ICTP Announces New International Mathematics Chair

ICTP has appointed Xiaohua Zhu of Capital Normal University, China, as the first holder of its new international chair in the field of mathematics. The Narasimhan Chair honours the late Mudumbai Seshachalu Narasimhan, an eminent mathematician with a long and distinguished career, including a close association with ICTP.

ICTP honoured both mathematicians at a ceremony that marked the official launch of the Chair, which is partially supported by the Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research, Nanjing University and the University of Science and Technology of China. 

Professor Zhu received his PhD from Hangzhou University (now Zhejiang University ) and worked at Peking University from 1997 to 2026, first as a postdoc, then as a faculty member and, from 2001, as a professor. From 2002 to 2004, he was a researcher at the Mathematical Sciences Institute, Australian National University. His research focuses on differential geometry and geometric analysis, particularly on the Kähler-Ricci flow, the existence of metrics on Fano manifolds, and high-dimensional Ricci solitons. His has been awarded numerous honours, including the Qiu Shi Outstanding Young Scholar Award (2001), the ICTP Prize (2005), the National Natural Science Award (2014), and the Shiing Shen Chern Mathematics Award (2019). 

"Professor Zhu is one of the most outstanding researchers in the field of complex analysis, complex Monge-Ampere equations and other fields," said Claudio Arezzo, head of ICTP's Mathematics section. "Over a period of 30 years, besides collecting various prizes and recognitions all over the world, he has proved some of the most fundamental results in these fields. For that, he was the first mathematician to receive the ICTP Prize, in 2005," he added. 

Honouring the Impact of M.S. Narasimhan

M.S. Narasimhan was the head of ICTP's Mathematics section from 1993 to 1999, mentoring many mathematicians from the developing world. After retiring from ICTP, he continued to be a friend and advisor of ICTP and served as a member of the Scientific Council. His work earned him prestigious awards, including the 1989 Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite awarded by the President of France, the Padma Bhushan Award by the President of India (1990), the C.V. Raman Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress (1994), and the 2006 King Faisal Prize. In 2020, the family of ICTP founder Abdus Salam awarded its Spirit of Abdus Salam Award to Narasimhan in recognition of his extensive work to promote the development of mathematics in disadvantaged parts of the world.  He passed away in 2021.

"Narasimhan has been one of the most influential mathematicians to work at ICTP," said Arezzo, "He spent most of his time building connections and raising most of the great talents from China and other developing countries. A number of his former students and postdocs have returned back to China over the years, where they are now in high-level positions scientifically and academically."

The ceremony included remembrances about Professor Narasimhan from former students and colleagues, complemented by comments from Narasimhan's daughter, Shobhana Narasimhan, a condensed matter theorist at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, who recalled her father's humble childhood in southern India, his profound love of mathematics, and a strong appreciation for fine food, wine and cricket. "He had a sense of fun and adventure, and a deep respect for rationalism and the power of science," she said.

The Narasimhan Chair is the third of ICTP's international chairs honouring notable researchers from the Global South; it joins the Ramanujan International Chair, named in honour of Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, and the Virasoro International Chair that honours Argentinian-Italian physicist Miguel Virasoro, a pioneer of string theory who also made important contributions to mathematical and statistical physics and was the director of ICTP between 1995 and 2002.