Nurturing Future Mathematicians with Professor Sir John Ball
The Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study (HKIAS) at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) is delighted to host our HKIAS Senior Fellow Professor Sir John Ball for an academic exchange in April 2025.
During his visit, Sir John engaged in productive discussions with Professor Anderson Shum, Vice-President (Research), Professor Shuk Han Cheng, Associate Vice-President (Research) and Executive Director of HKIAS, Professor Habib Ammari, a Senior Fellow who was also visiting HKIAS during the same period, along with other esteemed faculty members, including Professor Jean-Michel Morel, Professor Tao Luo, Professor Wei Xiang, Professor Pierre Nolin, and Professor Wei Qian from the Department of Mathematics at CityUHK. These scholarly interactions are expected to foster collaboration and promote further advancements in the field of mathematics.
Sir John also visited Shenzhen during the Easter Holiday break, where he delivered a lecture on The Story of Perelman and the Poincaré Conjecture at the Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE) to an enthusiastic audience of high school students. His lecture described the twists and turns of this remarkable story, and its unprecedented media coverage for mathematics, in which Sir John played an important role as the then President of the International Mathematical Union. Following the lecture, he engaged in a lively question-and-answer session, where students had the opportunity to delve deeper into various mathematical concepts and theories.
Additionally, Sir John participated in a sharing session with eager middle school students at Shenzhen Oasis International School (SOIS). During this session he focused on the fascinating intersections of mathematics with real-world applications, aiming to ignite a passion for the subject among the young attendees. He shared personal anecdotes from his illustrious career and discussed the importance of perseverance and curiosity in the pursuit of mathematical excellence. He also conducted interactive activities with students to make complex mathematical ideas accessible and enjoyable for the young minds.
Sir John’s contact with these schools came about as a result of an invitation from Mr Zhenhua Lin, Head of Student Affairs at SOIS, to write a foreword to his translation into Chinese of Euler’s famous school book Elements of Algebra. His visit was part of a broader mission to inspire and nurture the next generation of mathematicians, encouraging them to explore the limitless possibilities that mathematics offers.
Sir John is a distinguished British mathematician renowned for his contributions to the calculus of variations, nonlinear partial differential equations, and infinite-dimensional dynamical systems. His research interests include nonlinear analysis and its applications to materials science, liquid crystals, and computer vision. He is currently Professor of Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society in the UK and a Foreign Member of the French Academy of Sciences. He has recently completed the presidency of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
