Award-winning mathematician Ma Xiaonan leaves Europe for China
The academic will serve as chair professor at Nankai University’s Chern Institute of Mathematics
Award-winning Chinese mathematician Ma Xiaonan has left his decades-long career in Europe to join Nankai University in Tianjin, according to an announcement on the university’s website.
Ma, whose numerous awards include the Sophie Germain Prize from the French Academy of Sciences, said Nankai’s mathematics programme enjoyed a high reputation both at home and overseas.
“The Chern institute’s strong academic foundation and spirit of innovation were key factors that attracted me to Nankai,” Ma said during a meeting with institute director and university vice-president Bai Chengming, according to the website.
“I’m eager to fully commit to teaching and research at Nankai, and help nurture new talent with global perspectives and innovative abilities.”
Ma is a leader in global analysis on manifolds and complex geometry. He mainly studies the properties of complex shapes and spaces, looking for methods to simplify or predict their behaviours.
His work holds applications across fields ranging from theoretical physics to computer graphics, advancing our understanding in areas such as the structure of the universe and quantum mechanics.
