Wu Wenjun

Wu Wenjun (; 12 May 1919 – 7 May 2017), also commonly known as Wu Wen-tsün, was a Chinese mathematician, historian, and writer. He was an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), best known for Wu manifold, Wu class, Wu formula, and Wu's method of characteristic set.

Biography Wu's ancestral hometown was Jiashan, Zhejiang. He was born in Shanghai in 1919. He returned to China in 1951. In 1990, he was elected as an academician of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

Along with Yuan Longping, he was awarded the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award by President Jiang Zemin in 2000, when this highest scientific and technological prize in China began to be awarded. He also received the TWAS Prize in 1990 and the Shaw Prize in 2006. He was the President of the Chinese society of mathematics. He died on 7 May 2017, 5 days before his 98th birthday.

Research The research of Wu includes the following fields: algebraic topology, algebraic geometry, game theory, history of mathematics, automated theorem proving. His most important contributions are to algebraic topology. The Wu class and the Wu formula are named after him. In the field of automated theorem proving, he is known for Wu's method. Wu's is generally viewed as a pioneer of early artificial intelligence research. In Wu's view, Chinese mathematics were highly systemized and practical, which contrasted with the logic approach which is at the core of Western geometry. Rather than a focus on theorems, ancient Chinese mathematics emphasized precise and simple problem solving derived from the need to solve practical tasks of administration like dividing fields and calculating food rations.

Wu contended that the binary system attributed to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is an imitation of a systemic understanding of reasoning that Chinese scholars had been working with for centuries previously. Leibniz had corresponded extensively with Chinese missionaries in China.

Publications Wen-Tsun, Wu:Rational Homotopy Type: A Constructive Study Via the Theory of the I*-Measure Wen-tsun, Wu & Min-de, Cheng, CHINESE MATHEMATICS INTO THE 21ST CENTURY Wen-tsun, Wu, A THEORY OF IMBEDDING IMMERSION AND ISOTOPY OF POLYTOPES IN A EUCLIDEAN SPACE Wen-tsun, Wu, Mechanical Theorem Proving in Geometries. Wen-Tsun, Wu; Georges Reeb: Sur Les Espaces Fibrés Et Les Variétés Feuilletées SELECT WORKS OF WEN-TSUN WU Wen-tsun, Wu: Mathematics Mechanization: Mechanical Geometry Theorem-Proving, Mechanical Geometry Problem-Solving and Polynomial Equations-Solving Wen-Tsun, Wu, and Hu Guo-Ding, eds, Computer Mathematics .