Shiing-Shen Chern
From: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
|
Date: 2008
Shiing-Shen Chern 1911-2004, Chinese-American mathematician, b. Kashing (now Jiaxing), China, D.Sc. Hamburg, 1936. While undertaking graduate studies in China (1932-34), Chern developed what became a lifelong interest in differential geometry . Pioneered in the 19th cent. by Carl Friedrich Gauss in his studies of curves and surfaces, differential geometry received little attention among mathematicians until the 1930s and 40s, but Chern transformed this dormant branch of mathematics into a vibrant area of study. Studying the curvature of surfaces in spaces with more than three dimensions, he devised mathematical quantities that he called characteristic classes—now known as Chern classes—that differentiated different types of surfaces. The fields on which he had the greatest impact, global differential geometry and complex algebraic geometry, are fundamental to many areas of mathematics and theoretical physics, and his work at the foundation of gauge theory and string theory , among the most important developments of modern theoretical physics.
Author not available, CHERN, SHIING-SHEN.,
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
For permission to reuse this article, contact Copyright Clearance Center.
Related articles from HighBeam Research:
|
SHIING-SHEN CHERN
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society; 3/1/2007; Wu, Hung-Hsi; 1519 words;
... OCTOBER 1911 * 3 DECEMBER 2004 SHIING-SHEN CHERN, one of the giants in the history ... in the U.S. from 1950 to 1999. Chern's work revitalized and reshaped ... writing of his historic papers on Chern classes and the geometry of fiber ...
|
|
Of Note
The Washington Post; 12/7/2004; 188 words;
Shiing-shen Chern, 93, a Chinese American mathematician ... Chinese city of Tianjin, the Xinhua News Agency reported. No cause of death was ... of Hamburg, as well as in Paris, Dr. Chern taught in China and in the United States ... Nationalists in a long-running civil war, Dr. Chern moved ...
|
&type=1 "Xinhua (China)")
|
Asteroid named after noted mathematician, XINHUA
Xinhua (China); 11/1/2004; 329 words;
... 1998CS2 after noted mathematician Shiing-shen Chern (Chen Xingshen) for his outstanding ... came as a special blessing for Chern's 93rd birthday, which fell on ... Nankai University in Tianjin. Chern celebrated his birthday at his ...
|
|
|
Deaths of Members Recorded Through 7 December 2004
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society; 12/1/2004; Anonymous; 341 words;
... Berkeley, on 2 March, aet. 80 ... ... ... . 1981 Brooks, Harvey, in Cambridge, MA, on 28 May, aet. 88 ... ... ... 1961 Chern, Shiing-shen, in Tianjin, China, on 3 December, aet. 93 ... . 1988 Cone, Edward Toner, in Princeton, on 23 October, aet. 87 ...
|
|
Berkeley mathematics institute gets $10 million
Oakland Tribune; 5/4/2007; Bay City News Service; 262 words;
... forth at MSRI future breakthroughs of the stature of the Chern-Simons Invariants. We are all deeply grateful." The Chern-Simons Invariants, developed by Simons and Shiing-Shen Chern in 1974, helped mathematicians and physicists with the application ...
|
|
Rippling public fever for maths
China Daily; 8/23/2002; FENG QIHUA; 380 words;
... candidates for the Fields Prize, after maths masters like Hua Luogeng, Shiing-shen Chern and Chen Jingrun, China has rarely contributed to the world's ... it will not take long for more maths masters, similar to Hua or Chern, to emerge from China.
|
|
|
Expert: China's maths still lags
China Daily; 8/23/2002; 475 words;
... lectures our mathematicians will deliver at the ICM, but how can we boost China's maths studies and help them catch up with developed countries after the conference," said Shiing-shen Chern, renowned Chinese-American master mathematician. Xinhua
|
See all results from premium newspaper and magazine articles, images, maps and more at HighBeam Research.
|
|