Chern was born in 28th October 1911 in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. He studied at Nankai University in Tianjin and graduated from Tsinghua University in 1934 with the first ever master degree in mathematics issued in China. With a scholarship he studied in University of Hamburg under Wilhelm Blaschke and obtained his doctoral degree in 1936. He then went to Paris to work on differential geometry with Élie Cartan.

In 1937 Chern left Paris to become professor of mathematics at Tsinghua University. However the second Sino-Japanese war began and the university moved twice to avoid the war. He worked at what was then named Southwest Associated University from 1938 until 1943. In 1943 he accepted the invitation to visit the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In the next two years, Chern completed two of his most important work there, namely the intrinsic proof of the Gauss-Bonnet formula and the discovery of the Chern characteristic classes in fibre spaces, which opened up a new era for global differential geometry.

Chern returned to Shanghai in 1946 after the end of World War II to help found the Institute of Mathematics of the Academia Sinica, but however this time the civil war in China made life difficult and so he went back to Princeton in 1949. In the same year he moved to University of Chicago and stayed there until 1960, and then he moved to University of California at Berkeley and stayed there until his retirement in 1980. In 1981, he founded the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) in Berkeley and served as the founding director until 1984 (MSRI now is one of the largest and most prominent mathematical institutes in the world). Chern also founded the Nankai Institute for Mathematics (NKIM) at Tianjin in 1985 and served as the founding director until 1992. NKIM was renamed the Chern Institute of Mathematics in 2004 in memory of Chern.

Chern received numerous prominent awards in his life, notably the Chauvenet Prize (1970), the National Medal of Science (1975), the Wolf Prize in Mathematics (1983), the Lobachevsky Medal (2002), and the first Shaw Prize in mathematical sciences (2004). And in 2010, a new international award “Chern Medal”, named in honor of Chern, started to be bestowed in the same fashion as the Fields Medal, the Nevanlinna Prize, and the Gauss Prize at the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians, which is held every four years.

Chern also had a deep connection with HKUST in his late years. He agreed HKUST to name the S.S. Chern lecture series in 2002 (initiatives to establish the Institute for Advanced Study at HKUST), and was conferred HKUST’s Doctor of Science honoris causa in 2003. His son-in-law, Paul Ching-wu Chu, was the former president of HKUST (2001-2009); his PhD student, Shiu-yuen Cheng, was the former Dean of Science (2004-2010), and also the former Head of Department of Mathematics (1996-2004) in HKUST.

The following students will be admitted to the S.S. Chern Class if they have successfully declared major in MATH/MAEC/DSCT.

Students participated in recognized mathematics competitions:

1. as a team member in the IMO team of any country/region, or
2. as a medalist or obtained an HM in any APMO competitions, or
3. as a contestant in any CMO (aka Winter Camp) in China, or
4. as a Gold or Silver medalist in any HKIMO preliminary examinations,

1. obtained at least 140 in MATH in China Joint Entrance Examination for Universities, or
2. obtained at least 14 in MATH, and at least 70 in total in Taiwan General Scholastic Ability Test,

Scholarships, stipends, and awards:

1. Chern Class Scholarship on admission [up to HK$10,000]
2. Chern Class Talent Scholarships on satisfactory academic progress [up to HK$2,500 at the end of Year 2/3]
3. Financial support for summer research/exchange opportunity [up to HK$5,000 one-off]*
4. Chern Class Achievement Scholarships at graduation**

1. Strong personalized mentoring
2. Guided undergraduate research opportunity
3. First priority in consideration for summer research/exchange opportunity
4. Opportunity to participate in international projects/research

• Before the trip: Check with us that your trip can be supported. Send us a copy of (i) the itinerary, and (ii) the acceptance letter/email to the program of the oversea institution.
• During the trip: Keep all the boarding passes, and also the original receipts of expenses that you want to claim for.
• After the trip: Submit to us the boarding passes and receipts to claim for reimbursement of your expenses.

1. graduating in IRE program with major in MATH and with CGA at least 2.85, or
2. graduating with MATH/MAEC/DSCT major and with CGA at least 3.3;