Shiing-shen Chern (Mandarin Roman alphabet: Shiing-shen Chern, October 28, 1911 - December 3, 2004), a Chinese-American mathematician, educator, and international master of differential geometry. He is an academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, an academician of Academia Sinica, and a foreign academician of the French Academy of Sciences, the Italian National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Born in 1911 in Xiushui County, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. In 1922, he graduated from Xiuzhou Middle School and came to Tianjin. In 1923, he entered Rotary Middle School (today's Tianjin Railway No. 1 Middle School). He graduated in 1926 and entered the Department of Mathematics of Nankai University. He graduated in 1930 with a bachelor's degree. In the same year, he joined Tsinghua University as a teaching assistant and studied as a graduate student. He studied projective differential geometry under the tutelage of Sun Guangyuan, a pioneer in Chinese differential geometry. He graduated in 1934 with a master's degree and became the first mathematics graduate student trained by China. In the same year, he won a scholarship from the Chinese Culture and Education Foundation (some say it was funded by Tsinghua University) and went to study at the University of Hamburg in Germany under the tutelage of the famous geometer Blaschke. He received a doctorate in science in February 1936; the scholarship was returned when he graduated. There was some leftover, so he went to Paris, France to study differential geometry with E. Cartan.

In 1937, Chen Shengshen served as a professor at Tsinghua University. Later, due to the Anti-Japanese War, he moved with the school to Kunming, Yunnan, and taught differential geometry at the Southwest Associated University, a joint venture between Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University.

In 1943, at the invitation of the American mathematician O. Veblen, he worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In the next two years, he completed the most important work in his life: proving the high-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet Formula, constructing the declarative class commonly used today, and laying the foundation for overall differential geometry.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1946, he returned to Shanghai and took charge of the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica. In the next two or three years, he trained a group of young topologists. In early 1949, Academia Sinica moved to Taiwan, and Chen Shengshen moved his family to the United States at the invitation of Oppenheimer, director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In the summer of 1949, he succeeded E. P. Lane professorship; E. P. Lane was the mentor of Sun Guangyuan, Chen Shengshen's mentor, when he was studying in the United States; here he made important contributions to the revival of differential geometry in the United States. In 1960, Chen Shengshen was hired as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he remained until his retirement in 1980. He was elected as a member of the American Academy of Sciences in 1961 and served as vice president of the American Mathematical Society from 1963 to 1964. An important contribution made by Chen Shengshen in his later years was the establishment of the National Institute of Mathematics, which focused on pure mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1981. He was the first director.

After retiring in 1984, Chen Shengshen was successively appointed as an honorary professor at Peking University and Nankai University. In 1985, he was appointed by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of China as the director of the Institute of Mathematics at Nankai University. In the same year, Nankai University awarded him an honorary doctorate.

Since 1986, the Chinese Mathematical Society has established and hosted the "Chen Shengshen Mathematics Award".

At 19:14 on December 3, 2004, Beijing time, Chen Shengshen passed away in Tianjin.

Famous scholars such as Qiu Chengtong, Wu Wenjun, Liao Shantao, and Zheng Shaoyuan all studied under Chen Shengshen.

[Editor]

Achievements

Chen Shengshen combined differential geometry and topological methods to complete two epoch-making important works: one is the Gaussian of Riemannian manifolds -Bonnet's general formula, and the other is the representational class theory of Hermitian manifolds. Some of the concepts, methods and tools he introduced have gone far beyond the scope of differential geometry and topology and have become important components of modern mathematics. Chen Shengshen's other important mathematical works include:

Compact immersion and compact immersion, started by him and R. Leshev, lasted for more than 30 years, and their achievements have been compiled into a monograph.

One of the famous results of the complex geometricalization of the value distribution of complex variable functions is the Chern-Botte theorem.

The motion formula of integral geometry and its hypersurface situation are in cooperation with Yan Zhida.

The Chen Moser theory of real hypersurfaces on complex manifolds is a basic work in the theory of functions of multiple complex variables.

Work on minimal surfaces and harmonic mapping.

The Chern-Simons differential is a fundamental tool for anomalies in quantum mechanics.

[Editor]

Honors

Chern Shengshen received many scientific honors.

In 1961, Chen Shengshen was elected as the second Chinese-American member of the National Academy of Sciences after physicist Wu Jianxiong, which is the highest honorary position in the American scientific community.

In 1970, he won the Schoffner Prize of the American Mathematical Association.

In 1976, he was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Ford, which is the highest award in science, mathematics, and engineering in the United States; Chen Shengshen and Wu Jianxiong were the first Chinese scientists to receive this honor.

In 1983, the American Mathematical Society's Steele Award for "Overall Achievement".

In 1984, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics by Israeli President Herzog, which is the highest award in the field of mathematics in the world; Chen Shengshen is the first Chinese-American mathematician and the second to win the Wolf Prize. Chinese scientist.

