Luen-Fai Tam

Last updated
Luen-Fai Tam
Luen-Fai Tam 2022 CUHK.jpg
Luen-Fai Tam in 2022
Alma mater Stanford University
Scientific career
Fields Differential geometry
General relativity
Complex geometry
Harmonic maps
Institutions Chinese University of Hong Kong
University of California, Irvine
University of Illinois at Chicago
Purdue University
Thesis The Behavior of Capillary Surfaces as Gravity Tends to Zero [1]  (1984)
Doctoral advisor Robert S. Finn
Other academic advisors Peter Li (postdoc mentor)
Doctoral students5

Luen-Fai Tam is a mathematician working in differential geometry, general relativity, and complex geometry. He is a research professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. [2]

Contents

Career

Tam obtained his PhD in 1984 at Stanford University, advised by Robert S. Finn with a thesis on the behavior of capillary surfaces in low gravity. [1] After completing his doctoral studies, Tam was appointed as a research assistant professor at Purdue University from 1984 to 1986, where his research shifted towards geometric aspects of partial differential equations. In 1986, he joined the University of Illinois at Chicago as a tenure-track assistant professor. From 1987 to 1990, he was a lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He then moved to the University of California, Irvine as an associate professor in 1990 and was promoted to a full professor there from 1992 to 1997. Tam returned to CUHK in 1997 as a senior lecturer until his retirement in 2007. Following his retirement, Tam was appointed as a research professor at CUHK and advised five doctoral students. [3]

Tam has published 96 mathematical research articles with over 1,300 citations by 546 mathematicians. His research includes geometric analysis, harmonic functions, harmonic maps on complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds, mathematical relativity, and complex Kähler manifolds. According to MathSciNet, he has collaborated with 29 mathematicians, including Peter Li at UC Irvine (Tam's postdoctoral mentor while at Purdue) and Yuguang Shi at Peking University. [3]

In honor of Tam's birthday and mathematical contributions, a conference on geometric analysis and mathematical relativity was held at Fujian Normal University in December 2018. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 Luen-Fai Tam at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
  2. ↑ "Prof. Luen Fai TAM | CUHK Mathematics". www.math.cuhk.edu.hk. Retrieved Sep 18, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 "Preface" . International Journal of Mathematics . 30 (13): 1902001. 2019. doi:10.1142/S0129167X19020014. ISSN   0129-167X . Retrieved 2025-07-19.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.