He left the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2011 to join Tsinghua University as a full-time professor, which he called "one of the best decisions in my life." After teaching at Tsinghua University for more than ten years, he devoted himself to the front-line work of teaching and research, organized academic discussion classes, and cultivated students' ability of independent thinking. He has presided over more than 10 scientific research projects, made outstanding contributions to singularity theory, complex geometry, and CR geometry, and published more than 400 related papers, and also entered the field of bioinformatics, leading students to explore interdisciplinary fields."Cultivating talents for the country" is his persistence. He is Stephen Shing-Toung Yau, the 2022 winner of "Excellent Teacher of Beijing in China", a professor at the Mathematical Science Department of Tsinghua University.
A recent photo of Professor Shing-Toung Yau
Returning to China to teach is his best decision
Shing-Toung Yau was urged by his father Qiu Zhenying to recite ancient texts. When he was in middle school, he became interested in mathematics and often discussed mathematics with his brother Shing-Tung Yau, who was three years older than him. Since then, the hard-working brothers have embarked on the journey of mathematics and science.
In the United States, the New York State University(Stony Brook Campus), Princeton Institute, Harvard University, University of Illinois, Chicago, study and work, Yau completed the complex geometry Kohn-Rossi conjecture proof, algebraic geometry Mather-Yau theorem proof, cooperation with his brother solved the center of the nonlinear filtering theory and a series of important problems, had a profound impact on modern industry.
During his years in a foreign country, Shing-Toung Yau recited the patriotic poems left by his father, thinking about how he could do something for his country. In 2011, Yau left the University of Illinois at Chicago to join Tsinghua University full-time and returned to teach with his achievements, which he said is "one of the best decisions of his life."
Group photo of teachers and students in the undergraduate graduation group defense site
Over the past ten years since joining Tsinghua University, Yau has devoted himself to teaching and research, teaching courses for undergraduate and graduate students. So far, he has guided more than 60 students.
He has presided over more than 10 scientific research projects, proved the rigidity of CR homomorphism between CR manifolds, proved that the value homomorphism of embedded CR manifolds must be automorphism, gave a discriminative criterion of CR homomorphology; and proved the Halperin conjecture and Wahl conjecture when the degree of the definition equation is large enough; deeply studies the problem of finite-dimensional estimation algebra of non-maximum rank case, and solves the important public problems such as classification of finite-dimensional estimation algebra and construction of new finite-dimensional filter; extended the Yau-Yau algorithm cooperated with his brother to the general time-varying filtering system, and combined with the intrinsic orthogonal decomposition method to realize the real-time solution of the low dimensional nonlinear filtering problem; he improved Kalman linearization technique and obtained a stable and effective suboptimal filtering algorithm; and he designed a high dimensional filtering algorithm based on recurrent neural network to solve the problem of classification prediction and evolutionary analysis of marine microbial genome, etc.
Shing-Toung Yau has carefully cultivated groups of outstanding young students with his rich teaching experience and profound academic attainments. In his opinion, the Department of Mathematics Science of Tsinghua University is changing with each passing day, the center of Mathematics Science has been constantly cultivating and introducing first-class talents, and the international influence of Tsinghua's mathematics discipline has been significantly improved.
There are no academic holidays
"I usually think when I take a plane."Yau treats academia and research as naturally as a daily breath," he said. " There is no vacation in academia.”
In addition to the regular teaching of 64 hours in each academic year, to cultivate students' academic thinking, Shing-Toung Yau led the teachers and students of the research group to hold three fixed academic discussion classes every week: basic mathematics, cybernetics, and nonlinear filtering, and bioinformatics. He believed that academic thinking should be continuously dynamic, so his seminars were uninterrupted. If he is on a business trip to other places, he will also participate online and give comments and suggestions carefully.
Shing-Toung Yau was guiding students' research in an academic discussion class
It is the original intention of Shing-Toung Yau in organizing the discussion class to cultivate students' ability to think independently. He asked each student to find the theories they were interested in for independent thinking and research, and then give guidance to the problems they did not understand. Finally, the students brought the theory derivation to the discussion class. Each discussion class is led by one student. In the process of about an hour, the students must think clearly and speak clearly and then need to face the discussion and evaluation of the teachers and students present.
Learning to express the questions is an important experience that Yau learned when he worked at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. In this way, students' thinking and expression abilities can be rapidly improved, which is the channel for him to train students, and also an important field for teachers and students to grow together and achieve mutual achievements.
Positive interaction is the key to letting students quickly integrate into the research group. Qiu believes that teachers and students should treat each other honestly to promote each other. In the process of educating students, teachers constantly improve themselves, and students also grow up under the guidance of teachers and eventually become excellent talents who can stand up in the new era.
Positive interaction is the key to letting students quickly integrate into the research group. Yau believes that teachers and students should treat each other honestly to promote each other. In the process of educating students, teachers constantly improve themselves, and students also grow up under the guidance of teachers and eventually become excellent talents who can stand up in the new era.
Dare to enter, dare to question
As a well-known mathematician, Yau entered the field of bioinformatics and was first influenced by his wife as a biologist. Watching his wife do biological experiments every day, Yau began to think about what role mathematics can play in biological research and gradually started the study of bioinformatics problems. He believes that once the research problem and direction are selected, there will be few obstacles, and the courage to do it is the most important.
Yau was giving lessons to the students
For just contacting professional learning undergraduates, challenging some professional strong content will be difficult, Yau encourages students to understand various goals and problems, and to listen to a high level of lectures, even if they do not understand. This training will accumulate for a researcher's lifetime academic research effect, know much and know yourself to go. In addition to bioinformatics, Yau's current research direction includes singularity theory and complex geometry, CR geometry, control and nonlinear filtering theory, etc.
With the courage to enter and dare to question, Yau is committed to inspiring and leading students to explore interdisciplinary fields, think about big problems for the country and mankind, and not be afraid of hardships. He also encouraged students to have the courage to challenge authority, to independently infer existing ideas, and to study new and better solutions.
Three inches of chalk, three feet of the platform; a heart, life candle cast the soul of the people. Yau is driven by patriotic feelings and academic love and continues to contribute to national development and major strategic diligence in teaching and research.
Sources | Tsinghua Ying-Xiang
Words | Bianchuyue, Li Ping
Photo Design | Li Na
Information Provided | Teachers Work Department, Department of Mathematics
Organization | Zhou Xiangnan, He Maoteng
Typography | Zeng Jing
Translation | Gao Xudong
