Wang Yuan (mathematician)

Wang Yuan , or Yuan Wang, an academician of Chinese Academy of Science, is a renowned mathematician, educator and popular science writer. He is the former president of Chinese Mathematical Society, and the head of the Institute of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Life

Wang was born in Lanxi County, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. His father was a magistrate in the local government. Because of the Japanese invasion , Wang's family had to move away from Zhejiang Province, and finally arrived at the southeast city Kunming in Guizhou Province in 1938. 1942, Wang's father rose to the chief secretary of the Academia Sinica. 1946 after the Japanese surrender, his family moved to the capital city - Nanjing.

Wang entered Yingshi University in Hangzhou, and graduated from the Department of Mathematics, Zhejiang University in 1952. He then earned a position in the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica. Hua Loo Keng is considered as his main academic advisor and one of his closest cooperators. 1946-1949, he was the acting director of the institute. Wang also studied in USA for a period of time.

1966, Wang's career was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution. Wang could not work for more than five years until 1972. During this interval, Wang was harassed and put through interrogation.

1978, Wang was back to his professorship, in the Institute of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Science. 1980, he was elected to be an academician of Chinese Academy of Science. 1988-1992, he was the president of the Chinese Mathematical Society.

Research

Wang quite focuses on the area of number theory, especially in the Goldbach Conjecture. Sieve methods and circle methods are often applied by him. He obtained a series of important results in the field of number theory.