Shou-Wu Zhang

Shou-Wu Zhang
Born October 9, 1962 (1962-10-09) (age 49)
Hexian, Anhui
Nationality  US
Fields Mathematics
Institutions Princeton University,
Columbia University
Alma mater Columbia University
Doctoral advisor Lucien Szpiro

Shou-Wu Zhang (Chinese: 张寿武) is a professor of mathematics at Columbia University and Princeton University. He specializes in number theory and arithmetical algebraic geometry.

Shou-Wu Zhang was born in Hexian, Ma'anshan, Anhui, China on October 9, 1962. Zhang was admitted by the Sun Yat-sen University chemistry department in 1980 and later he was transferred to the mathematics department of the same institution. He got his bachelor's degree in 1983 and became a graduate student in the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He finished his master's degree and went to Columbia University in 1986, working with Professor Szpiro and Faltings. He received his PhD in 1991 and then became a member of the Institute for Advanced Study and an assistant professor at Princeton University from 1991 to 1996. Zhang has been tenured at Columbia University since 1996.

Zhang's main contributions to number theory and arithmetical algebraic geometry are his theory of positive line bundles in Arakelov theory which he used to prove (along with E. Ullmo) the Bogomolov conjecture, and also his generalization of the Gross-Zagier theorem from elliptic curves to abelian varieties of GL(2) type over totally real fields. In particular, the latter result led him to a proof of the rank one Birch-Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture for abelian varieties of GL(2) type over totally real fields. He has also developed the theory of algebraic dynamical systems.

The honors that Zhang has received includes Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship (1997), Morningside Gold Medal of Mathematics (1998), Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2009), and Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011).

Zhang is currently serving in the scientific committees of the Fields Institute of Mathematics, and the Center for Advanced Study in Tsinghua University, and the editorial boards of Journal of Algebraic Geometry, Journal of Differential Geometry, and Sciences in China.

External links