Award-winning Chinese mathematician Sun Xin returns from US to work at Peking University
- Sun, who specialises in probability theory and mathematical physics, was a joint winner of the prestigious Rollo Davidson Prize this year
- In 2021, at least 1,400 US-based ethnic Chinese scientists reportedly switched their affiliation from American to Chinese institutions
Sun Xin, now an assistant professor in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, will take up a new appointment at the Beijing International Centre for Mathematical Research at his alma mater, Peking University, although the university did not specify Sun’s new role.
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When contacted by the South China Morning Post, Sun said he “would be happy to share thoughts on my new appointment after the position starts in the [autumn]”.
Sun graduated from the school of mathematical sciences at Peking University in 2011 and received his PhD in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017. He specialises in research on probability theory and mathematical physics.
He was awarded the Rollo Davidson Prize this year jointly with Nina Holden, an associate professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University.
The prize, which has been awarded annually to young probabilists worldwide since 1976, recognised the duo for leading work on two models for random surfaces: random planar maps and Liouville quantum gravity.