Cultivate Research Interests,Building an International Mathematics Department
Subject development is the top priority of a university’s development. We have recently conducted a series of exclusive interviews with each new dean and chari for the benefit of the reader. Today’s interviewee is the chair of Department of Mathematics, Professor Xia Zhihong; we will share the innovative and working ideas in respects of construction of mathematics, scientific research and teaching reform, transformation of industry-university-research and others.
[Research report of the American The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 holds an opinion that: mathematics has great impact on a country’s economic competitiveness and national security, and mathematics is of great concern to the realistic benefits of economic society even the national security.
In 2010, Mathematics and Industry research report of European Science Foundation held an opinion that: Today, the challenge of academic circles and industrial circle is so grave that only can be resolved with the help and participation of the mathematical sciences.]
When mentioning mathematics, most people will think about a set of numbers and formulas and it’s too abstract.
However, mathematics has penetrated into all aspects of economic and social development. Mathematical strength always influences the national strength, also affects the competitiveness of a city. Finance, logistics and high-tech industries are the three pillar industries of Shenzhen, such as cloud computing, big data, financial mathematics and so on. As a kind of science and technology innovation resource, how does mathematics, the technology that widely use and empower people, promote the development of industries?
This year, SUSTC set up the Department of Mathematics, which is one of the important measures to improve discipline system. How does the Department of mathematics of SUSTC rank the international first class? What measures do they have to contribute to the development of pillar industry in Shenzhen?
Professor Xia Zhihong, a famous mathematician and astronomer, graduated from the Department of Astronomy of Nanjing University in 1982, and graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Northwestern University (USA) in 1988. At the age of 26, he solved Paul Painleve speculation proposed as early as in 1897 with his PhD thesis. He was the winner of 1993 United States Presidential Award (Young Researcher Award), 1993 Bulamensaier Pure Mathematics Award, 1995 Monroe Martin Prize of applied mathematics of the University of Maryland. He is the tenured professor of Northwestern University.
Let’s quickly understand the Department of Mathematics of SUSTC quickly through the following 7 simple questions.
Q: You gave up secure job to come to SUSTC, why?
A: Why does SUSTC attract me? Because there is no such true international Department of Mathematics in China. At that time, Principal Chen Shiyi invited me to visit SUSTC, and I found that there is no Department of Mathematics. Principal hoped I can help SUSTC. Specifically, I am here to create a department, rather than a business. I want to help SUSTC built an international, investigative and high qualified Department of Mathematics. Date of success, that is, the time when I should seclude.
Q: You mentioned international Department of mathematics, what’s the master plan?
A: My main experience is in the United States. I have taught at the Departments of Mathematics of Georgia Tech University, Northwestern University and Harvard University of the United States. The Departments of Mathematics at those three universities has different styles and research orientations. Georgia Tech University is a public university, its Department of Mathematics is one of the largest departments; the Department of Mathematics of Harvard University is best in the world, but it’s particularly small in scale; the size of Northwestern University’s Department of Mathematics is slightly larger than Harvard Mathematics’. Maybe SUSTC’s Department of Mathematics temporarily cannot reach the level of the Northwestern University’s, but I hope that it can achieve the level of top 100 Universities of the United States in the near future.
Q: For the research orientation, which direction do you want to focus on? Why?
A: In addition to basic education, our department almost covers every direction of research. However, we must have several good teams. So when people talk about SUSTC, they will know our university doing very well in some aspects such as geometry. In brief, that’s the highlights. These highlights specifically are 3-4 research teams ranking in the first in the nation, and their results can be seen by the world at least. Basic math, applied and computational mathematics, probability statistics and financial mathematics are our important developing orientations.
Q: In the professor introduction, what are your plans and measures? Can you introduce some masters for us?
A: We attract good professors and researchers around the world by developing the model of research teams. Core member of the team must have some influences on the world’s mathematics. The age of teams should have a gradient, which can make the old working with the young, and make study without fault.
Currently, we have “masters” in several research directions.
