Ding-Zhu Du (born May 21, 1948) is a Professor in the Department of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

The University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas, United States. It is the northernmost institution of the University of Texas System. It was initially founded in 1961 as a private resea ...

. He is known for his research on the Euclidean minimum

Steiner trees In combinatorial mathematics, the Steiner tree problem, or minimum Steiner tree problem, named after Jakob Steiner, is an umbrella term for a class of problems in combinatorial optimization. While Steiner tree problems may be formulated in a nu ...

, including an attempted proof of Gilbert–Pollak conjecture on the Steiner ratio, and the existence of a polynomial-time heuristic with a performance ratio bigger than the Steiner ratio.

Education

Ding-Zhu Du received his

M.Sc A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

Operations Research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

from 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 ...

in 1985. He received his Ph.D. in

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

with research area in

Theoretical Computer Science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...

from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

in 1984.

Career

Early in his career he published two claimed results on the Euclidean minimum

, a proof of the Gilbert–Pollak conjecture on the Steiner ratio, and the existence of a polynomial-time heuristic with a performance ratio bigger than the Steiner ratio. The proof of the Gilbert–Pollak conjecture was later found to have gaps, leaving the problem unsolved. He was Program Director for CISE/CCF,

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, USA, 2002-2005, Professor, Department of Computer Science,

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, 1991-2005. and Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, 1986-1987. He has been active in research on Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithm for 30 years. And over these years he has published 177 Journal articles, 60 conference and workshop papers, 22 editorship, 9 reference works and 11 informal publications.

Books published

* Theory of Computational Complexity. * Problem Solving in

Automata An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

, Languages, and Complexity. * Pooling Designs and Nonadaptive Group Testing. * Mathematical Theory of Optimization. * Combinatorial Group Testing and Its Applications (2nd Edition). * Connected Dominating Set: Theory and Applications. * Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms. * Steiner Tree Problems In Computer Communication Networks.

Awards and honors

* 2007 Received the Best Paper Award from International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems and Applications (WASA'07), Chicago, Illinois, USA * 2009-2014 Honorary Dean of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University * 2003 Received the Best Paper Award from the 22nd

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

International Performance, Computing, and Communication Conference at Phoenix, Arizona, USA, April 9–11. * 1998 Received CSTS Prize from INFORMS (a merge of American Operations Research Society and Institute of Management Science) for research excellence in the interface between Operations Research and Computer Science * 1996 Received the 2nd Class National Natural Science Prize in China. * 1993 Received the 1st Class Natural Science Prize from Chinese Academy of Sciences. * 1992 Received the National Young Scientist Prize from China * 1990-1991 The proof of Gilbert–Pollak conjecture was reported in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. * 1989 Received the 1st Class Young Scientist Prize from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. * 1988 Received the 3rd Class National Natural Science Prize in China.

Personal life

Wu is married to Weili Wu, also a professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Dallas. They met at the University of Minnesota, when Wu was a student there and Du was a professor.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Du, Ding-Zhu 1948 births Living people Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese computer scientists American computer scientists Researchers in geometric algorithms University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty University of Minnesota faculty United States National Science Foundation officials University of Texas at Dallas faculty