Two renowned mathematicians at City University of Hong Kong (CityU) have been elected Fellows of the much-respected American Mathematical Society (AMS). 

They are Professor Raymond Chan Hon-fu, Dean of the College of Science and Chair Professor in the Department of Mathematics (MA), and Professor Yang Tong, also Chair Professor in MA. 

Both scholars expressed their delight at joining the ranks of the leading mathematicians worldwide. 

“I am very happy that my work has been recognised by this highly respected Society,” said Professor Chan.

Professor Yang added: “It is my great honour to receive this prestigious title and to be acknowledged by this major Society for mathematics.”

They both thanked CityU, MA, AMS, as well as their collaborators and friends in the mathematics fields for their support throughout their careers.

Professor Chan was elected to AMS for his contributions to computational mathematics, in particular to numerical linear algebra and applications to imaging sciences. 

“One of my major areas is de-blurring computational images using mathematics,” he said. Currently, he is collaborating with a European team in developing algorithms for the European Southern Observatory which is building the world's largest telescope, the Extremely Large Telescope, in Chile.  

His work can help to produce sharper images of satellites, stars and outer space once the telescope becomes operational in 2025. 

Professor Chan is also Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) in the US. He was the first and only scholar from an Asian university elected to the SIAM Council. He has also won the Leslie Fox Prize for Numerical Analysis; Feng Kang Prize of Scientific Computing; a Morningside Silver Medal by the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM); and a Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (First Prize) from the Ministry of Education in China.

Professor Yang’s election to AMS as Fellow is due to his “contributions to hyperbolic conservation laws and kinetic equations”. 

In addition to serving on the editorial boards of several international journal including Kinetic and Related Models, he was recently named Senior Research Fellow for 2021–2025 by Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council.

During the period of this Fellowship, he plans to develop analytic techniques that can be applied to studies on solution behaviour and fluid dynamic limits of some typical kinetic models.

In addition, Professor Yang is a Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and has received the Ministry of Education Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Award (Science and Technology) of China (first prize); State Natural Science Award (2nd class) of China; a Croucher Senior Research Fellowship; Changjiang Chair Professorship by the Ministry of Education of China in 2005; and National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars; and a Morningside Silver Medal of Mathematics by ICCM.

The achievements of Professor Chan and Professor Yang have significantly boosted MA’s regional and international reputation. CityU now has more AMS and SIAM Fellows than any other maths department in Hong Kong. 

Professor Phillippe G. Ciarlet, University Distinguished Professor at CityU, is also a Fellow of AMS and SIAM.

AMS has been a professional society since 1888. The AMS Fellows programme recognises members for their outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilisation of mathematics.