Wu Wenjun, winner of the national honorary title of "People's Scientist"
The picture shows Wu Wenjun reading a book in his office (file photo). Xinhua News Agency
Wu Wenjun is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a famous mathematician, and a member of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He made significant contributions to topology, the core field of mathematics, creating a new field of mathematical mechanization, and had a profound impact on international mathematics and artificial intelligence research. He analyzed ancient Chinese arithmetic from the perspective of algorithms, and at the same time proposed an effective method for automatically proving geometric theorems by computers, which is known internationally as the "Wu method".
Wu Wenjun, male, Han ethnicity, member of the Communist Party of China, born in May 1919, died in May 2017, a native of Shanghai, a researcher at the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was the chairman of the Chinese Mathematical Society and the director of the Department of Mathematics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1956, Wu Wenjun won the first prize of the first National Natural Science Award together with the famous scientists Hua Luogeng and Qian Xuesen for his outstanding achievements in topology; the following year, he was elected as the youngest member (academician) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at that time; in 2001, he stood on the podium of the first national supreme science and technology award with Yuan Longping.
"We have only risen a bit on the shoulders of many teachers, friends and society as a whole. How should we give back to teachers, friends, and society at large? I thought, only for people to step on my shoulders. "Wu Wenjun is diligent and hardworking, optimistic and open-minded, indifferent to fame and fortune. In life, he was simple in food and clothing, old in his residence, never took the initiative to fight for honor, and regarded gains and losses as if they were clouds of smoke; in academic research, he was rigorous and realistic, always enthusiastic, constantly pioneering, and in his year of flowering, he also learned computer language, waited in the computer room every morning, worked for eight or nine hours continuously, and wandered in the "mathematical kingdom" almost forgetting himself. For a long time, Wu Wenjun has stood at the forefront of mathematical science, devoted himself to research, dared to explore, made a series of original achievements, and became one of the mathematicians with international influence in China. On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, the party and the people awarded him the honorary title of "People's Scientist".
Source: Qiushi 2021/06