China’s award-winning mathematician Wan Daqing leaves California for Chongqing

For mathematical genius Wan Daqing, life is no longer a competition between China and the United States. Instead, he has encountered the rivalry of universities from different provinces seeking to appoint him.

Wan, winner of China’s highest mathematics prize, retired from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) in July and returned to China to take up his new role in December, he confirmed in an email to the South China Morning Post.

The International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM) Medal is awarded every three years to individuals of Chinese descent under the age of 45 for outstanding achievements in pure and applied mathematics.

Previously known as the Morningside Medal, it is regarded as the equivalent of the United States’ Fields Medal, which in turn is also called the Nobel Prize for mathematicians.

Wan won international acclaim in 2001 when he received the ICCM Silver Medal for proving the Dwork conjecture, first proposed in 1973, and an important cornerstone for understanding the behaviour of prime numbers.

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Why are more Chinese scientists leaving the US to return to China?

According to a public document from Southeast University in Nanjing, the leadership of its Mathematics Centre was instructed to make every effort to recruit Wan after he gave an academic report there in 2023.

South China Morning Post