Croucher mathematician elected European Academy fellow
Professor Yang Tong (Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2011), a mathematician at City University of Hong Kong (CityU), has been elected a fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc).
Yang is known for his work using partial differential equations and kinetic theories in the area of hyperbolic conservation laws. In 1999, Yang together with Professor Liu Taiping, of Stanford University, constructed the “Liu-Yang functional”, which established the theory and stability of hyperbolic conservation laws in one dimension.
EurASc, founded in 2003 and based in Brussels, promotes excellence in science and technology. Currently, the Academy has some 600 members from 45 nations in its nine divisions, including 65 Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners. “I feel privileged to be part of the Academy. It is great recognition for my work,” Yang said.
The CityU mathematician is now working on Prandtl’s boundary layer theory. Developed in 1904 and widely applied in physics and engineering in the field of aerodynamics, this important advance in fluid dynamics still lacks a mathematical proof. Yang’s objective is to supply this proof, and then develop it within a 3D context.
Though mathematics can be expressed in equations and models, initial research for most maths-related topics requires early work to be carried out inside the minds of mathematicians. For this to be successful, Yang said, mathematicians need to be focused, independent, and persistent in their area of special interest.
Professor Tong Yang is Chair Professor of Mathematics at City University of Hong Kong. He received his PhD degree in 1993 from the University of California, Davis. After a one-year post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, he joined City University of Hong Kong in 1994 and was promoted to Chair Professor of Mathematics in 2007. He has also served as a Visiting Chair Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He received a Croucher Senior Research Fellowship in 2011.
To view Professor Yang’s Croucher profile, please click here.