Lam Lay Yong (maiden name Oon Lay Yong, ; born 1936) is a retired Professor of Mathematics.

Academic career

From 1988 to 1996 she was Professor at the Department of Mathematics,

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

(NUS). She graduated from the

University of Malaya The Universiti Malaya (lit 'University of Malaya'; abbreviated UM) is a public university, public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest Malaysian institution of higher education, and was the only university in ...

(later becoming University of Singapore) in 1957 and pursued graduate study in

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, obtaining her Ph.D. degree from University of Singapore in 1966, and becoming a lecturer at the University of Singapore. She was promoted to full professor in 1988, taught in NUS for 35 years, and retired in 1996. From 1974 to 1990, Lam Lay Yong was the associate editor of ''

Historia Mathematica ''Historia Mathematica: International Journal of History of Mathematics'' is an academic journal on the history of mathematics published by Elsevier. It was established by Kenneth O. May in 1971 as the free newsletter ''Notae de Historia Mathemat ...

''. Lam was a member of

Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences The International Academy of the History of Science () is a membership organization for historians of science. The Academy was founded on 17 August 1928 at the Congress of Historical Science by Aldo Mieli, Abel Rey, George Sarton, Henry E. Sigerist ...

. In 2001, Lam Lay Yong was awarded the Kenneth O. May Prize jointly with Ubiratan D'Ambrosio. Lam was the first Asian and first woman to receive this award. Her reception speech was ''Ancient Chinese Mathematics and its influence on World Mathematics''. Lam Lay Yong also won the 2005 Outstanding Science Alumni Award from NUS. She is the granddaughter of

Tan Kah Kee Tan Kah Kee (; also spelled as Chen Jiageng; 21 October 1874 – 12 August 1961) was a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist active in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. A prominent fig ...

and niece of

Lee Kong Chian Tan Sri Dato' Lee Kong Chian (; 18 October 1893 – 2 June 1967), also known by his alias Lee Geok Kun (), was a prominent Chinese Singaporean businessman and philanthropist based in Malaya and Singapore between the 1930s and the 1960s. He ...

Chinese origins of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Hypothesis

Lam Lay Yong has hypothesised that

Hindu–Arabic numeral system The Hindu–Arabic numeral system (also known as the Indo-Arabic numeral system, Hindu numeral system, and Arabic numeral system) is a positional notation, positional Decimal, base-ten numeral system for representing integers; its extension t ...

originated in China. This is based on her comparative studies on Chinese

counting rods Counting rods (筭) are small bars, typically 3–14 cm (1" to 6") long, that were used by mathematicians for calculation in ancient East Asia. They are placed either horizontally or vertically to represent any integer or rational number. ...

system. She states that the rod numerals and the Hindu numerals have a few features in common. These are nine signs, concept of zero, a place value system, and decimal base. She claims that, "While no one knows how the Hindu-Arabic system originates in India, on the other hand, there is strong evidence of a transmission of the concept of the rod system to India." She even claims that there is no unquestionable evidence that the system originated in India, and that she claims that there are two factors concerning this. One was from mathematician's mention, for example a critique of Severus Sebokht on Indian ingenuity, and

Al-Khwarizmi Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi , or simply al-Khwarizmi, was a mathematician active during the Islamic Golden Age, who produced Arabic-language works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography. Around 820, he worked at the House of Wisdom in B ...

's book on Hindu Calculation. The other factor is the presence of Brahmi numerals. However Michel Danino criticised this by saying that Lam Lay Yong's evidence for this was not evidence-based nor rigorous, and that she is ill-qualified for cross-cultural studies. According to Michel Danino, her thesis has not been accepted, thus, the Chinese origin of Hindu-Arabic numerals remains to be hypothetical, and not widely accepted. All of this seems to contradict Yong's claims that there is strong evidence of rod numerals in India.

Publication

*Jiu Zhang Suanshu (1994) "(Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art): An Overview,

Archive for History of Exact Sciences ''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal currently published bimonthly by Springer Science+Business Media, covering the history of mathematics and of astronomy observations and techniques, epistemology of scien ...

, vol. 47: pp. 1–51. * Zhang Qiujian Suanjing (1997) "(The Mathematical Classic of Zhang Qiujian): An Overview", ''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'', vol. 50: pp. 201–240. * Lam Lay Yong, Ang Tian Se (2004) ''Fleeting Footsteps. Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient China'', Revised Edition, World Scientific, Singapore. *Lam Lay Yong (1977) ''A Critical Study of the Yang Hui suan fa'', NUS Press. *Lam Lay Yong, "A Chinese Genesis, Rewriting the history of our numeral system", ''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'' 38: 101–108. *Lam Lay Yong (1966) "On the Chinese Origin of the Galley Method of Arithmetical Division", ''

The British Journal for the History of Science ''The British Journal for the History of Science'' (''BJHS'') is an international academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Society for the History of Science. It was founded under its pre ...

'' 3: 66–69

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. *Lam Lay Yong (1996

"The Development of Hindu-Arabic and Traditional Chinese Arithmetic", ''Chinese Science'' 13: 35–54. *Oon Lay Yong (2009) Arithmetic in Ancient China OC
October 2009
*Lam Lay-Yong and Shen Kangshen (沈康身) (1989) "Methods of solving linear equations in traditional China",

, Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 107–122.

References

External links

Faculty of Science, NUS, Lam Lay YongAn Interview with Lam Lay Yong - Singapore Mathematical SocietyViews on Mathematics Education in Singapore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lam, Lay Yong Historians of mathematics Academic staff of the National University of Singapore Living people Singaporean mathematicians Singaporean people of Hokkien descent Singaporean people of Chinese descent Singaporean women academics Women mathematicians 1936 births National University of Singapore alumni