In memory of Shiing-Shen Chern, the
International Mathematical Unionestablished the
Chern Medal in 2010 to recognize "an individual whose accomplishments warrant the highest level of recognition for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics".
[8]
Biography
Early Years in China
Chern was born in Xiushui County (
秀水縣),
Jiaxing, in
Zhejiang province. The year after his birth, China changed its regime from the
Qing Dynasty to the
Republic of China. He graduated from Xiushui Middle School (秀水中學) and subsequently moved to
Tianjin in 1922 to accompany his father. In 1926, after spending four years in Tianjin, Chern graduated from Fulun High School (
扶輪中學).
[9]
At age 15, Chern entered the Faculty of Sciences of the
Nankai University in Tianjin, but had problems at the laboratory, so he studied mathematics, instead.
[10] Chern graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1930.
[10] At Nankai, Chern's mentor was
Li-Fu Chiang (
姜立夫), a
Harvard-trained geometer. Also at Nankai, he was heavily influenced by the physicist
Rao Yutai (饶毓泰). Rao is today considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern Chinese
informatics.
Chern went to
Beiping (now Beijing) to work at the
Tsing Hua University Department of Mathematics as a teaching assistant. At the same time he also registered at Tsinghua
Graduate School as a student. He studied
projective differential geometry under Prof.
Sun Guangyuan, a
University of Chicago-trained geometer and
logician who was also from Zhejiang. Sun is another mentor of Chern who is considered a founder of modern Chinese mathematics. In 1932, Chern published his first research article in the Tsing Hua University Journal. In the summer of 1934, Chern graduated from Tsinghua with a master's degree, the first ever master's degree in mathematics issued in China.
[9]
Chen-Ning Yang's father—
Yang Ko-Chuen, another Chicago-trained professor at Tsing Hua, but specialising in
algebra, also taught Chern. At the same time, Chern was Chen-Ning Yang's teacher of undergraduate maths at Tsinghua.
At Tsinghua,
Hua Luogeng, also a mathematician, was Chern's colleague and roommate.
In 1932,
Wilhelm Blaschke from the University of Hamburg visited Tsinghua and was impressed by Chern and his research.
[11]
In Europe
In 1934, Chern received a scholarship to study in the United States, but he wanted to study under well-known geometer Wilhelm Blaschke.
[10]Co-funded by Tsing Hua and the Chinese Foundation of Culture and Education, Chern went to continue his study in mathematics in Germany with a scholarship.
[10] Chern studied at the
University of Hamburg and worked under Blaschke's guidance first on the geometry of webs then on the Cartan-
Kähler theory. He obtained his Dr. rer.nat. (
Doctor of Science, which is equivalent to PhD) degree in February, 1936.
[10]Blaschke recommended Chern to study in Paris.
It was at this time that he had to choose between the career of algebra in Germany under
Emil Artin, and the career of geometry in France under
Élie-Joseph Cartan. Chern was tempted by what he called the "organizational beauty" of Emil Artin's Algebra, but in the end, he decided to go to France in September 1936.
[12] He spent one year at the
Sorbonne in Paris.
In August 1936, Chern watched the
Summer Olympics in Berlin together with
Hua Luogengwho paid Chern a brief visit. During that time, Hua was studying at the University of Cambridge in Britain.
In the summer of 1937, Chern accepted the invitation of Tsing Hua's University and returned to China.
[12] He was promoted to professor of mathematics at Tsing Hua. However, in August, the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident(near Beijing) happened and the
Second Sino-Japanese Warstarted, Tsing Hua was forced to move away from Beijing to west China.
[13] Three universities including Peking University, Tsing Hua, and Nankai formed the
National Southwestern Associated University (NSAU), and relocated to
Kunming, Yunnan province. Chern never reached Beijing. In the same year,
Hua Luogeng was promoted to professor of mathematics at Tsinghua.
In 1939, Chern married Shih-Ning Cheng, and the couple had two children by the names of Paul and May.[13]
Short Stay in the USA
First Return to China
Chern returned to Shanghai in 1945 to help found the Institute of Mathematics of the
Academia Sinica, which was later moved to
Nanking[13](then-capital of the Republic of China). Chern was the acting president of the institute.
Wu Wenjun was Chern's graduate student at the institute.
In 1948, Chern was elected one of the first academicians of the Academia Sinica. He was the youngest academician elected (at age 37).
USA
By the end of 1948, Chern returned to the United States because of the
Chinese Civil War.
[13] He then returned to the IAS.
[13] In 1949, Chern became professor of mathematics at the
University of Chicago.
