Yuan-Shih Chow

Yuan-Shih Chow (Chinese: 周元燊, Pinyin: Zhōu Yuánshēn) (1924-), also known as Y.S.Chow or Zhou Yuanshen, is a Chinese American probabilist (mathematician). Currently he is a professor emeritus, Columbia University, USA.

He is the former chief director of the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica, and the director of the Center of Applied Statistics, Nankai University (Tianjin). He is an academician of the Academia Sinica.

Life

Chow was born in Zhouwan Village, Zhangnan County, Xiangfan, Hubei Province in Sep 1, 1924. He entered the (National) Hechuan No.2 Meddile School (合川国立二中). But because of the Japanese invasion, he left his hometown and finished his high school education in Chongqing - the capital of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He became a student of the Department of Mathematics, National Chekiang University (Zhejiang University) and he was a student of Su Buqing >. About 1949, he went to Taiwan and taught Mathematics at the National Taiwan University in Taipei. >

Jul, 1954, followed the advice from Chung Tao Yang, Chow went to USA >. He entered the University of Illinois and studied under the guidance from Joseph Leo Doob. 1958, He received his PhD. He became a staff at the IBM Watson Research Laboratory, later at Columbia University till 1962. 1962 - 1968, He served for the Statistics Department, Purdue University. 1968 - 1993, he was the Professor of Mathematical Statistics, Columbia University. He was also a visiting professor at different universities including the University of California at Berkeley, the National Central University in Taiwan, the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Now he is Professor Emeritus, Columbia University. >

Membership

• Fellow, Institute of Mathematical Statistics (1966 election) >
• Member, International Statistical Institute (1980 election) >
• Academician, Academia Sinica (1974 election) >

Books by him

• Probability Theory: Independence, Interchangeability, Martingales, (with Henry Teicher), Springer Verlag, ISBN 9780387406077 >
• The Theory of Optimal Stopping, with Herbert Robbins and David Siegmund, 1971 >

References

• A Conversation with Yuan Shih Chow, abstract, including Chow's brief biography (English)
• pdf version, full biography including photos, by Zhiliang Ying and Cun-Hui Zhang (English)
• A Conversation with Yuan Shih Chow, archive at Harvard University (English)
• Amazon.com: The Theory of Optimal Stopping: Books: Yuan Shih Chow (English)
• 周元燊, Chow's biography from the website of East China Normal University (Chinese)
• 著名数学家——周元燊院士, Chow's short résumé (Chinese)

Category: 1924 births Category: living people Category: American mathematicians Category: Chinese Americans Category: 20th century mathematicians Category: 21st century mathematicians