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Prof. Yau Shing-tung, Distinguished Professor-at-Large, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and the Wolf Prize and Fields Medal Laureate, was invited to be a guest speaker for the University’s 50^th Anniversary Distinguished Lecture.  Professor Yau presented a lecture on ‘150 Years of Mathematics at Harvard’ today (23 December) on campus.  The lecture drew an audience of over 300 academics, students, alumni, and members of the public.

In the 20^th century, American mathematicians began to make critical advances in a field previously dominated by Europeans.  Harvard University’s Mathematics Department was at the centre of these developments.  In his lecture, Professor Yau, who is concurrently a mathematics professor at Harvard University, gave a lively and accessible account of the pioneers who trail-blazed a distinctly American tradition of mathematics, including Benjamin Peirce, Eliakim Hastings Moore and George David Birkhoff, the heady mathematical concepts that emerged, and the men and women who shaped them, including Marston Morse, Hassler Whitney, Marshall Stone, etc.  Over the past 150 years, the Mathematics Department of Harvard University has developed into a world-class teaching and research centre of mathematics, nurturing a number of eminent mathematicians who inherited the tradition of the masters.  Professor Yau believed that educators can learn from its history of development.

Prof. Yau Shing-tung is Distinguished Professor-at-Large and Director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMS) at CUHK, as well as William Casper Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University.  He is a distinguished alumnus and dear friend of CUHK for about half a century.  He graduated from the Department of Mathematics, Chung Chi College, CUHK in 1969, and was conferred the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa, by the University in 1980.  He was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, where he received his PhD degree two years later under the supervision of Prof. Chern Shiing-shen.  He taught at the Institute for Advanced Study of Princeton, Stanford University, Stony Brook University, and University of California, San Diego. He has been a faculty member at Harvard since 1987.  In 1993, Professor Yau joined his alma mater and initiated the establishment of IMS, where he served as Director to lead researches, while at the same time contribute to teaching and coaching postgraduates.  In his 40-year career in mathematics, he has received numerous awards and honours.  These include the Fields Medal in 1982, the Veblen Prize in Geometry (1981), the MacArthur Fellowship (1985), the Crafoord Prize (1994) and the US National Medal of Science (1997).  In 2010, Professor Yau received the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in recognition of his lifetime contribution to geometric analysis, and his enormous impact on many areas of geometry and physics.

Attachment: Presentation of the lecture