Lam Lay Yong (maiden name Oon Lay Yong, ; born 1936) is a retired Professor of Mathematics.

Academic career

From 1988 to 1996 she was Professor at the Department of Mathematics,

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

(NUS). She graduated from the

University of Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

(later becoming University of Singapore) in 1957 and pursued graduate study in

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, obtaining her Ph.D. degree from University of Singapore in 1966, and becoming a lecturer at the University of Singapore. She was promoted to full professor in 1988, taught in NUS for 35 years, and retired in 1996. From 1974 to 1990, Lam Lay Yong was the associate editor of ''

Historia Mathematica ''Historia Mathematica: International Journal of History of Mathematics'' is an academic journal on the history of mathematics published by Elsevier. It was established by Kenneth O. May in 1971 as the free newsletter ''Notae de Historia Mathemat ...

''. Lam was a member of Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences. In 2001, Lam Lay Yong was awarded the

Kenneth O. May Prize Kenneth O. May Prize and Medal in history of mathematics is an award of the International Commission on the History of Mathematics (ICHM) "for the encouragement and promotion of the history of mathematics internationally". It was established in 19 ...

jointly with

Ubiratan D'Ambrosio Ubiratan D'Ambrosio (December 8, 1932 – May 12, 2021) was a Brazilian mathematics educator and historian of mathematics. Life D'Ambrosio was born in São Paulo, and earned his doctorate from the University of São Paulo in 1963. He retired as ...

. Lam was the first Asian and first woman to receive this award. Her reception speech was ''Ancient Chinese Mathematics and its influence on World Mathematics''. Lam Lay Yong also won the 2005 Outstanding Science Alumni Award from NUS. She is the granddaughter of

Tan Kah Kee Tan Kah Kee (; 21 October 1874 – 12 August 1961) was a Chinese businessman, investor, and philanthropist active in Singapore and the Chinese cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Guangzhou. A prominent figure in the overseas Chinese c ...

and niece of

Lee Kong Chian Lee Kong Chian (; 18 October 1893 – 2 June 1967), also known by his alias Lee Geok Kun (), was a prominent Chinese businessman and philanthropist based in Malaya and Singapore between the 1930s and the 1960s. He was the founder of the Lee ...

Chinese origins of Hindu-Arabic Numerals Hypothesis

Lam Lay Yong has hypothesised that

Hindu–Arabic numeral system The Hindu–Arabic numeral system or Indo-Arabic numeral system Audun HolmeGeometry: Our Cultural Heritage 2000 (also called the Hindu numeral system or Arabic numeral system) is a positional decimal numeral system, and is the most common syste ...

originated in China based on her comparative studies on Chinese

counting rods Counting rods () are small bars, typically 3–14 cm long, that were used by mathematicians for calculation in ancient East Asia. They are placed either horizontally or vertically to represent any integer or rational number. The written fo ...

system. She states that the rod numerals and the hindu numerals have a few in common, that they're nine signs, concept of zero, a place value system, and decimal base. She claims that, "While no one knows how the Hindu-Arabic system originates in India, on the other hand, there is strong evidence of a transmission of the concept of the rod system to India." She even claims that there is no unquestionable evidence that the system originated in India, and that she claims that there are two factors concerning this. One was from mathematician's mention, for example a critique of

Severus Sebokht Severus Sebokht ( syc, ܣܘܪܘܣ ܣܝܒܘܟܬ), also Seboukt of Nisibis, was a Syrian scholar and bishop who was born in Nisibis, Syria in 575 and died in 667. Although little is known about his early life, he was one of the leading figures in ...

on Indian ingenuity, and

Al-Khwarizmi Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī ( ar, محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي, Muḥammad ibn Musā al-Khwārazmi; ), or al-Khwarizmi, was a Persian polymath from Khwarazm, who produced vastly influential works in mathematics, astronom ...

's book on Hindu Calculation. The other factor is the presence of Brahmi numerals. However

Michel Danino Michel Danino (born 4 June 1956) is a French-born Indian writer. He is a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar and has been a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research. In 2017, Government of India conferred Padma Shri, the fourth-highes ...

criticised this by saying that Lam Lay Yong's evidence for this was not at all evidence-based nor rigorous, and that she is ill-qualified for crosscultural studies. According to Michael Danino Her thesis has not been accepted, thus, the Chinese origin of Hindu-Arabic numerals remains to be hypothetical, and not widely accepted at all. All of this seems to contradict Yong's claims that there is strong evidence of rod numerals in India.

Publication

*Jiu Zhang Suanshu (1994) "(Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art): An Overview,

Archive for History of Exact Sciences ''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal currently published bimonthly by Springer Science+Business Media, covering the history of mathematics and of astronomy observations and techniques, epistemology of scienc ...

, vol. 47: pp. 1–51. * Zhang Qiujian Suanjing (1997) "(The Mathematical Classic of Zhang Qiujian): An Overview", ''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'', vol. 50: pp. 201–240. * Lam Lay Yong, Ang Tian Se (2004) ''Fleeting Footsteps. Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient China'', Revised Edition, World Scientific, Singapore. *Lam Lay Yong (1977) ''A Critical Study of the Yang Hui suan fa'', NUS Press. *Lam Lay Yong, "A Chinese Genesis, Rewriting the history of our numeral system", ''Archive for History of Exact Sciences'' 38: 101–108. *Lam Lay Yong (1966) "On the Chinese Origin of the Galley Method of Arithmetical Division", ''

The British Journal for the History of Science ''The British Journal for the History of Science'' (a.k.a. ''BJHS'') is an international academic journal published quarterly by Cambridge University Press in association with the British Society for the History of Science. It was founded under ...

'' 3: 66–69

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

. *Lam Lay Yong (1996

"The Development of Hindu-Arabic and Traditional Chinese Arithmetic", ''Chinese Science'' 13: 35–54. *Oon Lay Yong (2009) Arithmetic in Ancient China OC
October 2009
*Lam Lay-Yong and Shen Kangshen (沈康身) (1989) "Methods of solving linear equations in traditional China",

, Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 107–122.

References

External links

Faculty of Science, NUS, Lam Lay YongAn Interview with Lam Lay Yong - Singapore Mathematical SocietyViews on Mathematics Education in Singapore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lam, Lay Yong Historians of mathematics Academic staff of the National University of Singapore Living people Singaporean mathematicians Singaporean people of Hokkien descent Singaporean people of Chinese descent 1936 births National University of Singapore alumni