Nankai University officially appointed the internationally renowned mathematician Ma Xiaonan as a Chair Professor on October 28, a day commemorating the 113th anniversary of the birth of Shiing-Shen Chern —one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century, the “Father of Global Differential Geometry”, and founder of the Chern Institute of Mathematics.

Ma Xiaonan specializes in differential geometry, complex geometry, topology, and in particular, global analysis and index theorem on manifolds, the area in which he is regarded as a leading figure among his peers. His prolific academic output includes over 70 research papers and two monographs published in top-tier journals such as Acta Mathematica and Inventiones Mathematicae. He has made significant contributions to eta invariant, Ray-Singer analytic torsion, elliptic genus, Bergman kernel, and geometric quantization, which have earned him wide acclaim and lasting impact. In 2010, he was invited to deliver a 45-minute lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians. His accolades include the 2006 Ferran Sunyer i Balaguer Prize (Spain), the 2017 Le Grand Prix Sophie Germain (French Academy of Sciences), and the 2022 Gay-Lussac-Humboldt Prize (Germany).

Ma Xiaonan has longstanding ties with Nankai University, owing to his previous collaboration with Zhang Weiping, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor at the Chern Institute of Mathematics.

On October 28, Bai Chengming, Vice President of Nankai University met with Ma Xiaonan at the Chern Institute of Mathematics on Balitai Campus.

Bai extended a warm welcome to Ma Xiaonan.

Ma Xiaonan expressed his commitment to contributing wholeheartedly to the university’s teaching and research in mathematics and to advancing Nankai’s mathematical programs.

As a cornerstone of Nankai University’s mathematics discipline, the Chern Institute of Mathematics is committed to nurturing top-tier mathematical students and conducting cutting-edge research. In recent years, the university has prioritized attracting and cultivating mathematical experts and has successfully introduced a number of top scholars at home and abroad through the establishment of Chair Professor and other positions. For example, the university has recently introduced harmonic analysis scholar Guo Shaoming, aged 36, as a Chair Professor in mathematics, which enriched the talents' pool of Nankai mathematics and also invigorated the discipline.

The meeting was attended by Zhang Weiping, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Professor at the Chern Institute of Mathematics, along with several representatives participating in the “Beijing-Tianjin Geometry Workshop” held at the Chern Institute of Mathematics.

（Edited and translated by Nankai News Team.)