In addition, he also won the Chau-venet Award (1970) and the Steele Award (1983) issued by the American Mathematical Society. He has won awards such as the Humboldt Prize in Germany and the Lobachevsky Mathematics Prize in Russia. In addition, he won the first Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences in 2004. On November 2, the 1998 CS2 asteroid was named "Chern" after discussion and approval by the Small Object Nomenclature Committee under the International Astronomical Union.

Chen Shengshen was invited to give lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians three times: in Cambridge, Boston, USA in 1950, in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1958, and in Nice, France, in 1970. Both 1950 and 1970 were one-hour reports, which were the highest-level academic lectures at the International Congress of Mathematicians.

Chen Shengshen served as vice president of the American Mathematical Society. He is also a foreign academician of France, Italy, China and other countries. He is also the founding initiator of the Third World Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the British Royal Society, a corresponding academician of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, and an honorary member of the Indian Mathematical Society. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by many famous universities such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Technical University of Berlin, and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Chern Ching-shen is considered the greatest differential geometer of the 20th century. Chen Shengshen, Hua Luogeng and Feng Kang are considered to be three Chinese mathematicians with world-leading achievements and international influence. He is also the mentor of Fields Medal winner Shing-Tung Yau at the University of California, Berkeley.

Wu Wenjun

Wu Wenjun, Chinese, was born in Shanghai on May 12, 1919. He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1940 and received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg in France in 1949. He returned to China in 1951, served as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1957, and became the chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society in 1984. Wu Wenjun made many significant contributions in mathematics.

In terms of topology, a series of results have been obtained in the fields of representational classes and representational embedded classes, and many famous formulas have been obtained, pointing out the wide application of these theories and methods. He also has creative work on topological invariants, algebraic manifolds and other issues. In 1956, Wu Wenjun won the first prize of the China Natural Science Award for his outstanding achievements in representational and embedded categories in topology.

In terms of machine proof, starting from elementary geometry, a class of difficult theorems were proved on the computer. Some new theorems were also discovered, and theorem proofs of differential geometry were further explored. A new method for using machines to prove and discover geometric theorems is proposed. This work opens up a new field of mathematical research and will have a profound impact on the revolution of mathematics. In 1978, he won the Major Scientific and Technological Achievement Award from the National Science Conference.

In terms of the history of Chinese mathematics, Wu Wenjun believes that the characteristics of ancient Chinese mathematics are: starting from practical problems, improving through analysis, and then abstracting general principles, principles and methods, and finally achieving the purpose of solving a large class of problems. . He also put forward incisive insights into the achievements of ancient Chinese mathematics in number theory, algebra, geometry, etc.

Wu Wenjun, a celebrity in science and technology

Mathematician. Shanghainese. Graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1940. Received a doctorate from the French National Center for Scientific Research in 1949. In 1991, he was elected as an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences. Researcher and honorary director of the Institute of Systems Science, Academy of Mathematics and Systems Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and honorary chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society. One of the founders of Chinese mathematics mechanization research.

In the 1950s, he obtained Wu Wenjun's formula, Wu Wen...

Wu Wenjun (1919~ )

Chinese mathematician in the research on explicit classes and embedded classes. Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Born in Shanghai on May 12, 1919. Graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1940. In 1947, he went to France to study, and successively conducted mathematical research in Strasbourg, Paris, and the French Scientific Research Center, and received his doctorate in 1949. Returned to China in 1951. He has successively served as professor of the Department of Mathematics at Peking University, researcher and deputy director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researcher, deputy director and honorary director of the Institute of Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, director of the Mathematics Mechanization Research Center, and chairman and honorary chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society. Member of the Standing Committee and Director of the Department of Mathematics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Served as a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He is mainly engaged in research on topology, machine proofs, etc. and has achieved many outstanding results. He is one of the founders of Chinese mathematics mechanization research. The doctoral thesis "Spherical Fiber Space Representation Theory" published in 1952 was an important contribution to the basic problems of fiber space. In the 1950s, he achieved a series of outstanding results in the research on representative classes and embedded classes, and had many important applications. He was called "Wu Wenjun's formula" and "Wu Wenjun's representative classes" by the international mathematics community, and has been included in many famous books. This achievement won the first prize of the National Natural Science Award in 1956. In the 1960s, he continued to conduct research on embedding classes and creatively discovered new topological invariants. Among them, his results on the embedding and immersion of polyhedrons are still among the world's leaders. The achievement in Pontyakin's representational class is a basic theoretical study of topological fiber bundle theory and the geometry of differential manifolds, which has profound theoretical significance. In recent years, he has created the Wu Wenjun Principle (known internationally as Wu's method) for machine proofing of theorems, and has realized machine proofs of theorems of elementary geometry and differential geometry, reaching the world's advanced level. This important innovation has changed the face of automatic reasoning research, has had a huge impact in the field of theorem machine proof, and has important application value. It will cause changes in the way of mathematical research. Research results in this area have won the Major Achievement Award of the National Science Conference and the First Prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Important results have also been achieved in research on machine discovery and creation of theorems.