Loring W. Tu (

traditional Chinese A tradition is a system of beliefs or behaviors (folk custom) passed down within a group of people or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examp ...

: 杜武亮;

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles ( ) is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from the system produced by Thomas Francis Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles's '' A Chinese–English Dictionary'' ...

: Tu Wu-liang; born 1955) is a

Taiwanese-American Taiwanese Americans ( Chinese: 臺灣裔美國人; pinyin: ''Táiwān yì měiguó rén''; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ''Tâi-Bí-jîn'') are Americans of Taiwanese ancestry, including American-born descendants of migrants from the Republic of China (Taiwan) ...

mathematician working in

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 invariant (mathematics), invariants that classification theorem, classify topological spaces up t ...

and

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

Life

Tu was born in

Taipei, Taiwan , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

, the grandson of Taiwanese pharmacologist

Tu Tsung-ming Tu Tsung-ming (, ) was a Taiwanese pharmacologist and educator and Taiwan's first Doctor of Medical Sciences (equivalent to Ph.D.). Early life and education Tu Tsung-ming was born in Tamsui in 1893. He entered the Medical school under Government ...

, founder of Taiwan's first private medical school (now

Kaohsiung Medical University The Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU; ) is a private medical school located in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The university was originally established as Kaohsiung Medical College in 1954 by the former mayor of Kaohsiung City, Ch ...

) and the first dean of the School of Medicine of

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

. Tu is a younger brother of Charles Tu, who is a professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

. He also has another brother, Samson Tu; all siblings became academics. During his childhood, Tu and his family lived with his grandparents. When Tsung-ming established Kaohsiung Medical University, Tu and his family moved with him to

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung, officially Kaohsiung City, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million p ...

, Taiwan. Tu and his brothers were educated at Datong Elementary School in Kaohsiung, and Tu attended Kaohsiung Municipal No. 2 Middle School, leaving Taiwan for United States and Canada while still in junior high school. Tu initially entered

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

to study

pure mathematics Pure mathematics is the study of mathematical concepts independently of any application outside mathematics. These concepts may originate in real-world concerns, and the results obtained may later turn out to be useful for practical applications ...

and later transferred to complete his undergraduate studies in the United States. He graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1974 with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(B.A.) in mathematics, then entered graduate school at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he was mentored by professors

Raoul Bott Raoul Bott (September 24, 1923 – December 20, 2005) was a Hungarian-American mathematician known for numerous foundational contributions to geometry in its broad sense. He is best known for his Bott periodicity theorem, the Morse–Bott function ...

and Phillip Griffiths. Tu earned a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in mathematics from Harvard in 1976 and 1979, respectively. His doctoral advisor was Phillip A. Griffiths. His doctoral thesis was titled "Variation of Hodge Structure and the Local Torelli Problem".Professional profile, Tufts University
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Career

Tu has been working at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

since 1986, and plans to retire after 2025. On November 12, 2024, Tufts University announced that Tu would gift the university an eight-figure donation and rename the Science and Engineering Complex as the Tsungming Tu Complex in honor of Loring's late grandfather. He has frequently collaborated with

Bibliography

Some of his books and papers are: * ''Introductory Lectures on Equivariant Cohomology ''(2020) * ''Differential Geometry: Connections, Curvature, and Characteristic Classes ''(2017) * ''An Introduction to Manifolds ''(2007) * ''Hodge Theory And The Local Torelli Problem ''(1983) * ''Differential Forms In Algebraic Topology ''(1982, with Raoul Bott)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tu, Loring W. 21st-century American mathematicians 1952 births Living people McGill University alumni Princeton University alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Tufts University faculty 20th-century American mathematicians Taiwanese expatriates in the United States American people of Taiwanese descent