Zhiwei Yun (; born September 1982) is a Professor of Mathematics at

MIT 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 ...

specializing in

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 integer-valued functions. German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) said, "Math ...

, algebraic geometry and

representation theory Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...

, with a particular focus on the

Langlands program In representation theory and algebraic number theory, the Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and influential conjectures about connections between number theory and geometry. Proposed by , it seeks to relate Galois groups in algebraic n ...

. He was previously a C. L. E. Moore instructor at

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

from 2010 to 2012, assistant professor then associate professor at Stanford University from 2012 to 2016, and professor at Yale University from 2016 to 2017.

Education

Yun was born in Changzhou, China. As a high schooler, he participated in the

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except ...

in 2000; he received a gold medal with a perfect score. Yun received his bachelor's degree from

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

in 2004. In 2009, he received his Ph.D. from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

, under the direction of Robert MacPherson.

Work

His collaborations with Wei Zhang,

Xinyi Yuan Xinyi Yuan (; born 1981) is a Chinese mathematician who is currently a professor of mathematics at Peking University working in number theory, arithmetic geometry, and automorphic forms. In particular, his work focuses on arithmetic intersection ...

and

Xinwen Zhu Xinwen Zhu (; born 1982 in Sichuan) is a Chinese mathematician and professor at Stanford University. His work deals primarily with geometric representation theory and in particular the Langlands program, tying number theory to algebraic geomet ...

have received attention in publications such as

Quanta Magazine ''Quanta Magazine'' is an editorially independent online publication of the Simons Foundation covering developments in physics, mathematics, biology and computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and i ...

and

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...

. In particular, his work with Wei Zhang on the

Taylor expansion In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor se ...

of L-functions is "already being hailed as one of the most exciting breakthroughs in an important area of number theory in the last 30 years." Yun also made substantial contributions towards the global

Gan–Gross–Prasad conjecture In mathematics, the Gan–Gross–Prasad conjecture is a restriction problem in the representation theory of real or p-adic Lie groups posed by Gan Wee Teck, Benedict Gross, and Dipendra Prasad. The problem originated from a conjecture of Gross ...

Awards

Yun was awarded the

SASTRA Ramanujan Prize The SASTRA Ramanujan Prize, founded by Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA) located near Kumbakonam, India, Srinivasa Ramanujan's hometown, is awarded every year to a young mathematician judged to have done outstanding w ...

in 2012 for his "fundamental contributions to several areas that lie at the interface of representation theory, algebraic geometry and number theory." In December 2017, he was awarded 2018 New Horizons In Mathematics Prize together with Wei Zhang,

Aaron Naber According to Abrahamic religions, Aaron ''′aharon'', ar, هارون, Hārūn, Greek (Septuagint): Ἀαρών; often called Aaron the priest ()., group="note" ( or ; ''’Ahărōn'') was a prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of ...

and

Maryna Viazovska Maryna Sergiivna Viazovska ( uk, Марина Сергіївна Вязовська, ; born 2 December 1984) is a Ukrainian mathematician known for her work in sphere packing. She is full professor and Chair of Number Theory at the Institute of M ...

. He was included in the 2019 class of fellows of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings ...

"for contributions to geometry, number theory, and representation theory, including his construction of motives with exceptional Galois groups". In 2019 he received the

Morningside Medal The Morningside Medal of Mathematics () is awarded to exceptional mathematicians of Chinese descent under the age of forty-five for their seminal achievements in mathematics and applied mathematics. The winners of the Morningside Medal of Mathematic ...

jointly with

.Morningside Medal 2019
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Selected publications

* * (with Davesh Maulik) * * (with Roman Bezrukavnikov) * (with

Ngô Bảo Châu Ngô Bảo Châu (, born June 28, 1972) is a Vietnamese-French mathematician at the University of Chicago, best known for proving the fundamental lemma for automorphic forms (proposed by Robert Langlands and Diana Shelstad). He is the first V ...

and Jochen Heinloth) * * * * * (with Alexei Oblomkov) * (with Wei Zhang)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yun, Zhiwei 1982 births Living people Number theorists Recipients of the SASTRA Ramanujan Prize 21st-century Chinese mathematicians Princeton University alumni Scientists from Changzhou International Mathematical Olympiad participants Mathematicians from Jiangsu Peking University alumni Fellows of the American Mathematical Society Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science faculty Chinese science writers Writers from Changzhou Educators from Changzhou