View source for Pao Ming Pu

'''Pao Ming Pu''' (the form of his name he used in Western languages, although the [[Wade-Giles]] transliteration would be Pu Baoming; {{zh|c=蒲保明 also named 蒲保民|p=Pú Bǎomíng}}; August 1910 &ndash; February 22, 1988), was a Chinese mathematician born in [[Jintang County]], [[Sichuan]], [[Qing Dynasty|China]].<ref name=swxl>{{Citation | author=Bai Suhua [白苏华] | title=Pu Baoming [蒲保明] | journal=Modern Education News [现代教育报] | language=Chinese | url=http://www.swxl.com.cn/math/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=313 | access-date=2009-01-02 }}.</ref>
He was a student of [[Charles Loewner]] and a pioneer of [[systolic geometry]], having proved what is today called [[Pu's inequality]] for the [[real projective plane]], following Loewner's proof of [[Loewner's torus inequality]]. He later worked in the area of [[fuzzy mathematics]]. He spent much of his career as professor and chairman of the department of mathematics at [[Sichuan University]].<ref name=swxl/>
==Biography==
Pu received his Ph.D. at [[Syracuse University]] in 1950 under the supervision of [[Charles Loewner]], resulting in the publication in 1952 of the seminal paper<ref>
{{Citation | last1=Pu | first1=Pao Ming | title=Some inequalities in certain nonorientable Riemannian manifolds | year=1952 | journal=[[Pacific Journal of Mathematics]] | issn=0030-8730 | volume=2 | pages=55–71 | doi=10.2140/pjm.1952.2.55 | doi-access=free }}.
</ref>
containing both [[Pu's inequality|Pu's inequality for the real projective plane]] and [[Loewner's torus inequality]].<ref name=katz>
{{Citation | last1=Katz | first1=Mikhail G. | title=Systolic geometry and topology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JuY5tsWAHoUC&q=Systolic+geometry+and+topology&pg=PA19|page=19 | publisher=[[American Mathematical Society]] | location=Providence, R.I. | series=Mathematical Surveys and Monographs | isbn=978-0-8218-4177-8 | year=2007 | volume=137}}.99
</ref>
The listing at the [[Mathematics Genealogy Project]] indicates that his first name, according to Syracuse University records, was ''Frank''.<ref>{{MathGenealogy|id=25404}}</ref>
Pu returned to mainland China in February 1951.<ref name=swxl/>  (Katz '07) suggests that Pu may have been forced to return to the mainland by the communist authorities, as there was apparently a wave of recalls of Chinese academics working in the West following [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s ouster from the mainland in 1949.<ref name=katz />
After his return, Pu became a professor at [[Sichuan University]] in 1952. He served as head of the department of mathematics from 1952 to 1984.<ref name=swxl/>  While he was apparently unable to supervise graduate students during most of his scientific career,<ref name=katz /> he became one of the first group of supervisors for graduate students (bóshìshēng dǎoshī, {{lang|zh-Hans|博士生导师}}) at the age of 71, four years after the end of the [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref>
{{Citation | last1=Lu | first1=Wen Duan | last2=Tang | first2=Zhi Yuan | last3=Xiong | first3=Hua Xin | last4=Bai | first4=Su Hua | title=In memory of Bao Ming Pu |mr=1053259 | year=1990 | journal=Shuxue Jinzhan [Advances in Mathematics (China)] | issn=1000-0917 | volume=19 | issue=2 | pages=239–240}}.
</ref>
Most of his later papers concern [[fuzzy mathematics|fuzzy topology]].<ref name=katz />
==Influence==
According to Google Scholar,<ref>
[https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=p.+m.+pu&btnG=Search P. M. Pu] on Google Scholar, accessed 31 dec '08.
</ref>
Pu's seminal article from 1952 is cited by at least 93 mathematical works, a high score by mathematical standards.  His joint work with Liu in fuzzy topology<ref>
{{Citation | last1=Pu | first1=Pao Ming | last2=Liu | first2=Ying Ming | title=Fuzzy topology. I. Neighborhood structure of a fuzzy point and Moore-Smith convergence | year=1980 | journal=Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications | issn=0022-247X | volume=76 | issue=2 | pages=571–599 | doi=10.1016/0022-247X(80)90048-7| doi-access=free }}; <br/>
{{Citation | last1=Pu | first1=Pao Ming | last2=Liu | first2=Ying Ming | title=Fuzzy topology. II. Product and quotient spaces | year=1980 | journal=Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications | issn=0022-247X | volume=77 | issue=1 | pages=20–37 | doi=10.1016/0022-247X(80)90258-9| doi-access=free }}.
</ref>
continues to be cited frequently in current literature in fuzzy mathematics.
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{Citation |author=[[Marcel Berger]] |title=Du côté de chez Pu |year=1972 |pages=1–44 |journal=[[Annales Scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure]] |series=4 |volume=5 |issue=1 |doi = 10.24033/asens.1219|doi-access=free }}
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[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Chinese mathematicians]]
[[Category:20th-century Chinese science writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Chengdu]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Sichuan University]]
[[Category:Mathematicians from Sichuan]]
[[Category:Syracuse University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Jintang County]]
[[Category:Chinese geometers]]