Wu Wenjun ( zh, s=吴文俊; 12 May 1919 – 7 May 2017), also commonly known as Wu Wen-tsün, 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, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, historian, and writer. He was an academician at the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

(CAS), best known for the

Wu's method of characteristic set Wenjun Wu's method is an algorithm for solving multivariate polynomial equations introduced in the late 1970s by the Chinese mathematician Wen-Tsun Wu. This method is based on the mathematical concept of characteristic set introduced in the lat ...

Biography

Wu's

ancestral hometown An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as ...

was Jiashan,

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...

. He was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

and graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1940. In 1945, Wu taught several months at

Hangchow University Hangchow University (), also spelled as Zhijiang University and formerly known as Hangchow Christian College, Hangchow College and Hangchow Presbyterian College, is a defunct Protestant missionary university in China, which is one of the pre ...

(later merged into

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University, abbreviated as ZJU or Zheda and formerly romanized as Chekiang University, is a National university, national public university, public research university based in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is a member of the prestigiou ...

) in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also Chinese postal romanization, romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the prov ...

. In 1947, he went to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for further study at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

. In 1949, he received his PhD, for his thesis ''Sur les classes caractéristiques des structures fibrées sphériques'', written under the direction of

Charles Ehresmann Charles Ehresmann (19 April 1905 – 22 September 1979) was a German-born French mathematician who worked in differential topology and category theory. He was an early member of the Bourbaki group, and is known for his work on the differential ...

. Afterwards, he did some work in Paris with

René Thom René Frédéric Thom (; 2 September 1923 – 25 October 2002) was a French mathematician, who received the Fields Medal in 1958. He made his reputation as a topologist, moving on to aspects of what would be called singularity theory; he becam ...

and discovered the Wu class and Wu formula in algebraic topology. In 1951 he was appointed to a post at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

. However, Wu may have been among a wave of recalls of Chinese academics working in the West following

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

's ouster from the mainland in 1949, according to eyewitness testimony by Marcel Berger, as he disappeared from France one day, without saying a word to anyone.

Honors and awards

In 1957, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1986 he was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in Berkeley. In 1990, he was elected as an academician of

The World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable deve ...

(TWAS). Along with

Yuan Longping Yuan Longping (; September 7, 1930May 22, 2021) was a Chinese agronomist and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering known for developing the first hybrid rice varieties in the 1970s, part of the Green Revolution in agriculture. For his ...

, he was awarded the

State Preeminent Science and Technology Award The Highest Science and Technology Award () also known as the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, State Supreme Science and Technology Award, or China's Nobel Prize is the highest scientific award issued by the President of the PRC to ...

by President

Jiang Zemin Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as p ...

in 2000, when this highest scientific and technological prize in China began to be awarded. He also received the

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...

in 1990 and the

Shaw Prize The Shaw Prize is an annual award presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, it honours "individuals who are currently active in their respective fields and who have recently achieved distinguished and signifi ...

in 2006. He was the President of the Chinese society of mathematics. He died on May 7, 2017, 5 days before his 98th birthday.

Research

The research of Wu includes the following fields:

algebraic topology Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify ...

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...

, history of mathematics,

automated theorem proving Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a ...

. His most important contributions are to

. The Wu class and the Wu formula are named after him. In the field of

, he is known for Wu's method. He was also active in the field of the history of Chinese mathematics. He was the chief editor of the ten-volume Grand Series of Chinese Mathematics, covering the time from antiquity to late part of the

Qin dynasty The Qin dynasty ( ; zh, c=秦朝, p=Qín cháo, w=), or Ch'in dynasty in Wade–Giles romanization ( zh, c=, p=, w=Ch'in ch'ao), was the first dynasty of Imperial China. Named for its heartland in Qin state (modern Gansu and Shaanxi), ...

Publications

*Wen-Tsun, Wu:Rational Homotopy Type: A Constructive Study Via the Theory of the I*-Measure *Wen-tsun, Wu & Min-de, Cheng, CHINESE MATHEMATICS INTO THE 21ST CENTURY *Wen-tsun, Wu, A THEORY OF IMBEDDING IMMERSION AND ISOTOPY OF POLYTOPES IN A EUCLIDEAN SPACE *Wen-tsun, Wu, Mechanical Theorem Proving in Geometries. *Wen-Tsun, Wu; Georges Reeb: Sur Les Espaces Fibrés Et Les Variétés Feuilletées *SELECT WORKS OF WEN-TSUN WU *Wen-tsun, Wu: Mathematics Mechanization: Mechanical Geometry Theorem-Proving, Mechanical Geometry Problem-Solving and Polynomial Equations-Solving *Wen-Tsun, Wu, and Hu Guo-Ding, eds, Computer Mathematics .

References

* * *

External links

Wu's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wu, Wenjun 1919 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Chinese mathematicians 21st-century Chinese mathematicians Algebraic geometers Educators from Shanghai Historians from Shanghai Historians of mathematics Mathematicians from Shanghai Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences People's Republic of China science writers Peking University faculty Shanghai Jiao Tong University alumni Topologists TWAS fellows TWAS laureates University of Strasbourg alumni Writers from Shanghai Zhejiang University faculty