Ding-Zhu Du (born May 21, 1948) is a Professor in the Department of

Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

The University of Texas at Dallas The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It wa ...

. He has received public recognition when he solved two long-standing open problems on the Euclidean minimum Steiner trees, the proof of Gilbert–Pollack conjecture on the Steiner ratio of the Euclidean plane, and the existence of a polynomial-time heuristic with a performance ratio bigger than the Steiner ratio. The proof of Gilbert-Pollak's conjecture on Steiner ratios was later found to have gaps, thus leaving the problem unsolved.

Education

Ding-Zhu Du received his

M.Sc A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

Operations Research Operations research ( en-GB, operational research) (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a discipline that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve deci ...

from 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 ...

in 1985. He received his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

with research area in

Theoretical Computer Science Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumsc ...

from the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

in 1984.

Career

Early in his career he solved two long-standing open problems on the Euclidean minimum Steiner trees, the proof of Gilbert-Pollak's conjecture on the Steiner ratio, and the existence of a polynomial-time heuristic with a performance ratio bigger than the Steiner ratio. He was Program Director for CISE/CCF,

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, USA, 2002-2005, Professor, Department of Computer Science,

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, 1991-2005. and Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, 1986-1987. He has been active in research on Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithm for 30 years. And over these years he has published 177 Journal articles, 60 conference and workshop papers, 22 editorship, 9 reference works and 11 informal publications.

Books published

* Theory of Computational Complexity. * Problem Solving in

Automata An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More ...

, Languages, and Complexity. * Pooling Designs and Nonadaptive Group Testing. * Mathematical Theory of Optimization. * Combinatorial Group Testing and Its Applications (2nd Edition). * Connected Dominating Set: Theory and Applications. * Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms. * Steiner Tree Problems In Computer Communication Networks.

Awards and honors

* 2007 Received the Best Paper Award from International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems and Applications (WASA'07), Chicago, Illinois, USA * 2009-2014 Honorary Dean of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University * 2003 Received the Best Paper Award from the 22nd

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

International Performance, Computing, and Communication Conference at Phoenix, Arizona, USA, April 9–11. * 1998 Received CSTS Prize from INFORMS (a merge of American Operations Research Society and Institute of Management Science) for research excellence in the interface between Operations Research and Computer Science * 1996 Received the 2nd Class National Natural Science Prize in China. * 1993 Received the 1st Class Natural Science Prize from Chinese Academy of Sciences. * 1992 Received the National Young Scientist Prize from China * 1990-1991 The proof of Gilbert–Pollak conjecture was reported in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. * 1989 Received the 1st Class Young Scientist Prize from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. * 1988 Received the 3rd Class National Natural Science Prize in China.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Du, Ding-Zhu 1948 births Living people University of Texas at Dallas faculty University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese computer scientists American computer scientists