Shiing-Shen Chern
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031337
Today is the birthday of mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, who was born in China’s Zhejiang province in 1911. He earned his PhD from the University of Hamburg in Germany in 1936. Chern is known for his work in differential geometry, specifically the relationship between curvature and topology. His Chern classes, as they came to be called, differentiate various types of surfaces in multidimensional spaces. Chern’s ideas are integral to string theory, condensed matter, and quantum physics. He was awarded the National Medal of Science, the Wolf Prize, and the Shaw Prize. Chern mentored dozens of students and helped found mathematical institutes in Berkeley (California), Beijing, and also Tianjin, where he died in 2004. (Photo credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection)
Date in History: 26 October 1911
