Volume 2, Issue 8
Berkeley's Scientific Legacy
Shiing-Shen Chern and the New Geometry
In the esoteric world of pure mathematics, Shiing-Shen Chern was a 20th century champion. The professor emeritus of mathematics died in December at the age of 93, but his achievements as a world-renowned geometer live on through their impact on such high-profile fields as string theory and computer graphics.
Shiing-Shen Chern (China Daily photo)
Chern is known for his innovations in differential geometry, exploring the complexities of geometric figures by mathematically describing their shape. Differential geometry had its first heyday in the 19th century but the field was dormant by the time it caught Chern's eye during the 1930s. Chern's passion and genius reinvigorated the field, transforming it into a dynamic and vibrant area of study.
"By his stubborn trumpeting of the importance of geometry, people in the 1940s and '50s reluctantly acknowledged it — it must be, because Chern said so," Chern's friend and colleague, UC Berkeley mathematics professor Hung-Hsi Wu has said.
Early in his career, Chern devised a mathematical method using algebraic techniques of characterizing various kinds of shapes based on their curvature in more than three dimensions. The results of his work became known as characteristic classes, which everyone in the world (except for Chern) now calls "Chern Classes." Chern is also known for making great advances in algebraic geometry and topology. His advances in both areas have had a massive impact on the foundations of modern mathematics and many areas of theoretical physics.
Born in the Zhejiang Provence just southwest of Shanghai, Chern earned his doctorate from Hamburg University. At the beginning of World War II, Chern fled China, spending several years at the Institute for Advanced Study before moving back to his home country. During the 1940s and '50s, he established the Institute of Mathematics of the Academia Sinica in China as a training ground for a "glorious generation of Chinese mathematicians," Wu said.
IN 1949, Chern again relocated to the United States, eventually joining the UC Berkeley faculty in 1960. In 1979, Chern retired from the University but returned soon after to co-found and direct the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).
MSRI's home on the UC Berkeley campus will be named Chern Hall upon the completion of a new addition in late 2005. An esteemed teacher, Chern was honored by former student Bob Uomini in 1996 when Uomini inaugurated the Shiing-Shen Chern Visiting Professorships with his winnings from the California Lottery.
Chern died December 3 at his home in Tianjin, China, where he has lived since his wife passed away four years ago. He was still doing mathematics as honorary director of the Nankai Institute of Mathematics that he founded in 1984 at Nankai University.
"Anyone who wants to discuss differential geometry in the 20th century will have to mention two or three names, and Chern is one of them," Wu said.