Ke Zhao or Chao Ko (, April 12, 1910 – November 8, 2002) was a Chinese

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

born in

Wenling Wenling ( Wenling dialect: Ueng-ling Zy ; ) is a coastal county-level city in the municipal region of Taizhou, in southeastern Zhejiang province, China. It borders Luqiao and Huangyan to the north, Yuhuan to the south, Yueqing to the west, lo ...

Taizhou, Zhejiang Taizhou is a city located at the middle of the East China Sea coast of Zhejiang province. It is located south of Shanghai and southeast of Hangzhou, the provincial capital. It is bordered by Ningbo to the north, Wenzhou to the south, and Shao ...

Biography

Ke graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

in 1933 and obtained his doctorate from the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

under

Louis Mordell Louis Joel Mordell (28 January 1888 – 12 March 1972) was an American-born British mathematician, known for his research in number theory. He was born in Philadelphia, United States, in a Jewish family of Lithuanian extraction. Education Morde ...

in 1937. His main fields of study were

algebra Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...

number theory Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic functions. Number theorists study prime numbers as well as the properties of mathematical objects constructed from integers (for example ...

and

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and as an end to obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many ...

. Some of his major contributions included his work on

quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two (" form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, 4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2 is a quadratic form in the variables and . The coefficients usually belong t ...

s, the

Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem In mathematics, the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem limits the number of Set (mathematics), sets in a family of sets for which every two sets have at least one element in common. Paul Erdős, Chao Ko, and Richard Rado proved the theorem in 1938, but d ...

and his theorem on

Catalan's conjecture Catalan's conjecture (or Mihăilescu's theorem) is a theorem in number theory that was conjectured by the mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan in 1844 and proven in 2002 by Preda Mihăilescu at Paderborn University. The integers 23 and 32 ...

. In 1955, he was one of the founding members of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

. He was later a professor at

Sichuan University Sichuan University (SCU) is a public university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The university is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. I ...

About SCU

, retrieved 2015-03-02. and became the president of the university and of the Chinese Mathematical Society.Awardee of Mathematics and Mechanics Prize: Ke Zhao
Holeung Ho Lee Foundation, retrieved 2015-03-02.

References

1910 births 2002 deaths Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester 20th-century Chinese mathematicians Educators from Taizhou, Zhejiang Mathematicians from Zhejiang Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Scientists from Taizhou, Zhejiang Xiamen University alumni Tsinghua University alumni Academic staff of Tsinghua University Presidents of Sichuan University {{Asia-mathematician-stub