Some of the famous Chinese mathematicians we know, such as Hua Luogeng, Chen Jingrun, Wang Yuan, Pan Chengdong, these masters, are basically famous for their number theory. A good start was made by Hua Luogeng, and later there was also a Chinese school of analytic number theory on the world mathematical stage, if we want to talk about other fields, we also have masters, but the popularity is not too high. For example, there is a Chinese mathematician who is doing the field of differential geometry, and he has done the field of differential geometry to the extreme, and has obtained a very revered title, which is the father of differential geometry - Chen Shengshen.
In 1911, Chen Shengsheng was born in Xiushui County, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, which is a scholarly door, and Chen Shengsheng received a good education from his family from an early age. Why is it called the strange name of the province? His father, Chen Baozhen, used the Analects of "Three Provinces and One Body" to name his son, which also fully illustrates the ingenuity of this name, in fact, this sentence is also a portrayal of Mr. Chen's life.
Soon Mr. Xiao Chen will reach the age of going to school, and it is reasonable to say that he should follow his friends to study and study. But because of the care of the elders in the family, especially the love of the grandmother, Xiao Chen has always been at home with his aunt and grandmother to learn to write and memorize Tang poems. In this way, although Xiao Chen did not go to school with his friends step by step, but the study of this matter was never interrupted, and it is precisely because he was born in an excellent scholarly door, so the elders of the family dare to do this, if it is an ordinary family, the level of education is not high, and if you do this, it will definitely delay Xiao Chen's precious primary school time.
Chen Shengshen's Enlightenment Mathematics Textbook Pen Math
If Mr. Xiao Chen's study of Tang poems and recitation of ancient Texts at this time are still children's curiosity about emerging things, then a gift brought to him by his father has planted a seed in Mr. Xiao Chen's young age. His father brought him a book written by an American missionary called "Mathematics of Pen Arithmetic", which served as Mr. Chen's mathematical enlightenment textbook and gave him the most original motivation to learn mathematics. The silhouette of this book can still be found, which is a quick calculation manual for the insurance industry in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, because there are many regular number study problems in this book, so many people also use this professional book of the insurance industry to learn mathematics, and have achieved good results. After Mr. Xiao Chen got this book, he quickly read the upper, middle and lower three volumes, and will do all the exercises in it, you must know that at this time, Mr. Xiao Chen has not studied for a day.
Probably in 1919, my grandmother also felt that it was not a good idea to always study at home without contact with the outside world, so Xiao Chen finally went to school on the spot. However, Mr. Xiao Chen's cultural background has an advantage over his peers, especially his mathematical ability, plus at that time, Xiao Chen was also very well-behaved, so he went to school for a day and never went to school again.
In 1920, Mr. Xiao Chen went to middle school, when he was 11 years old. Due to the relationship between his father's work transfer, Chen Shengsheng came to Tianjin Rotary Middle School, where the principal attaches great importance to mathematics education, and personally teaches geometry, and the teaching style is quite severe, the young Mr. Chen under the guidance of this teacher, mathematical ability has been fully exerted, of course, other subjects have not fallen behind. So the teenager Mr. Chen jumped 2nd grade in middle school, and in 1926, he was admitted to the Department of Mathematics and Physics of Nankai University.
Nankai University
The environment of Nankai University at that time was that the first and second years of freshman and sophomore year laid the foundation, and did not distinguish between specific majors, which was equivalent to the current preparatory department. Mr. Chen did not go to college immediately to study mathematics, he also hesitated, according to Chen Lao's memories in his later years, the reason why he chose mathematics as his research direction was that he was clumsy and could not do experiments well.
Chen Province
Once in a chemistry experiment class, to do an experiment to blow out the glass tube, probably to heat the glass sheet to shape. However, Mr. Chen had a hard time heating the glass tube to a shapeable state, and as a result, the temperature was getting higher and higher, he directly used cold water to cool down, and as a result, the glass tube that had just been formed directly burst open. In fact, now that I think about it, this matter should be a good thing, it makes our Mr. Chen make up his mind from now on, only to learn mathematics, giving up chemistry, physics and other subjects that need to do experiments.
At Nankai University, Mr. Chen met a very strong mathematical supervisor, Jiang Lifu, the father of modern Chinese geometry and the second Chinese to obtain a doctorate in mathematics from Harvard University in the United States. Since then, Chen Shengsheng's mathematical vision has suddenly opened up, and the original field of mathematics is so brilliant and dazzling. Here Chen Met Wu Daren, a classmate in Tsinghua and Germany, and Wu Daren later became a famous mathematics educator in China.
Jiang Lifu
In the past few years of undergraduate students, Chen Shengshen has almost become a teaching assistant of Teacher Jiang, and began to help teachers revise the examination papers, at first only revising the lower grades, and then later, the senior students were also handed over to Chen Shengshen. Even Chen Shengsheng earned a salary of 10 yuan here with Teacher Jiang, and 10 yuan could probably buy 300 kilograms of rice in that era. Later, Elder Chen has always felt very proud of the remuneration of 10 yuan, if it is me, I am also very proud, after all, this is the first money earned through academic methods.
In 1930, Chen graduated from Nankai and studied as a graduate student at Tsinghua University, where the number of graduate students was extremely scarce.
Difficult differential geometry
Chen Shengshen also became China's first master's degree in mathematics, under the tutelage of Professor Sun Guangyuan, one of the founders of modern Chinese mathematics. That is, during the four years of Tsinghua, Chen Shengshen chose the emerging field of differential geometry as his research direction. At that time, the Russian madman Perelmann also chose differential geometry during his university, which was followed by a very short and terrifying introduction, differential geometry, one of the most difficult sub-disciplines of mathematics.
