Prof Yau Shing-tung 丘成桐教授

Award

Doctor of Science, honoris causa 榮譽理學博士

Year of Award

2024

Biography

Prof Yau Shing-tung has dedicated his life to unravelling the mysteries of mathematics and physics, making pioneering contributions in the fields of differential geometry and physics. He has won numerous awards including the Fields Medal, the United States National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize in Mathematics, and the Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, and is a member of many prestigious scientific academies, including the Accademia dei Lincei of Italy, the US National Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prof Yau was Chairman of the Mathematics Department and a professor in the Physics Department of Harvard University, and he is currently the Director of the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University.

Born in Shantou in southern China in 1949, Prof Yau moved to Hong Kong with his family to escape the civil war, and grew up in a farming village in the New Territories. After graduating from Pui Ching Middle School and Chung Chi College at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, he was admitted to the Graduate School at UC Berkeley in 1969, and then started his career at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. In 1982, Prof Yau was awarded the Fields Medal, the highest honour in mathematics, which can only be given to mathematicians under the age of 40. Inspired by his father’s words about contributing to one’s own people, Prof Yau has devoted himself to the mathematics community in China, founding research institutes in Hong Kong, Hangzhou, Beijing, Taipei, Nanjing, and Shanghai that have produced several famous mathematicians.

Prof Yau's academic career has been illustrious, and he has received accolades and honours in recognition of his groundbreaking scientific research. He has honorary doctorates from Columbia University, the University of Waterloo, the University of Alberta, the National Taiwan University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and many others.

He was awarded Doctor of Science, honoris causa.