Shing-Tung Yau

Professor, Mathematics department, Harvard University

Director, Yau mathematical sciences center, Tsinghua University

Shing-Tung Yau (/jaʊ/; Chinese: 丘成桐) is a Hong Kong and naturalized American mathematician. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982. He is currently the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard.

Yau's work is mainly in differential geometry, especially in geometric analysis. His contributions have influenced both physics and mathematics, and he has been active at the interface between geometry and theoretical physics. His proof of the positive energy theorem in general relativity demonstrated—sixty years after its discovery—that Einstein's theory is consistent and stable. His proof of the Calabi conjecture allowed physicists to show, using Calabi–Yau compactification, that string theory is a viable candidate for a unified theory of nature. Calabi–Yau manifolds are part of the standard toolkit for string theorists today.

Prizes and awards

1979, California Scientist of the Year.

1981, Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry.

1981, John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science, United States National Academy of Sciences.

1982, Fields Medal, for "his contributions to partial differential equations, to the Calabi conjecture in algebraic geometry, to the positive mass                             conjecture of general relativity theory, and to real and complex Monge–Ampère equations."

1984, Science Digest, America’s 100 Brightest Scientists under 40.

1991, Humboldt Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany.

1994, Crafoord Prize.

1997, United States National Medal of Science.

2003, China International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award, for “his outstanding contribution to PRC in aspects of making progress in                   sciences and technology, training researchers.”

2010, Wolf Prize in Mathematics, for "his work in geometric analysis and mathematical physics"

For more details, please follow the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shing-Tung_Yau