We all know China's outstanding mathematicians Hua Luogeng and Chen Jingrun, but few people may know that there is another mathematician in China, Chen Shengshen. However, in fact, Chen Shengsheng's achievements are much higher than Hua Luogeng and Chen Jingrun. Foreign research institutes ranked the mathematicians of the 20th century according to the analysis of Didonje's complete picture of pure mathematics, the Iwanami Mathematical Encyclopedia, and the Soviet Encyclopedia. Among them, Hua Luogeng ranked 90th, Chen Jingrun ranked 1500th, and Chen Shengshen ranked 31st. It can be seen that the achievements made by Chen Shengshen are indeed very high.
Then, since Chen Shengshen, as a great mathematician, his ranking is much higher than that of Hua Luogeng and Chen Jingrun, why is his fame not as big as That of Hua Luogeng and Chen Jingrun?
In fact, Chen Shengsheng only came back to contact the motherland after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. In 1949, Chen Shengshen, as the acting director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Academia Sinica in Nanjing, moved to Taiwan with the institute. Then, at the invitation of the president of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the family moved to the United States. He then became a professor at the University of Chicago. In 1961, Chen was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and became a U.S. citizen. From 1963 to 1964, Chen served as vice president of the American Mathematical Society.
Although Chen went to the United States in 1949. But his student years, as well as his youth, were spent in China.
According to the memories of teachers and classmates at Chen Shengsheng's alma mater, Chen Shengsheng has been a bully since he was a child. At a very young age, he was able to do very complex mathematical problems.
In fact, Chen Shengsheng not only has a good scientific thinking, but also has a very wide range of interests and a wide range of knowledge. He read many literary works such as "The Evolution of the Fengshen Gods" and "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue", and his literary talent was also very good, and the articles were also written beautifully.
In 1926, Chen was admitted to Nankai University. He was under 15 years old that year. During the first year of college, students encountered various problems in science, and they would ask him, and he could solve them one by one. As we said earlier, Chen Shengsheng's literary talent is also very good. The ability to write articles is also top notch. At that time, the teacher assigned an essay topic, and he was often able to write several in one go. Except for one he left, he gave all the other articles to his classmates. Those classmates were lazy, so they took his articles as if they were written by themselves and turned in their homework. In the end, what embarrassed Chen Wasian was that other students took his articles to submit homework, and their homework scores were often higher than his own homework scores.
Chen Shengsheng's literary talent is very good, in fact, it may be an important reason why he was able to become a great mathematician later. Because in addition to the ability to calculate mathematics, expression is also very important. Some mathematicians are not very expressive, so even if they have ideas, they can't eventually translate them into laws and lose the opportunity to achieve them.
At that time, seeing that the country was broken and the family was in difficulty, many people of insight had the ideal of "saving the country through science." Chen Shengshen and his father both felt that if they wanted to "save the country through science" and achieve greater achievements, it was best to read physics and chemistry. However, Chen Didn't like to do experiments, and preferred to deduce. Therefore, when he was divided into subjects in the first year of college, he transferred to the mathematics department.
At that time, the head of the mathematics department of Nankai University was Jiang Lifu. Because Chen Shengshen showed excellent talent in mathematics, Jiang Lifu decided to teach Chen Shengsheng himself. He opened a small stove for Chen Shengshen and another disciple, Wu Daren. Jiang Lifu set up some very advanced courses for them, such as linear algebra, differential geometry, non-Euclidean geometry and so on. Moreover, Jiang Lifu also asked Chen To be his assistant to help him correct his homework. Even some other math professors asked Chen to help mark assignments. At the same time, they also gave Chen a monthly remuneration of 10 yuan. Chen Shengsheng received this reward and was overjoyed.
In 1930, after graduating from Nankai University, Chen was admitted to the Research Institute of Tsinghua University and became one of the earliest mathematical graduate students in China. Chen took differential geometry as his research object at Tsinghua university and began to publish papers internationally. He had listened to Yang Zhenning's father, Yang Wuzhi, and had also been Yang Zhenning's teacher, when Yang Zhenning was still an undergraduate. In 1934, Chen graduated from the Institute of Tsinghua University, and after obtaining a master's degree, he transferred to Paris to study. In 1937, he left France to study in the United States. He then returned to China and became a professor of mathematics at Tsinghua University. In 1938, Chen Moved to Kunming with the school because of the War of Resistance. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to Shanghai in 1946 and later served as the acting director of the Institute of Mathematics of the Nanjing Academy of Sciences. In 1949, he moved to Taiwan and then to the United States.
Although Chen Shengshen is overseas, he has always paid attention to the construction of new China.
In February 1972, after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United States, Chen Returned to China for a visit in September 1972. He was warmly received, and Guo Moruo, then president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also met with him.
In 1977, after Xiao Ping's comeback, he immediately met with Chen Shengshen. At that time, attaching importance to education, attaching importance to intellectuals, and relying on science and technology to develop China were the problems that Xiaoping had been trying to think about. Therefore, at that time, he held a national scientific conference, which not only required attention to the treatment of scientific and technological talents and the scientific research environment, but also attached great importance to Chinese scientists such as Chen Shengshen. In 1977, as soon as he came back, he received Chen Shengsheng, which was a manifestation of his great emphasis on talent.
Chen Was also very excited, and at that time, he was constantly running between the United States and China, and actively promoted academic exchanges between China and the United States in mathematics.
In 1984, Xiaoping once again hosted a banquet to entertain Chen Shengshen, supporting him as the director of the Institute of Mathematics at Nankai University, and in 1986, Mr. and Mrs. Chen Shengshen received and entertained Xiao Ping.
After this incident, the state introduced a series of measures to attach importance to scientific and technological talents, such as increasing the salaries and treatment of domestic intellectuals and issuing special allowances from the State Council.
Since then, Chen Shengshen has also been received by the central leaders many times.
By 2000, Chen and his wife had returned to their alma mater, Nankai University, to settle down. The wanderer who has been wandering overseas for many years has finally returned to the embrace of the motherland. In 2004, Chen died in Tianjin at the age of 93.
Chen Shengshen was an important mathematician of differential geometry in the 20th century, known as the "father of differential geometry", and made important contributions to the development of human mathematical history. However, in addition to this, Chen Shengsheng has always been concerned about the motherland, as far as possible to create conditions to serve the motherland, and to contribute to the prosperity and strength of the motherland, it can be said that it has also left us with a valuable spiritual wealth.
(Reference: Biography of Chen Province, etc.)