Just Curious

Loo Keng Hua

Professor Loo-Keng Hua was one of the leading mathematicians in the world during his lifetime (1910-1985) as well as one of the two greatest Chinese mathematicians of his generation, the other being Professor Shiing-Shen Chern, the great geometer. It would be inconceivable how far Chinese mathematics would have gone had he not returned to China in the early 50s.

Professor Hua's major contributions were in number theory and the theory of functions of several complex variables. He also did important work in numerical analysis, publishing a textbook (Springer-Verlag, 1981) on the application of number theoretical methods on numerical analysis; and in optimization theory. Towards the end of his life, he developed a keen interest in mathematical economics.

The most amazing things about this man was that he had never received any formal education beyond that of junior high. By the time he was elected (in 1936) a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, he did not even possess a high school diploma. Nevertheless, unlike that great yet unfortunately short-lived genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Hua did make the transformation from a self-taught genius to a professional mathematician familiar with concepts in meta-mathematics. One could reasonably attribute this to Hua's longevity.

Here is a detailed obituary of his, written by Professor Heini Halberstam, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne:

www.numbertheory.org/obituaries/AA/hua/

And here is a shorter online bio, also written by Professor Halberstam:

www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hua.html

posted by James Chang @ 8:56 AM