A renowned academic leading figure was appointed as a guest professor of Nankai University (NKU). 

As a professor of University of Zurich, he is considered one of the best mathematical analysts in the world; he has received numerous international awards and, at the age of 35, won the Fields Medal, which is the highest honor a mathematician can receive; he has made deep contributions to dynamical systems theory as his work “changed the face of the field”. 

On April 3, mathematician Artur Avila received the letter of appointment from Chen Yulu, president of Nankai University, and delivered a Chern Lecture to NKU’s faculty members and students.

The appointment ceremony was held at Shiing-Shen Building of Nankai University. Attendees included Hou Zixin, former president of Nankai University; Long Yiming, member of Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Chern Institute of Mathematics (CIM);You Jiangong, chair professor of Nankai University and professor of Chern Institute of Mathematics; Raphael Krikorian, professor of Ecole Polytechnique, and over 300 faculty members and students of CIM, School of Mathematical Sciences and School of Statistics and Data Science of Nankai University.

On behalf of Nankai University, Chen extended a warm welcome to Prof. Artur Avila. “The visiting of Prof. Artur Avila to CIM has a significant and positive influence on our cooperation with domestic and overseas mathematics communities. With mathematics being highly-valued by the Chinese nation, Nankai University will give full support to the development of mathematics discipline. We sincerely hope that Prof. Avila and his colleagues will come back to Nankai from time to time to share with us their latest research work, so that we can jointly advance the world’s mathematics.” said Chen.

Vice President of Nankai University Prof. Bai Chengming presided over the ceremony and said that the appointment of Prof. Avila as a guest professor of Nankai University will help further develop NKU’s mathematics discipline as well as its academic atmosphere, promote NKU’s communication and cooperation with overseas leading mathematicians, and foster new advancement in mathematical research of NKU and China.

Prof. Avila said in his speech, “I’m very honored for this Guest Professorship that was offered. It’s my first time to be in China. It’s my first time in Nankai. It’s been a great pleasure to be here for those past days that I interacted with people here, and it’s also significant that I did this at Chern Institute. Though I don’t work in differential geometry, as a student I interacted with a former student of Prof. Chern who was extremely influential at the geometry community in Brazil, so I had the pleasure to interact with someone who was telling us stories about Prof. Chern. So it’s particular significant to be here at this day.”

Amid a great round of applause, Prof. Avila stepped on the stage and delivered a lecture titled “Renormalization, Fractal Geometry and Newhouse Phenomenon”. During preparation, he specially asked to use the blackboard as he truly enjoy the process of writing on it and hope that he can convey his love and respect to mathematics through his own writing.

The lecture hall was quiet as Avila was chalking mathematical derivations from the research on motions of celestial bodies by Poincaré, to the Newhouse phenomenon and the complex fractal geometric constructions resulted from it, and also the renormalization method for researching fractal geometry. Giving interesting examples and metaphors, his words were full of passion. He brought the audience into a magical world of mathematics by making complex concepts easy to understand. 

After the lecture, many of the audience came to Avila to exchange their experience and concerns. Avila answered their questions patiently and discussed with them about the future development of mathematics.

Wang Zhenfu, a doctoral student in pure mathematics from CIM said excitedly, “Prof. Avila showed us the beauty of dynamical systems with lively words and pictures. He helped me gain an insight into this field which stimulates my curiosity about science.”