Horng-Tzer Yau

The native form of this personal name is Yau Horng-Tzer. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Horng-Tzer Yau
姚鴻澤
Yau at Oberwolfach, 2011
Born (1959-06-29) June 29, 1959
Taiwan
Alma materNational Taiwan University (BS)
Princeton University (PhD)
AwardsHenri Poincaré Prize (2000)
MacArthur Fellowship (2000)
Morningside Medal (2001)
Scientific career
FieldsMathematical physics
InstitutionsNew York University
Stanford University
Harvard University
ThesisStability of Coulomb Systems (1987)
Doctoral advisorElliott H. Lieb

Horng-Tzer Yau (Chinese: 姚鴻澤; pinyin: Yáo Hóngzé; born June 29, 1959) is a Taiwanese-American mathematician who is the Merton Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University.

Early life and education

Yau was born in 1959 in Taiwan, where he began studying advanced calculus and college algebra in high school.[1] He graduated from National Taiwan University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in 1981. As an undergraduate, he studied differential geometry, real analysis, and complex analysis.[2] After graduation, he served two years of military service in the Republic of China Armed Forces from 1981 to 1983.[3]

In 1987, Yau earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University. His doctoral dissertation, completed under mathematical physicist Elliott Lieb, was titled, "Stability of Coulomb Systems".[4] After receiving his doctorate, Yao completed postdoctoral research at the Institute for Advanced Study under David Brydges from 1987 to 1988.[2]

Academic career

In 1988, Yau joined the mathematics faculty at New York University. He became a full professor at its Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in 1994. He then moved to Stanford University in 2003, and then to Harvard University in 2005. He was also a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in 2003, and was a distinguished visiting professor there in 2013–14.[5]

According to William C. Kirby, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard, "Professor Yau is a leader in the fields of mathematical physics, ... who has introduced important tools and concepts to study probability, stochastic processes, nonequilibrium statistical physics, and quantum dynamics."[6]

Yau is a 2000 MacArthur Fellow.

Honors


References

  1. ^ Brustman, Bob (March 2, 2006). "Yau travels down the road less taken". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved October 26, 2025.
  2. ^ a b Liu, Tai-ping (August 2001). "An Interview with Professor Yao Hongze" (PDF) (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Academia Sinica. Retrieved February 28, 2026.
  3. ^ "浙江大学数学研究中心". www.cms.zju.edu.cn. Retrieved March 1, 2026.
  4. ^ Horng-Tzer Yau at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  5. ^ "Horng-Tzer Yau". Institute for Advanced Study (ias.edu). December 9, 2019.
  6. ^ Harvard University Gazette April 14, 2005
  7. ^ 2012 Simons Investigators September 2012
  8. ^ Yau, Horng-Tzer (1998). "Scaling limit of particle systems, incompressible Navier-Stokes equation and Boltzmann equations". Doc. Math. (Bielefeld) Extra Vol. ICM Berlin, 1998, vol. III. pp. 193–202.
  9. ^ H.-T. Yau Receives MacArthur Fellowship October 2000
  10. ^ Notices of the AMS May 2002
  11. ^ "Horng-Tzer Yau". Academia Sinica. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  12. ^ News from the National Academy of Sciences Archived April 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine April 2013
  13. ^ List of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society, retrieved September 1, 2013.
  14. ^ Simons Investigators Awardees, The Simons Foundation
  15. ^ "Leonard Eisenbud Prize for Mathematics and Physics".
  16. ^ Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research 2026
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