Sun-Yung Alice Chang facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sun-Yung Alice Chang
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| 張聖容 | |
Sun-Yung Alice Chang, 2007
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| Born | 1948 (age 76–77) Xi'an, China
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | National Taiwan University (BS) University of California, Berkeley (PhD) |
| Spouse(s) | Paul C. Yang |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Institutions | University of California, Los Angeles Princeton University |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald Sarason |
Sun-Yung Alice Chang (Chinese: 張聖容; pinyin: Zhāng Shèngróng; born 1948) is a Taiwanese-American mathematician. She is an expert in different areas of mathematical analysis. This includes topics like harmonic analysis, which studies waves and vibrations, and partial differential equations, which are special math puzzles. She also works on differential geometry, which looks at shapes and spaces using math. Today, she is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University.
Her Early Life and Education
Alice Chang was born in Xian, China, in 1948. She grew up in Taiwan. She earned her first degree, a Bachelor of Science (B.S.), in 1970 from National Taiwan University. Later, she received her Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, her main research was about special math functions called "bounded analytic functions."
Chang became a full professor at the UCLA in 1980. She then moved to Princeton in 1998.
Her Work and Discoveries
Professor Chang's research focuses on solving math problems related to shapes and patterns. She studies types of nonlinear partial differential equations that have a geometric meaning. She also explores problems in "isospectral geometry," which looks at whether different shapes can make the same "sound" mathematically.
Working with her husband, Paul Yang, and other mathematicians, she has made important contributions. Their work connects differential equations with geometry (the study of shapes) and topology (the study of how spaces are connected).
She has been teaching at Princeton University since 1998. Before that, she was a visiting professor at other famous places. These included the University of California-Berkeley and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She also visited the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, in 2015.
In 2004, she shared her thoughts on mathematics in an interview. She said that mathematicians should be allowed to work in their own unique ways. She believes that math research is not just science; it can also be like art. She thinks that both individual work and teamwork are important in math.
In 2017, a documentary film called Girls who fell in love with Math featured her life story.
Awards and Recognition
Alice Chang has received many important awards and honors for her work in mathematics:
- She received a Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship from 1979 to 1981.
- In 1986, she was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Berkeley. This is a big honor for mathematicians.
- She served as Vice President of the American Mathematical Society from 1989 to 1991.
- In 1995, she won the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics from the American Mathematical Society.
- She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1998.
- She was a main speaker (Plenary Speaker) at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing in 2002.
- In 2008, she became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- She received an Honorary Degree from UPMC in 2013.
- She became a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in 2009.
- In 2012, she was made a Fellow of Academia Sinica.
- She became a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2015.
- In 2019, she was named a Fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics.
- She was also a Simons Professor at the MSRI from 2015 to 2016.
See also
In Spanish: Sun-Yung Alice Chang para niños