The most important master of geometry of the 20th century, Cardamm
At that time, there was no atmosphere for the study of differential geometry in China, only abroad, so Chen Shengsheng resolutely made up his mind to go abroad and went to Hamburg, Germany. In 1934, Chen Shengshen left for Hamburg, Germany, where Chen Shengsheng became a student of Germany's most famous geometer Blaschke, Who admired this student from the great eastern country and carefully guided him, and in 1935, "On the Calculation of the Net" and "The Invariant Theory of n-dimensional Manifold Triple Meshes in 2n-dimensional Space" were published, and Chen Shengshen received his doctorate in less than a year and a half.
University of Hamburg
During his two years in Hamburg, Chen had learned about the work of another French geometry master, Cardon, and with his own unique perspective, he found that Cardon's work should guide the greater development of differential geometry. So after finishing his studies in Hamburg, Chen rushed to France and followed Cardang. Jiadang was amazed by this young genius and decided to meet with Chen Shengsheng alone every two weeks during his very tense spare time to tutor Chen Shengsheng. Although it was only 10 months, Jiadang's influence on Chen Shengsheng was lifelong, and it was even more determined that he would make an earth-shattering event in the field of differential geometry.
In 1937, Chen returned to China to join Tsinghua University and became a professor in the Department of Mathematics, only 26 years old. Later, when the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, the University Alliance moved to the southwest and established the famous Southwest United University, a simple temporary university that brought together the greatest masters of China's various fields in the 20th century. In the past few years of Southwest United University, Chen Shengshen has not only taught and educated people, but also spread peach and plum, and has made great achievements in academic research.
National SouthwestErn Union University
In 1943, Chen Shengshen was invited to the United States by the Princeton Institute of Mathematics, and it was here that Chen Shengshen made the most important masterpiece of his life, proving the most important proposition in the field of differential geometry - The Gaussborne formula. In several papers on differential geometry published successively, Chen Combined Differential Geometry with the emerging topology of the 20th century, and the study of differential geometry has since entered a new world. In subsequent research, Chen shengshen invented some effective tools, these new tools can not only be used in the field of large-scale differential geometry, but also become an inseparable part of modern mathematics.
In 1945, Chen returned to China and began to establish China's first institute of mathematics. Here Mr. Chen is eager to select a few geometry specialists for China, hoping to train them to become the mainstay of Chinese mathematics, and the first natural science lecturer, Academician Wu Wenjun, is Mr. Chen Shengshen. In 1948, Chen was elected as an academician of the Academia Sinica, and the youngest academician, but in October of the same year, wars broke out frequently, and the people's lives were miserable. Even if Mr. Chen has achieved fame, he can not give his family a stable living environment, this year, Chen Province and his family went to the United States.
Princeton University
It was the arrival of Chen Shengshen that brought the development of differential geometry in the United States into a new stage, and from 1949 to 1980, Chen was a professor of mathematics at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1981, he established the National Institute of Mathematics (MSRI) at the University of California, Berkeley, where pure mathematics was the main field of study, and served as its first director until 1984. However, Chen Lao has been adrift overseas for more than 40 years and has always been concerned about the development of mathematics in the motherland. In 1984, the Ministry of Education hired Chen Sheng as the director of the Nankai Institute of Mathematics, and then Chen Lao gladly returned to China, using all his influence, with the support of the mathematical community, the Nankai Institute of Mathematics Research has cultivated a large number of outstanding mathematical talents.
During his tenure as director of the Nankai Institute of Mathematics, Elder Chen was still in charge of teaching, which was undoubtedly a considerable challenge for an old man who had entered an ancient age. Elder Chen is such a person, not only in the pursuit of mathematics academics to the extreme, but also in the road of teaching and educating people farther and farther, step by step peach and plum all over the world, in China to do differential geometry, almost all are Chen Lao's students. People like Wang Hao, Wu Wenjun, who specializes in mechanical proof, and the first Fields Medal winner, Yau Chengtong, are chen's best students, and their research results are also world-class. But anyone who encounters the classroom where Elder Chen personally teaches will definitely be surrounded, and people who do not know it still think that a big star has come, but the students who have the privilege of experiencing Elder Chen's teaching are all impressed by Elder Chen in their hearts, and Elder Chen is the biggest star in the mathematical world!
Elder Chen became the biggest star
To this day, the strength of the mathematics department of Nankai University is among the best in China.
The 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Beijing
Elder Chen's wish is to let the world know the most about Chinese mathematics, and has been making great efforts for the exchange of mathematics between China and foreign countries. In 2002, the 24th International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Beijing, which was also the first time that the highest level of mathematics was held in China, and Elder Chen was elected as the honorary chairman of this conference. During the conference, Elder Chen gave the children the line "Math Fun". Indeed, these four words are simple, but they are also the fundamental reasons for Chen Lao's tireless efforts in mathematics education, and it is his persistent dedication and strong patriotic feelings that support Chen Lao's silent attention to the movements of the mathematical community.
Chen Province's handwriting mathematical fun
On December 3, 2004, Elder Chen died at the age of 93 in the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University. That night, Nankaiyuan fell into deep mourning in the night. Thousands of Nankai University teachers and students came to the shore of Xinkai Lake on campus and slowly walked with candles to mourn the master.
Mr. Chen Shengshen has been gone for 15 years, but the spirit of the master has always touched everyone in The Chinese academic community. What moves us most about the older generation of scientists may not be the academic achievements that stand in the annals of history, but the determination to always care about the motherland and contribute everything to the prosperity and development of the motherland no matter where they are. It is precisely because of the hard work of these predecessors that we have created a stable living environment today.