Qiu Chengtong, the first Chinese winner of the "Nobel Prize in mathematics", has joined Tsinghua full-time
2022-04-22
Qiu Chengtong, the first Chinese winner of the fields award, was employed as a chair professor of Tsinghua University! △ Qiu Chengtong, source: official of Tsinghua University This is an important news announced by Tsinghua University. Now, Qiu Chengtong has retired from Harvard University, which means that he is in a "full-time" state at Tsinghua University. In this regard, Li Jun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Fudan University, said: Mr. Qiu Chengtong's participation will enable Tsinghua to further develop in the field of mathematics, and make historic contributions to the development of domestic mathematics, the glory of China's mathematics tomorrow and the realization of the predecessors' desire to build a powerful mathematics country. With the addition of Qiu Chengtong, Tsinghua has gathered three "first Chinese winners" of the world's top science awards. As Ma Shaoping, a professor of the computer department of Tsinghua University, said: Mr. Yang Zhenning, the first Chinese Nobel Prize winner, Mr. Yao Qizhi, the first Chinese Turing prize winner, and Mr. Qiu Chengtong, the first Chinese fields prize winner, gathered at Tsinghua University. Won the fields award at the age of 33 Won the fields award at the age of 33 Qiu Chengtong was born in Shantou, Guangdong Province in the spring of 1949. Under the situation of war at that time, he moved south to Hong Kong with his parents. His father taught at Chung Chi College (the predecessor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong), and his mother was also a scholar. Qiu Chengtong was carefree in his childhood. Later, Qiu Chengtong studied in Hong Kong Peizheng middle school. Since then, he has studied mathematics diligently and achieved excellent results. However, at the age of 14, Qiu Chengtong's father died suddenly, which was undoubtedly a heavy blow to him and his family, and his family immediately lost their financial resources. However, his mother resolutely chose to overcome various difficulties for qiuchengtong to complete his studies; He was also very diligent. At the age of 15, he tutored others in mathematics to support his family. At that time, Qiu Chengtong was determined to become famous in academic circles. He once recalled: One of the wonders of mathematics is that "it can show its strength in the world of mathematics without any cost". In 1966, Qiu Chengtong successfully entered the Department of mathematics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong with excellent results. In less than four years, he completed the undergraduate course in advance. He was also favored by Professor Chen Shengshen of the University of California, Berkeley at that time and was exceptionally admitted as a graduate student. △ Qiu Chengtong's Chinese graduation ceremony in Hong Kong, source: Yilin Publishing House Chen Shengshen, Qiu Chengtong's mentor, is one of the greatest geometries in the 20th century and is known as "the father of overall differential geometry". He developed the Gauss bonnet formula, which was named "Gauss bonnet Chen Shengshen formula", and proposed the "Chen class", which became a classic masterpiece. At the same time, Chen Shengshen is also the first Chinese to win the wolf mathematics award. Under the eyes of this "Bole", Qiu Chengtong, 19, came to Berkeley to study as a graduate student and received a doctorate in 1979. According to the memory of an elderly geometer in an academic seminar, Chen Shengshen made such an evaluation when Qiu Chengtong graduated: When he graduated at the age of 21, he was destined to change the face of mathematics. It's not unreasonable for Chen Shengshen to say this. Qiu Chengtong first tried his hand in the first grade of graduate students and solved a problem about the structure of the basic group of negative curvature manifolds in differential geometry. Later, he knew that the problem solved the famous Wolff conjecture in differential geometry, which was a bit like solving a mathematical problem as homework. Qiu Chengtong's most well-known contribution to mathematics is to prove the kalabi conjecture. In order to solve this conjecture, he needs to systematically create and develop nonlinear analysis on manifolds, especially the theory, methods and skills of Monge ampere equation. Therefore, he first solved the famous Minkowski conjecture and the Bernstein problem in Minkowski space-time through the real Monge ampere equation. Then he brought his own gradient estimation technology to the extreme. Finally, in 1975, the kalabi conjecture was completely solved. At this time, Qiu Chengtong was