Bulletin No. 1, 2024

World-renowned alumnus Yau Shing-tung launched into his stellar academic career without a graduation certificate from CUHK. He retells this story with gusto. Born in Guangdong province and raised in Hong Kong, the young Yau Shing-tung was admitted to Chung Chi College’s Department of Mathematics in 1966. It wasn’t long before his brilliance caught the eye of others, and he was allowed to skip foundational courses, freeing up time for him to take on more difficult mathematical challenges. During his second year at CUHK, the Department recruited Dr Stephen Salaff from the University of California, Berkeley to lecture on differential equations. Upon seeing the young Yau’s gift for mathematics, Dr Salaff invited him to assist in writing his lectures, and even to take on classes teaching third-year students. Believing that his student had already learnt everything that four years of education at CUHK could offer, the professor suggested that he graduate a year early and proceed at once to further studies in the US. Dr Salaff’s colleagues at Chung Chi’s Department of Mathematics all agreed—but the University’s authorities wanted to test Yau’s abilities independently before making a final decision. “They asked Professor Wong Yung- chow from the University of Hong Kong to try me out, so he summoned me to meet him,” he recalls. “At our meeting, Professor Wong told me about some research he was doing, and said he wanted my advice. At the time, I thought his research wasn’t significant, so although I did give feedback, I didn’t give much. Back came the professor’s report: ‘Yau Shing-tung is no genius.’” At the time, an amused Professor Yau says, he was unaware that his lacklustre response to Professor Wong’s request would come with consequences. But it did: the Professor Yau Shing-tung, Distinguished Professor-at-Large and director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences at CUHK, is one of the world’s most influential contemporary mathematicians. Graduating early from CUHK in 1969 and completing his doctorate after just two years at the University of California, Berkeley, he won the Fields Medal—regarded as the “Nobel Prize in Mathematics”—at the age of 33, and has since received many additional honours. Having taught at Harvard University for 35 years, he moved to Tsinghua University in 2022, where he is director of the Yau Mathematical Sciences Center. P R O F I L E When genius means more than a piece of paper   31