介绍一个杰出的华裔数学家——Terence Tao(陶哲轩)
Terence Tao(陶哲轩)，在ICM 2002上做过一小时报告，
2006年Fields Medal的热门人选，2003年的Clay奖得主。
况且是IMO历史上最年轻的金牌选手（1988年，13岁）。
他的中文名字是陶哲轩，虽然他一句中文都不会讲。
下面的短文转自UCLA的主页，见
http://www.ucla.edu/spotlight/archive/html_2000_2001/fac0900_tao.html
我补充一点儿其它的材料：
一是文中提到的他11岁就参加过IMO。其实他连续参加了三届。1986年，在华沙，
11岁的Tao就获得了铜牌；1987年，在哈瓦那，他获得银牌；1988年，堪培拉，他
终获金牌。关于这一点，见
http://www.amt.canberra.edu.au/olympian.html
二是1992年17岁的Tao在Flinders University取得学士学位，并且是First Class
Hons。其后获Fulbright Postgraduate Student Award去Princeton University。
他的导师是Wolf奖获得者E. M. Stein。Stein说过Tao是百年难遇的奇才（在杭州
ICM 2002“调和分析及其应用”卫星会议上听同行们讲的，未经证实）。
BTW: Tao的大师兄Charles Fefferman是更加了不起的人物：20岁在Princeton获
Ph.D., 22岁在University of Chicago成为美国历史上最年轻的Full Professor，
29岁获Fields Medal。
学调和分析和PDE的可以到Tao的Home Page（http://www.math.ucla.edu/~tao/）
上去看看他的List of Publications——真是惊人的多产。
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介绍一个杰出的华裔数学家——Terence Tao
At age 24, UCLA mathematician Terence Tao is young enough to be a
graduate student. Yet not only is he on the faculty—he's a full
professor.
Tao has been years ahead of everyone else his entire life. He started
taking high school classes at age 8, and by 11, he was learning
calculus and entering international mathematics competitions—and
performing well in them. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University
at 21 and joined the faculty of UCLA's mathematics department
the same year, where he was recruited for his exceptional technical
power and versatility.
Math has been Tao's passion for as far back as he can remember.
"I always did like numbers," he says. "My parents told me that when
I was 2 or 3, I taught other kids how to count with blocks. When I
was 5, I remember that I loved playing games with numbers. Of course,
there's more to math than manipulating numbers."
Tao's primary branch of mathematics is a theoretical field called
harmonic analysis, an advanced form of calculus that uses equations
from physics. He also does work in a related field, nonlinear partial
differential equations, and in an entirely distinct field, algebraic
geometry.
One of Tao's proofs of a perplexing problem in harmonic analysis
extends more than 50 pages, in which he and two colleagues obtained the
most precise known estimate of the size of a particular geometric
dimension in Euclidean space. The issue involved the most space-efficient
way to rotate a needle in three dimensions, a question of interest to
theoretical mathematicians; Tao and his colleagues provided the best
lower limit of any mathematician's.
Raised in Australia, the soft-spoken Tao teaches freshman calculus and
graduate courses and has been awarded two national fellowships this year,
from the Packard Foundation and the Clay Mathematics Institute. The Clay
Institute selected Tao as one of three Long-Term Prize Fellows, along with
mathematicians from Harvard and Princeton.
"Maybe when I'm in my 60s, I'll look back at what I've done," says Tao,
"but now I would rather work on the problems."
September 2000
— Story by Wendy Soderburg, UCLA Today
— photo by Reed Hutchinson
— graphics by Heidi Chernow.