[13]Coincidentally,
Ernest Preston Lane, former Chair at UChicago Department of Mathematics, was the doctoral advisor of Chern's undergraduate mentor at Tsinghua—
Sun Guangyuan.
Chern retired from Berkeley in 1981. He founded the
Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in 1981 and served as the director until 1984. Afterward he became the honorary director of the institute. MSRI now is one of the largest and most prominent mathematical institutes in the world.
[15] Shing-Tung Yau was one of his PhD students during this period.
Short Visits to China
The
Shanghai Communiquéwas issued by the United States and the People's Republic of China on February 27, 1972. The relationship between these two nations started to normalise, and American citizens were allowed to visit P.R.China. In September 1972, Chern visited Beijing with his wife. During this period of time, Chern visited China 25 times, of which 14 were to his home province Zhejiang.
Chern founded the Nankai Institute for Mathematics (NKIM) at his alma mater Nankai in Tianjin. The institute was formally established in 1984 and fully opened in October 17, 1985. NKIM was renamed the
Chern Institute of Mathematicsin 2004 after Chern's death.
Final Years and Death
From 2000 to his death, Chern lived in Tianjin, China. Chern died of heart failure at his home in Tianjin in 2004 at age 93.
Research
He was a follower of
Élie Cartan, working on the '
theory of equivalence' in his time in China from 1937 to 1943, in relative isolation. In 1954 he published his own treatment of the
pseudogroup problem that is in effect the touchstone of Cartan's geometric theory. He used the
moving frame method with success only matched by its inventor; he preferred in
complex manifold theory to stay with the geometry, rather than follow the
potential theory. Indeed, one of his books is entitled "Complex Manifolds without Potential Theory". In the last years of his life, he advocated the study of
Finsler geometry, writing several books and articles on the subject.
Honours and awards
Chern received numerous honors and awards in his life, including:
- 1970, Chauvenet Prize, of the Mathematical Association of America;
- 1975, National Medal of Science[17]
- 1982, Humboldt Prize, Germany;
- 1983, Leroy P. Steele Prize, of the American Mathematical Society;
- 1984, Wolf Prize in Mathematics, Israel;
- 2002, Lobachevsky Medal;
- 2004 May, Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences, Hong Kong;[18]
- 1948, Academician,Academia Sinica;
- 1950, Honorary Member,Indian Mathematical Society;
- 1961, Member, United States National Academy of Sciences;
- 1963, Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
- 1971, Corresponding Member, Brazilian Academy of Sciences;
- 1983, Associate Founding Fellow, TWAS;
- 1985, Foreign Fellow, Royal Society of London, UK;
- 1986, Honorary Fellow,London Mathematical Society, UK;
- 1986, Corresponding Member, Academia Peloritana, Messina, Sicily;
- 1987, Honorary Life Member, New York Academy of Sciences;
- 1989, Foreign Member,Accademia dei Lincei, Italy;
- 1989, Foreign Member,Académie des sciences, France;
- 1989, Member, American Philosophical Society;
- 1994, Foreign Member,Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Chern was also granted numerous
honorary professorships, including at
Peking University (Beijing, 1978), his alma mater Nankai (
Tianjin, 1978), Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Systems Science (Beijing, 1980),
Jinan University(
Guangzhou, 1980), Chinese Academy of Sciences Graduate School (1984),
Nanjing University (Nanjing, 1985),
East China Normal University(Shanghai, 1985),
USTC (
Hefei, 1985),
Beijing Normal University(1985),
Zhejiang University(
Hangzhou, 1985),
Hangzhou University (1986, the university was merged into Zhejiang University in 1998),
Fudan University (Shanghai, 1986),
Shanghai University of Technology (1986, the university was merged to establish
Shanghai University in 1994),
Tianjin University (1987),
Tohoku University (
Sendai, Japan, 1987), etc.
Publication
- Shiing Shen Chern, Topics in Differential Geometry, Princeton 1951
- Shiing Shen Chern Differential Manifolds 1953 University of Chicago
- Shiing Shen Chern, Complex Manifolds University of Chicago, 1956
- Shiing Shen Chern:Complex manifolds without potential theory
- Shiing Shen Chern, Minimal Sumanifolds in a Riemannian Manifold University of Kansas 1968
- Bao, David Dai-Wai; Chern, Shiing-Shen; Shen, Zhongmin Finsler Geometry
- Zhongmin Shen, Shiing-shen Chern, Riemann Finsler Geometry
- Shiing Shen Chern, Selected Papers, Vol I-IV, Springer
Namesake
Family
His wife, Shih-ning Cheng(
Chinese:
鄭士寧;
pinyin:
Zheng Shining), whom he married in 1939, died in 2000. He also had a daughter, May Chu (
Chinese:
陳璞;
pinyin:
Chen Pu), wife of the physicist
Chu Ching-wu, and a son named Paul (
pinyin:
Chen Bolong).
