S. S. Chern

Shiing-Shen Chern 陳省身
Shiing-Shen Chern, 1976
Born	(1911-10-26)October 26, 1911 Jiaxing, Zhejiang, Qing Empire
Died	December 3, 2004(2004-12-03) (aged 93) Tianjin, People's Republic of China
Citizenship	Republic of China and United States (multiple citizenship)
Nationality	Chinese and American
Fields	Mathematics
Institutions	Tsinghua University Institute for Advanced Study University of Chicago University of California, Berkeley Nankai University Center of Mathematical Sciences, Zhejiang University
Alma mater	Nankai University University of Hamburg
Doctoral advisor	Wilhelm Blaschke
Doctoral students	Louis Auslander Thomas Banchoff Manfredo do Carmo Robert B. Gardner Howard Garland Harold Levine Katsumi Nomizu William F. Pohl Alan Weinstein Shing-Tung Yau
Known for	Chern–Simons theory Chern–Weil theory Chern class
Notable awards	Chauvenet Prize (1970) National Medal of Science (1975) Wolf Prize (1983) Lobachevsky Medal (2002) Shaw Prize (2004) FRS

Shiing-Shen Chern (Chinese: 陳省身; pinyin: Chén Xǐngshēn, Mandarin: [tʂʰən.ɕiŋ.ʂən]; October 26, 1911 – December 3, 2004) was a Chinese-American mathematician. A professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, Shiing-Shen Chern is widely regarded as one of the leaders in differential geometry of the twentieth century and a highly influential mathematician, winning numerous awards and recognition including the Wolf Prize and the Shaw Prize.

Shiing-Shen Chern co-founded the world-renowned Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley in 1982, and was the institute's founding director. In memory of Shiing-Shen Chern, the International Mathematical Union established the Chern Medal in 2010 to recognize "an individual whose accomplishments warrant the highest level of recognition for outstanding achievements in the field of mathematics".

Chern was born in Xiushui County (縣), Jiaxing, in Zhejiang province. The year after his birth, China changed its regime from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China. He graduated from Xiushui Middle School (秀水中學) and subsequently moved to Tianjin in 1922 to accompany his father. In 1926, after spending four years in Tianjin, Chern graduated from Fulun High School ().

At age 15, Chern entered the Faculty of Sciences of the Nankai University in Tianjin, studied mathematics there, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1930. At Nankai, Chern's mentor was Li-Fu Chiang (), a Harvard-trained geometer. Also at Nankai, he was heavily influenced by the physicist Rao Yutai (饶毓泰). Rao is today considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern Chinese informatics.