Keynote Speakers
Professor Shing-Tung Yau (丘成桐教授), Fields Medal Recipient, Wolf Prize Recipient, William Casper Graustein Professor of Mathematics, Harvard University
| Professor Shing-Tung Yau was awarded Fields Medal in 1982 for his contributions in the area of geometric partial differential equations, including his solution of the Calabi Conjecture in algebraic geometry, his solution of the Positive Mass Conjecture in general relativity, and his work on real and complex Monge-Ampere equations. Prof. Yau constructed minimal surfaces, studied their stability and how they behave in space-time. Prof. Yau’s work has important implications for the formation of black holes. Prof. Yahu has received numerous awards and recognitions. Prof. Yau was awarded The Oswald Veblen Prize in Geometry in 1981, the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1994, the National Medal of Science in 1997, and the Wolf Prize of Mathematics in 2010. He was elected to National Academy of Sciences in 1993, and became a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2003. |
Professor Robert Desimone, Director, McGovern Institute; The Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| Robert Desimone is Director of the McGovern Institute and The Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience. Prior to joining MIT in 2004, he served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Intramural Research Program, the largest mental health research center in the world. Prof. Desimone received his B.A. from Macalester College and his Ph.D. from Princeton University, after which he established his own lab at the NIMH. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts of Sciences, and a recipient of numerous awards, including the Troland Prize of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Golden Brain Award of the Minerva Foundation. He was named The Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience in 2008. |
Dr. William Overholt, Senior Research Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
| Dr. William Overholt is a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. Dr. Overholt is an important analyst of Asia and conducts research on development and governance issues. As the former director of RAND’s Center for Asia Pacific Policy, Overholt held a distinguished chair at the Center. Dr. Overholt is the author of America and Asia: The Coming Transformation of Asian Geopolitics (2007), as well as The Rise of China (1993), which won the Mainichi News/Asian Affairs Research Center Special Book Prize. He has also written or co-written Political Risk (1982), Strategic Planning and Forecasting, with William Ascher (1983), and Asia’s Nuclear Future(1976). He has also spent 21 years running research teams for investment banks. |