15 Facts About Wanxiong Shi

Wanxiong Shi was known for his fundamental work in the theory of Ricci flow.

In 1978, Shi graduated from Quanzhou No 5 Middle School, and entered the University of Science and Technology of China.

Wanxiong Shi earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1982, then he went to the Institute of Mathematics of Chinese Academy of Sciences and obtained his master's degree in mathematics in 1985 under the guidance of Lu Qikeng and Zhong Jiaqing.

In 1987, Wanxiong Shi followed Yau to Harvard University and obtained his Ph.

Since Wanxiong Shi was stronger in geometric analysis than other Chinese students, having an impressive ability to carry out highly technical arguments, he was assigned by Yau to investigate Ricci flow in the challenging case of noncompact manifolds.

Wanxiong Shi made significant breakthroughs and was highly regarded by researchers in the field.

Hung-Hsi Wu from the University of California, Berkeley asked Yau if Wanxiong Shi could come to Berkeley.

Wanxiong Shi published several important papers there, and was awarded three grants from the NSF in 1991,1994 and 1997.

However, Wanxiong Shi did not pass the tenure review in 1997, so he had to leave the university.

Wanxiong Shi then left academia and moved to Washington DC, where he lived a frugal and secluded life in solitude, and had less and less contact with his friends.

Yau and former classmates of Wanxiong Shi tried to persuade Wanxiong Shi and help him return to academia, but he rejected.

Yau felt sorry for Wanxiong Shi's leaving academia, since among the four students of Yau who worked on Ricci flow, Wanxiong Shi had done the best work.

Wanxiong Shi died from a sudden heart attack in the evening of September 30,2021.

Wanxiong Shi initiated the study of Ricci flow theory on noncompact complete manifolds.

Wanxiong Shi proved local derivative estimates for the Ricci flow, which are fundamental to many arguments of the theory, including Perelman's proof of the Poincare conjecture using Ricci flow in 2002.