(Yicai) Jan. 3 -- Shanghai has launched a new center for mathematics and interdisciplinary research and application, headed by Fields Medal recipient Shing-Tung Yau, with the aim of making it a world-class institution.

The Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Science was opened yesterday by Mayor Gong Zheng and Yau, a renowned Chinese-American mathematician and a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to a press release. 

Supported by Shanghai’s Fudan University and the local government, the institute has formed a high-level team of more than 10 researchers in mathematical physics and geometry, especially in quantum field theory and string theory.

In the future, the center will focus on life sciences, artificial intelligence, Big Data, environmental studies, physics, chemistry, economics, and finance when carrying out basic and applied research. It will introduce and train talent, and engage in international academic exchanges and cooperation.

Yau, the institute’s first chairman, has research interests in differential geometry, general relativity, and string theory. In 1982, he was awarded the Fields Medal, one of the highest honors in mathematics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 and became a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences the following year.

Editor: Emmi Laine