1. Kai Lai Chung was a Chinese-American mathematician known for his significant contributions to modern probability theory.
17 Facts About Chung Kai-lai
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Chung Kai-lai was a native of Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang Province.
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Chung Kai-lai entered Tsinghua University in 1936, and initially studied physics at its Department of Physics.
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In 1940, Chung Kai-lai graduated from the Department of Mathematics of the National Southwestern Associated University, where he later worked as a teaching assistant.
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In 1944, Chung Kai-lai was chosen to be one of the recipients of the 6th Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program for study in the United States.
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Chung Kai-lai arrived at Princeton University in December 1945 and obtained his PhD in 1947.
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In 1950s, Chung Kai-lai taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia University, UC-Berkeley, Cornell University and Syracuse University.
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Chung Kai-lai then transferred to Stanford University in 1961, where he made fundamental contributions to the study of Brownian motion and laid the framework for the general mathematical theory of Markov chains.
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Chung Kai-lai was later appointed Professor Emeritus of Mathematics of the Department of Mathematics at Stanford.
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Chung Kai-lai was regarded as one of the leading probabilists after World War II.
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Chung Kai-lai was an Invited Speaker at the ICM in 1958 in Edinburgh and in 1970 in Nice.
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Chung Kai-lai served as an external examiner for several universities in the Asian region, including the National University of Singapore.
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In 1981, with Erhan Cinlar and Ronald Getoor, Chung Kai-lai initiated the "Seminars on Stochastic Processes", a popular annual national meeting covering Markov processes, Brownian motion and probability.
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Chung Kai-lai possessed a wide-ranging and intimate knowledge of literature and music, especially opera.
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Chung Kai-lai had an interest in Italian culture and taught himself Italian after he retired.
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Chung Kai-lai spoke several languages and translated a probability book from Russian to English.
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Chung Kai-lai died of natural causes on June 1,2009, at the age of 91.