On April 20, Gang Bao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Qiushi Chair Professor at Zhejiang University, was invited to deliver a Chern Lecture titled "New Directions for Solving Inverse Problems" at the Chern Institute of Mathematics (CIM).

Starting from the fundamental concept of inverse problems, Professor Bao took classic models as examples—such as inverse problems for wave equations and the inverse scattering problem for Maxwell's Equations—to illustrate the significance of inverse problems in both the theoretical development and practical applications of mathematics, as well as the challenges in inverse problem research. He presented the classical problem in the field of inverse problems—the Calderon problem, first proposed by the renowned mathematician Calderon, and introduced the remarkable work accomplished together with his collaborators: through rigorous theoretical analysis of inversion of multi-frequency data, they developed an efficient algorithm, and demonstrated the superiority of this method via numerical examples.

At the end of his lecture, Professor Bao briefly introduced two crucial research topics that call for immediate in-depth investigation—deep earth exploration and short-wave positioning, and addressed the challenges faced in current research efforts, as well as the prospective directions for future studies. Then he engaged in a discussion with the audience on topics including the applications of statistical theory in inverse problems and the application scenarios of the optimal transport algorithms. He encouraged young scholars to anchor their research in the country's major demands, integrate theoretical research with practical applications, and explore innovative approaches to the integration of mathematical theories with interdisciplinary disciplines.