Shiing-shen Chern, 93; Broke New Ground in Differential Geometry

Shiing-shen Chern, 93, a Chinese American mathematician famous for his breakthroughs in differential geometry, died Friday of natural causes in the northeastern Chinese city of Tianjin.

Chern, who taught at UC Berkeley in the 1960s, conducted research that led to the development of what became known as the Chern characteristic classes in fiber spaces. His findings played a major role in the study of mathematics and mathematical physics.

Educated at Beijing’s Qinghua University and the University of Hamburg, Chern taught during World War II both in China and at Princeton University. When the Communists took over China in 1949, he made his home in the United States, becoming a naturalized citizen and teaching at Princeton, the University of Chicago and UC Berkeley.

Chern returned to China after the death of Mao Tse-tung in 1976. In 1985, he established the Institute for Mathematics at Nankai and served as its first director.