Yum-Tong Siu

Yum-Tong Siu (蕭蔭堂; born May 6, 1943 in Guangzhou, China) is the William Elwood Byerly Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University.

Siu is a prominent figure in the mathematics of several complex variables. His research interests involve the intersection of complex variables, differential geometry, and algebraic geometry. He has resolved various conjectures by applying estimates of the complex Neumann problem and the theory of multiplier ideal sheaves to algebraic geometry.

Siu obtained his BA in mathematics from the University of Hong Kong in 1963, his M.A. from the University of Minnesota, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1966. Before joining Harvard, he taught at Purdue University, the University of Notre Dame, Yale, and Stanford. In 1982 he joined Harvard as a Professor, of Mathematics. He previously served as the Chairman of the Harvard Math Department.

In 2006, Siu published a proof of the finite generation of the pluricanonical ring.

In 1993, Siu received the Stefan Bergman Prize of the American Mathematical Society. He has holds honorary doctorates from the University of Hong Kong, University of Bochum, Germany, and University of Macau. He is a Corresponding Member of the Goettingen Academy of Sciences (elected 1993); a Foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (elected 2004); and a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (elected 1998), the National Academy of Sciences (elected 2002), and Academia Sinica, Taiwan (elected 2004). He has been an invited speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki (1978), Warsaw (1983) and Beijing (2002).