only 26 years old. △ kalabi (left) and Qiu Chengtong (right) Perhaps many people will label Qiu Chengtong's success as "genius", but only he knows the hardships in the process, just as Qiu Chengtong recalls: The key to success is hard work, not genius. I have tried nearly 5000 experimental functions to develop the technique of gradient estimation on manifolds. After that, Qiu Chengtong also proved a series of mathematical problems such as positive mass conjecture, creating a new field - geometric analysis. It is precisely because of his fruitful achievements in mathematics that Qiu Chengtong, only 32, won the Veblen award of the American Mathematical Society in 1981, which is one of the highest awards in the world of differential geometry. After only one year, that is, in 1982, Qiu Chengtong, 33, ushered in the highlight of his life - winning the fields award, the highest honor recognized in the world in mathematics, and he was also the first Chinese to win the award. In addition, Qiu Chengtong won the Crawford award and the wolf award respectively in 1994 and 2010. This also made him the second Chinese to win the wolf award after his mentor Chen Shengshen. "We should not only pursue the truth, but also care about the country" During the ceremony of joining Tsinghua University, Qiu Chengtong said at the scene: Young students and mathematicians should not only pursue eternal truth, but also care about the country and work together to make greater contributions to China's mathematical cause and the development of the motherland. That's what he said and did. As early as 1984, Qiu Chengtong recruited more than a dozen doctoral students from China in order to train talents in differential geometry for China. Qiu Chengtong wants to give them not only mathematical skills, but also let them understand the brilliance of mathematics. Under this training mode, Qiu Chengtong is also full of peaches and plums. For example, his student Tian Gang won the Veblen award in 1996 and is recognized as one of the world's most outstanding differential geometries. Earlier, he has been lecturing at the Chinese Academy of Sciences for many times since 1979. The main content of differential geometry published by Science Press is Qiu Chengtong's research results. On June 8, 1994, Qiu Chengtong was elected as one of the first batch of foreign academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In addition to teaching and educating people, Qiu Chengtong also actively established mathematics research institutes and research centers: In 1993, the Institute of mathematics of the Chinese University of Hong Kong was established In 1996, Beijing Chenxing mathematics center was established In 2002, the mathematical science center of Zhejiang University was established In 2009, the mathematics research center of Tsinghua University was established In order to promote cooperation among Chinese mathematicians, Qiu Chengtong also initiated the organization of the International Conference of Chinese mathematicians, which is held every three years. In order to stimulate the students' love and creativity for mathematics, Qiu Chengtong first established the biennial "Henglong mathematics Award" for Hong Kong middle school students in Hong Kong. Later, in 2008, Qiu Chengtong middle school mathematics award was officially established; In 2010, Qiu Chengtong college mathematics competition was launched. In particular, Qiu Chengtong's College Students' mathematics competition has played an important role in cultivating Chinese mathematics talents. It has become an important reference for the exploration and selection of young mathematics talents and the admission of postgraduates majoring in mathematics and related majors in well-known universities at home and abroad. Qiu Chengtong will also be directly angry and "denounced" in the face of the disastrous defeat of Tsinghua students in the competition: At that time, according to the chat screenshots posted on the Internet, Qiu Chengtong's painful criticism directly appeared "ashamed or not?" Strict review! "," shameful! " "How to explain?" The wording is extremely strict. The topic of "Qiu Lao's anger" spread quickly on the Internet at that time. Behind this, Qiu Chengtong, who is concerned about the development of the next generation of Chinese mathematics, should be more reflected in his inner urgency. …… Now, Qiu Chengtong has joined Tsinghua University full-time. After that, what role will he play for China's mathematics and China's next generation of mathematics talents. We'll see. (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit：Li Ling Responsible editor：Chen Jie
Source：QbitAI
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