Home | About CIM | In Memory of Chern | Affiliations | Lectures | Conferences | Visitors | Library of Mathematics  | Graduates | International Cooperations | Videos 

 
 
110th Anniv. of Chern
 
Home > 110th Anniv. of Chern > Commemorative Articles > Content
Prof. Katsuei Kenmotsu: Chern and the Mathematical Institute of Tohoku University — In Commemoration of the 110th Anniversary of the Birth of Professor Shiing-Shen Chern
2021-12-30 17:29

Brief Introduction:

Professor Shiing-Shen Chern and the Mathematical Institute of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan are deeply related. Two of Chern's papers were published by the Tohoku Mathematical Journal of Tohoku University and were the first of his articles published in a foreign journal. Professor Shigeo Sasaki, who was the author Katsuei Kenmotsu's Ph.D. advisor, also a mathematician and professor at Tohoku University, was born at almost the same time with Professor Chern, and the books they studied and their thoughts on geometry were also the same. Professor Chern had made three visits to Tohoku University for academic exchanges, including attending colloquium and conference as invited speaker.

To Professor Katsuei Kenmotsu, Professor Chern was a major influence in his pursuit of mathematics. He studied Chern's lecture notes "Differentiable Manifolds" as a fourth year student at Tohoku University. When Chern was invited to give a lecture at the colloquium of the Mathematical Institute of Tohoku University, he attended the colloquium just to see Chern in person. After enrolled in the Graduate School, he happened to have the chance to read the lecture notes "Complex Manifolds" which was given to Professor Shigeo Sasaki by Chern. In Cologne of Germany, he was able to find a new proof for the Delaunay theorem and dedicated his paper to Professor Chern, since he knew the importance of giving another proof of a famous result from reading Chern's papers and lecture notes, and realised that such a proof sometimes changes the mathematical framework and creates a new world in mathematics.


Link to the original English version by Professor Katsuei Kenmotsu:

Chern and the Mathematical Institute of Tohoku University.pdf

Link to the Chinese translation by CIM: 

陈省身与日本东北大学数学研究院.pdf


 Katsuei Kenmotsu, a professor emeritus at Mathematical Institute of Tohoku University, member of The Mathematical Society of Japan. Professor Kenmotsu's  research interests include minimal surface, mean curvature and submanifold. He is also a recipient of the jubilee medal of the Centennial "GAZETA MATEMATICA".


Chern Institute of Mathematics, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071 China
Tel: 86-22-2350-1029, 86-22-2350-8228, Fax: 86-22-2350-8114, Email: cim@nankai.edu.cn
Copyright Chern Institute of Mathematics