Transliteration and pronunciation
Chern's surname is a common Chinese surname which is now usually spelt
Chen. The unusual spelling "Chern" is a
transliteration in the old
Gwoyeu Romatzyh (GR)
romanization for
Mandarin Chinese used in the early twentieth century China. It uses special spelling rules to indicate different tones of Mandarin, which is a
tonal language with four tones. The silent r in "Chern" indicates a
second-tone syllable, written "Chén" in
pinyin but in practice often written by non-Chinese without the tonal mark. In GR the spelling of his given name "Shiing-Shen" indicates a third tone for Shiing and a first tone for Shen, which are equivalent to the syllables "Xǐngshēn" in
pinyin.
In English, Chern pronounced his name "Churn" (), and this pronunciation is now universally accepted among English-speaking mathematicians and physicists.
See also
References
- Nigel Hitchin (2014). "Shiing-Shen Chern 28 October 1911 — 3 December 2004".Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.doi:10.1098/rsbm.2014.0018.
- "Chern biography". www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- "12.06.2004 - Renowned mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, who revitalized the study of geometry, has died at 93 in Tianjin, China". www.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- Chang, Kenneth (2004-12-07). "Shiing-Shen Chern, 93, Innovator in New Geometry, Dies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- "Interview with Shiing Shen Chern" (PDF).
- "Shiing-Shen Chern’s Centenary".
- MSRI. "MSRI". www.msri.org. Retrieved2017-01-16.
- the_technician."International Mathematical Union (IMU): Details". www.mathunion.org. Retrieved 2017-01-16.
- "Shiing-Shen Chern" (in Chinese). Jiaxing Culture. Retrieved Aug 22, 2010.
- Bruno, Leonard C. (©1999-2003). Math and mathematicians : the history of math discoveries around the world. Baker, Lawrence W. Detroit, Mich.: U X L. p. 72.ISBN 0787638137.OCLC 41497065.
- Chern, S. S.; Tian, G.; Li, Peter, eds. (1996). A mathematician and his mathematical work: selected papers of S. S. Chern. pp. 48–49.
- Bruno, Leonard C. (©1999-2003). Math and mathematicians : the history of math discoveries around the world. Baker, Lawrence W. Detroit, Mich.: U X L. p. 73.ISBN 0787638137.OCLC 41497065.
- Bruno, Leonard C. (©1999-2003). Math and mathematicians : the history of math discoveries around the world. Baker, Lawrence W. Detroit, Mich.: U X L. p. 74.ISBN 0787638137.OCLC 41497065.
- Bruno, Leonard C. (©1999-2003). Math and mathematicians : the history of math discoveries around the world. Baker, Lawrence W. Detroit, Mich.: U X L. ISBN 0787638137.OCLC 41497065.
- Robert Sanders, Media Relations (December 6, 2004). "Renowned mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, who revitalized the study of geometry, has died at 93 in Tianjin, China" (shtml). UC, Berkeley. Retrieved Aug 22,2010.
- "陳省身 (Shiing-Shen Chern)" (in Chinese). mathland.idv.tw. RetrievedAug 22, 2010.
- National Science Foundation – The President's National Medal of Science
- Bryant, Robert; Freed, Dan(January 2006). "Obituary: Shiing-Shen Chern". Physics Today. 59 (1): 70–72. doi:10.1063/1.2180187.
- "The IMU Prizes".International Mathematical Union (IMU). Retrieved Aug 22, 2010.
- "The Chern Lectures". UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics. RetrievedAug 22, 2010.
External links
- UC Berkeley obituary
- 1998 interview in Notices of the American Mathematical Society
- Shiing-Shen Chern at theMathematics Genealogy Project
- O'Connor, John J.;Robertson, Edmund F.,"Shiing-Shen Chern",MacTutor History of Mathematics archive,University of St Andrews.
- Shiing-shen Chern: 1911–2004 by H. Wu, biography and overview of mathematical work.
- "Shiing-Shen Chern (1911–2004)" (PDF), Notices of the American Mathematical Society, Providence, Rhode Island: American Mathematical Society, 58(9): 1226–1249, October 2011
- Chern's Work in Geometry, by Shing-Tung Yau