Professor Wang Xuefeng is the tenured professor of Tulane University and the associate editor of Communications on Pure and Applied Analysis. Professor Wang is an internationally leading scholar in the field of partial differential equations. He has published paper at the top levels mathematical journal, and the reference rate is extremely high. After he came to our Department, he will be responsible for the study of partial differential equations and their applications.
Professor Cao Min is the professor of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics of University of Victoria (Canada). His research orientations are empirical likelihood method, robust statistics, biostatistics and statistical applications in the field of climate research. Professor Cao has extensive experience in statistical consulting. As a new department, we have two tenured professors abroad, which is a very good thing.
Financial mathematics is a new cross discipline with fast development, and is one of the very active frontiers at present. We invited Processor Wang Duo, the creator of the first Department of Financial Mathematics – the Department of Financial Mathematics of Beijing University. Professor Wang is the winner of the special allowance of the State Council, and has been the chairman of national financial mathematics construction and seminar for seven years in succession.
Of course, Professor Tang Tao, the vice president of science and research of our university, is also our “master”. He works on the study of Computational and applied mathematics.
Q: In terms of students’ cultivation, what are your plans and measures?
A: We are building a research-oriented university, and our department of mathematics also should be a research-oriented department. In addition to attracting and training the research-based talents, we also are a public university. Therefore, teaching and the service to the community are something we must take time to do.
In the cultivation of undergraduate, we have four orientations: fundamental mathematics, applied and computational mathematics, probability statistics and financial mathematics.
Current professors in the department are completely qualified for teaching in all directions.
But we should emphasize more that undergraduate students should join in the research. In addition to the conventional teaching, we will add the research model, so students from sophomore or junior stage will be involved in the research work of professors’ team of the department. Maybe they just take part in some simple researches, and their researches may not have results, but students with the experience will develop good study habits, and improve the ability of research, which is a success in itself.
If there is no interest, it will have no feeling and no further impetus. Research can’t be done well without interest.
In addition to basic research, we hope to serve society with a group of practical talents with professional level; currently, the hottest talents are in the aspect of big data and financial mathematics.
Q: In interdisciplinary construction, what are the plans of the Department of mathematics?
A: What I just talked about is in fact related to interdisciplinary, such as: big data and financial mathematics. Even if applied mathematics has relative wide range, it also has many crossing aspects. My bachelor degree is majored in Astronomy Department; I am not a math major. I did a lot of research related to aerospace. We strongly encourage interdisciplinary, as many problems in the study of mathematics are provided by other disciplines, so we can go to study.
At present, we still need to wait for enough researchers; in the meanwhile, we actively cooperate with other departments of our university to find more interesting interdisciplinary.
Q: How long do you want to take to achieve these plans? What are the short, medium-term and long-term goals?
A: I hope that our department will become the tenth national mathematics within five years and become the nation’s top five in ten years.
Research report of the American The Mathematical Sciences in 2025 holds an opinion that: mathematics has great impact on a country’s economic competitiveness and national security, and mathematics is of great concern to the realistic benefits of economic society even the national security.
In 2010, Mathematics and Industry research report of European Science Foundation held an opinion that: Today, the challenge of academic circles and industrial circle is so grave that only can be resolved with the help and participation of the mathematical sciences.
Just this past June, the Department of Mathematics of SUSTC held a “Big Data Spark Training with Big Data Research Center of Shenzhen Institute of the Hong Kong Baptist University. The training tutor of the training is the first international scholar concerned about and research big data – Professor Liu Chuanhai. Professor Liu has the experience of working at Bell Laboratories more than 10 years, and has accumulated rich experience in statistical software platform development.
On August 21, 2015, the “Shenzhen Cup” mathematical modeling summer camp was solemnly opened at SUSTC. This summer camp lasted for five days, co-organized by the Organizing Committee of the China Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling, Shenzhen Science and Technology Association (hereinafter ‘SZSTA ‘) and SUSTC. Almost 72 teams about 216 students (undergraduates and graduates) and teachers from Tsinghua University, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University and other prestigious universities have participated in the summer camp.
