Ke Zhao or Chao Ko (, April 12, 1910 – November 8, 2002) was a Chinese

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

born in

Wenling Wenling ( Wenling dialect: Ueng-ling Zy ; ) is a coastal county-level city in the municipal region of Taizhou, in southeastern Zhejiang province, China. It borders Luqiao and Huangyan to the north, Yuhuan to the south, Yueqing to the west, looks ...

Taizhou, Zhejiang Tāizhōu (pronunciation in PRC Standard Mandarin: , Taizhou dialect: Thecieu), alternately known as Taichow, is a city located at the middle of the East China Sea coast of Zhejiang province. It is located south of Shanghai and southeast of Ha ...

Biography

Ke graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

in 1933 and obtained his doctorate from the

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

under

Louis Mordell Louis Joel Mordell (28 January 1888 – 12 March 1972) was an American-born British mathematician, known for pioneering research in number theory. He was born in Philadelphia, United States, in a Jewish family of Lithuanian extraction. Educatio ...

in 1937. His main fields of study were

algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary a ...

number theory Number theory (or arithmetic or higher arithmetic in older usage) is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers and arithmetic function, integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777� ...

and

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

. Some of his major contributions included his work on

quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two ("form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, :4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2 is a quadratic form in the variables and . The coefficients usually belong to a ...

s, the

Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem In mathematics, the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem limits the number of sets in a family of sets for which every two sets have at least one element in common. Paul Erdős, Chao Ko, and Richard Rado proved the theorem in 1938, but did not publish it ...

and his theorem on

Catalan's conjecture Catalan's conjecture (or Mihăilescu's theorem) is a theorem in number theory that was Conjecture, conjectured by the mathematician Eugène Charles Catalan in 1844 and proven in 2002 by Preda Mihăilescu at Paderborn University. The integers 2 ...

. In 1955, he was one of the founding members of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

. He was later a professor at

Sichuan University Sichuan University (SCU) is a National university, national National Key Universities, key public university, public research university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The university is wholly funded by Ministry of Education of the People's Republic ...

About SCU

, retrieved 2015-03-02. and became the president of the university and of the

Chinese Mathematical Society The Chinese Mathematical Society (CMS, ) is an academic organization for Chinese mathematicians, with the official websitwww.cms.org.cn It is a member of China Association of Science and Technology. History The Chinese Mathematical Society (CMS) w ...

.Awardee of Mathematics and Mechanics Prize: Ke Zhao
Holeung Ho Lee Foundation, retrieved 2015-03-02.

References

1910 births 2002 deaths Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester 20th-century Chinese mathematicians Educators from Taizhou, Zhejiang Mathematicians from Zhejiang Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences People of the Republic of China Scientists from Taizhou, Zhejiang Xiamen University alumni Tsinghua University alumni Academic staff of Tsinghua University Presidents of Sichuan University {{Asia-mathematician-stub