Overview

A Fields medalist recounts his lifelong transnational effort to uncover the geometric shape--the Calabi-Yau manifold--that may store the hidden dimensions of our universe. Harvard geometer and Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau has provided a mathematical foundation for string theory, offered new insights into black holes, and mathematically demonstrated the stability of our universe. In this autobiography, Yau 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 Yau built up with his friends and colleagues, has paved the way for solutions to several important and previously intransigent problems. With complicated ideas explained for a broad audience, this book offers listeners not only insights into the life of an eminent mathematician, but also an accessible way to understand advanced and highly abstract concepts in mathematics and theoretical physics.

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9781094029689

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Reviews

"""An unexpectedly intimate look into a highly accomplished man...the development of a new field of geometric analysis, and a glimpse into a truly uncommon mind."" -- ""Boston Globe"" ""Fascinating, and an essential read for anyone interested in the history of modern mathematics."" -- ""Peter Woit, author of Not Even Wrong"" ""Inspires us all with humankind's irrepressible spirit of discovery."" -- ""Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe"" ""Candid, deep, and truly inspiring, The Shape of a Life is studded with unexpected insights into Yau's thinking. An extraordinary story about an extraordinary person."" -- ""Gish Jen, author of The Girl at the Baggage Claim: Explaining the East-West Culture Gap"" ""This book tells a fascinating story of a life lived between multiple cultures--China and the West, and mathematics and physics. Yau's journey from poverty in Hong Kong to the top levels of the mathematics world was not a simple one."" -- ""Edward Witten, Institute for Advanced Study"""

Author Information

"Shing-Tung Yau, the William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, is the winner of the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Science, the Crafoord Prize, the Veblen Prize, the Wolf Prize, and a MacArthur Fellowship. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Yau has received honorary degrees from ten universities. He has helped establish six mathematical institutes in China and Hong Kong, and the Center for Mathematical Sciences and Applications at Harvard. Yau has written and edited more than twenty books and also edits numerous mathematics journals. Steve Nadis, a graduate of Hampshire College, is a contributing editor to Astronomy and Discover. His work has appeared in dozens of newspapers and magazines and in the many books he has written or contributed to. Nadis has served as a staff researcher at the Union of Concerned Scientists, an MIT science journalism fellow, and a consultant to the World Resources Institute, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and WGBH/NOVA. Arthur Morey has won three AudioFile Magazine ""Best Of"" Awards, and his work has garnered numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and placed him as a finalist for two Audie Awards. He has acted in a number of productions, both off Broadway in New York and off Loop in Chicago. He graduated from Harvard and did graduate work at the University of Chicago. He has won awards for his fiction and drama, worked as an editor with several book publishers, and taught literature and writing at Northwestern University. His plays and songs have been produced in New York, Chicago, and Milan, where he has also performed."

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