SHAPE OF A LIFE

Sub-titled 'One Mathematician's Search for the Universe's Hidden Geometry', Harvard geometer Shing-Tung Yau provides a mathematical foundation for string theory. He offers new insights into black holes and mathematically demonstrates the stability of our universe. In this autobiography he reflects on his improbable journey to becoming one of the world's most distinguished mathematicians. Beginning with an impoverished childhood in China and Hong Kong, Yau takes readers through his doctoral studies at Berkeley during the height of the Vietnam War protests, his Fields Medal-winning proof of the Calabi conjecture, his return to China, and his pioneering work in geometric analysis. This new branch of geometry which he has built up with friends and colleagues has paved the way for solutions to several important and previously intransigent problems. His book provides an accessible way to understand advanced and highly abstract concepts in mathematics and theoretical physics. He escaped from China, led a street gang in Hong Kong, and has gone on to make profound contributions in pure mathematics, general relativity, and string theory, and his story is deep and truly inspiring with his irrepressible spirit of discovery. With elegant and largely jargon-free explanations of mathematics, the book is an unexpectedly intimate look into this highly accomplished man, his colleagues and friends, and a glimpse into a truly uncommon mind. A Yale University Press publication, 293pp.