power Series Expansion of Super-process.
It is difficult to accurately count the number of times the above achievements have been cited at home and abroad, and it is estimated that there are hundreds of times.
(7) There are many kinds of books, among which Fundamentals of Probability Theory and Its Application, Stochastic Process Theory and Birth and Death Process and Markov Chain are three books. From the foundation to the forefront, it constitutes a complete system, among which the third volume is mainly the monograph of Wang Zikun's research results, which is included in the fifth issue of Pure and Applied Mathematics by Science Press, and its English version has been jointly published by Science Press and a German press. Some experts commented on this book and said, "This is a beautiful and clear book". These three books have played an important role in promoting the teaching and scientific research of probability theory in China, and some universities (such as Nankai University, Beijing Normal University, Sun Yat-sen University, etc. ) as a teaching material for graduate students, college students and teachers.
Research on the Application of Probability Theory
In this regard, Wang Zikun has mainly done the following two tasks:
Statistical prediction of (1) earthquake. Wang Zikun participated in and led the work of the statistical prediction group of Nankai University, initiated the "random transfer prediction method" and "the method of using foreign major earthquakes to report the areas related to major earthquakes in China", and reported some earthquakes many times, which was valued by the State Seismological Bureau and won the second prize of Tianjin Science and Technology. Combined with the earthquake, the theoretical study of pole shift is also carried out.
(2) In cooperation with comrades in the army, the research on computer simulation of stochastic process was completed, the theoretical scheme was put forward, and the calculation program was compiled. Due to relevant regulations, this work is internal communication and cannot be published publicly.
On scientific methods and popular science work
Wang Zikun believes that teachers should not only impart knowledge, but also cultivate their abilities. Therefore, he attaches great importance to learning methods and research methods, especially the experiences and experiences of famous scholars, which can arouse his interest. From 65438 to 0960, Wang Zikun gave a speech on learning methods to senior students and young teachers in the Department of Mathematics, which aroused widespread interest. Thirty years later, someone mentioned the content of that speech. Encouraged by this success, Wang Zikun worked harder to collect this information. He was also very interested in China literature and history, so he wrote down some people's academic experiences, famous sayings and famous sentences.
From 65438 to 0966, the Cultural Revolution began. In the following years, Nankai University was as chaotic as the whole country, and teaching and theoretical research were not allowed. In his spare time, Wang Zikun turned over the speeches made in 1960s, combined with his daily notes, summed up an article "Talking about Scientific Discovery" and published it in Journal of Nankai University 1977. The following year, Shanghai People's Publishing House published a pamphlet. This is a unique popular science book. In the preface, Su, an old-timer in the field of mathematics, made an exact evaluation of this book: "Comrade Wang has made an overview of ancient and modern times, looked at home and abroad, and selected many meaningful discoveries and facts in the long river of natural science development, trying to analyze and summarize them with dialectical materialism and historical materialism, clarifying some basic laws about scientific discoveries, and exploring what qualities a natural science worker should strive to have. These contents are rampant in metaphysics. Su Lao also said, "The author is a mathematician. It is also valuable to write such a work while discussing mathematics. "
Vertical and horizontal talk attracts readers with its fresh and unique style, concise and smooth writing style and solid and rich content; Many chapters in the book can be called beautiful and moving prose, with a blend of reason and feeling, endless aftertaste, touching heart and lingering sound, which makes people intoxicated with the enjoyment of beauty. Young people eager to explore the mysteries of science compete for it. Some overseas Chinese also asked China for this book. Wang Zikun received more than 1000 letters. For a time, Talking about Verticality sold well in China, and it was reprinted four times in a short time, with a circulation of 450,000 copies, which was called "a wonderful work of popular science books". This book won four awards (1979 Shanghai Publishing System Excellent Reading Award, 198 1 Shanghai New Long March Excellent Popular Science Works Award,198/National New Long March Excellent Popular Science Works Award, 1982 First National Middle School Students) After "A Talk", Wang Zikun published dozens of popular science articles in Red Flag magazine, People's Daily, Guangming Daily and China Youth magazine. 1985 published another book, Boating in Kehai. These articles have a great influence on readers.