Peng Tsu Ann (born 1936) is a

Singaporean Singaporeans, or the Singaporean people, refers to citizens or people who identify with the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. Singaporeans of Chinese, Malay, India ...

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 ...

, and the first University of Singapore (now the

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 ...

, Abbreviation: NUS) graduate to obtain a PhD in mathematics. Peng was the Head of the Department of Mathematics at NUS from 1982 to 1996 and oversaw its rapid growth during the period. In mathematics, Peng's research interests are in

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

. He was a visiting member at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

(IAS) in the spring of 1989. The Peng Tsu Ann Assistant Professorship at the Department of Mathematics in NUS is named after him.

Biography

Peng obtained his BSc from the University of Singapore in 1962 and PhD from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

in 1965, under the direction of

Karl W. Gruenberg Karl W. Gruenberg (3 June 1928 – 10 October 2007) was a British mathematician who specialised in group theory, in particular with the cohomology theory of groups. Education and career At the age of eleven, Gruenberg was one of the many Jew ...

. He received a British Commonwealth Scholarship in 1962 and a Fellowship in 1972 under the

Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) is an international programme under which Commonwealth governments offer scholarships and fellowships to citizens of other Commonwealth countries. History The plan was originally proposed b ...

. Peng served as president of the

Singapore Mathematical Society Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

from 1980 to 1982, and in 1987. Peng played a major role in organizing the Singapore Group Theory Conference in 1987, where the invited speakers included

Walter Feit Walter Feit (October 26, 1930 – July 29, 2004) was an Austrian-born American mathematician who worked in finite group theory and representation theory. His contributions provided elementary infrastructure used in algebra, geometry, topology, n ...

Graham Higman Graham Higman FRS (19 January 1917 – 8 April 2008) was a prominent English mathematician known for his contributions to group theory. Biography Higman was born in Louth, Lincolnshire, and attended Sutton High School, Plymouth, winning a ...

Jean-Pierre Serre Jean-Pierre Serre (; born 15 September 1926) is a French mathematician who has made contributions to algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, and algebraic number theory. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1954, the Wolf Prize in 2000 and the ina ...

, Michio Suzuki, and

John G. Thompson John Griggs Thompson (born October 13, 1932) is an American mathematician at the University of Florida noted for his work in the field of finite groups. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970, the Wolf Prize in 1992, and the Abel Prize in 2008. ...

. Peng retired from the Department of Mathematics at NUS in 1996.

References

Academic staff of the National University of Singapore Peng Tsu Ann Singaporean people of Chinese descent 1936 births Living people Group theorists Alumni of the University of London {{Singapore-bio-stub