Tien-Yien Li (李天岩) (June 28, 1945 – June 25, 2020) was a University Distinguished Professor of
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 ...
and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...
. There, he spent 42 years and supervised 26 Ph.D. dissertations.
Early life and education
Li was born on June 28, 1945 in
Sha County, Fujian Province
Shaxian District (), formerly Sha County, is a District of Sanming, Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Shaxian District is the hometown of Shaxian delicacies, which are considered part of the food heritage of China.
Transportation
Shaxi ...
, China. At age three, he was brought to
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
by his parents. He earned his B.S. in Mathematics at the National Tsinghua University in 1968. Li received his doctorate in 1974 from
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...
under the guidance of
James Yorke.
Academic career
Li joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at Michigan State University in 1976 and was promoted to the rank of full professor in 1983. He retired as a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2018 after spending 42 years at the university. Li and his supervisor James Yorke published a paper in 1975 entitled ''
Period three implies chaos
James A. Yorke (born August 3, 1941) is a Distinguished University Research Professor of Mathematics and Physics and former chair of the Mathematics Department at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, United S ...
,'' in which the mathematical term
chaos
Chaos or CHAOS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements
* Chaos (''Kinnikuman'')
* Chaos (''Sailor Moon'')
* Chaos (''Sesame Park'')
* Chaos (''Warhammer'')
* Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy''
* Cha ...
was coined.
He also proved Ulam's conjecture in the field of computation of invariant measures of chaotic dynamical systems. Working with Kellogg and Yorke, Li's ideas and the use of numerical methods in computing
Brouwer's fixed point, part of the field of modern Homotopy Continuation methods.
Awards and honors
*
Guggenheim Fellow
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, 1995
* Distinguished Faculty Award, College of Natural Science, Michigan State University, 1996.
* Distinguished Faculty Award, Michigan State University, 1996.
*
J.S.Frame Teaching Award, 1996.
* University Distinguished Professor, Michigan State University, 1998.
* Distinguished Alumni, College of Sciences, Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, 2002.
* Outstanding Academic Advisor Award, College of Natural Science, Michigan State University, 2006.
* National Tsinghua University's Outstanding Alumni Award, Taiwan, 2012.
References
External links
* T. Y. Li, and J. A. Yorke, ''Period Three Implies Chaos'',
American Mathematical Monthly
''The American Mathematical Monthly'' is a mathematical journal founded by Benjamin Finkel in 1894. It is published ten times each year by Taylor & Francis for the Mathematical Association of America.
The ''American Mathematical Monthly'' is an e ...
82, 985 (1975)
Celebration of Life Dr. Tien-Yien Li (1945-2020)Dr. Tien-Yien Li
{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Tien-Yien
1945 births
2020 deaths
American educators
American people of Chinese descent
20th-century Taiwanese mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians