School of Mathematics and Statistics is one of the oldest schools in Wuhan University. Its history can be traced back to the “Arithmetic Discipline” of “Ziqiang Institiue” in 1893 when Wuhan University was founded. In the process of development and evolution, when the “Ziqiang Institiue” changed its name to “National Wuchang Higher Normal School”, “Mathematics and Physics Department” was established in 1914 and changed the name to “Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry Department” in 1917 and later to another name called “Mathematics Department” in 1922 which was 6 years before “National Wuchang Higher Normal School” finally was named “Wuhan National University” in 1928. In March of 1998, the “Mathematics Department” upgraded to be the “College of Mathematical Sciences” and then became “College of Mathematics and Computer Science” in April 1999 when the two colleges combined. Finally it was named “School of Mathematics and Statistics” in January of 2001 after the amalgamation of four universities into a newly established university called “Wuhan University”.
More than one century’s history has witnessed the school’s development contributed by prominent mathematicians such as Jiangong Chen, Junxiang Xiao, Zaozhen Tang, Huazong Li, Daren Wu who once worked here and Zhaoan Zeng, Guoping Li, Quanyan Xiong, Yuanda Zhang, Jiarong Yu, Jianke Lu, Minyou Qi, etc. who were long-time teachers. The school has thus cultivated a large number of mathematicians and professional talents including four national academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering: Xiaqi Ding, Zikun Wang, Xiru Chen, Xubang Shen, Minggao Zhang, etc.
The school is currently comprised of Pure Mathematics Department, Applied Mathematics Department, Information and Computational Science Department, Probability and Statistics Department, Computational Science Hubei Key Laboratory, Institute of Mathematics, and Research Centre for Teaching Common Required Mathematics, etc. Besides, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Mathematics was established in 2013. Moreover, the School’s Mathematics Talents Training Base, which was established among the first batch of national basic science talents training bases in 1991, was awarded as the National Outstanding Bases in 2002. The School’s Mathematics and Applied Mathematics major was acknowledged by Ministry of Education as Featured Fund Majors of Higher Education in 2009. In 2010, the School set up “Hongyi Class” (“Hongyi” is from the university motto and means perseverance) for undergraduate students with the approval of Ministry of Education. New undergraduates are recruited to the School’s Mathematics Talents Training Base for one year’s learning and are split into different majors and classes thereafter. The School has started to accept master students from 1978 and PhD students from 1981. Mathematics was acknowledged by MOE as one among the First-level Disciplines Authorized to Grant Doctorate Degree in Mathematics in 1999 and that of Statistics PhD in 2011. The School was approved to establish postdoctoral research station in 1987.
The School currently has over 130 teaching faculties including over 30 professors and near 30 PhD supervisors. Up to now, the School has achieved 4 A class projects and 3 B class projects from the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and 1 National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars. Besides, there are 4 scholars granted from the Recruitment Program of Global Experts: One Thousand Talent Project, 2 Distinguished Visiting Professors and 3 Chair Professors in MOE Changjiang Scholarship Program, 2 receivers of National Oversea Scholars Cooperation Fund of NSFC, 2 receivers of National New Century Talents Projects, 1 receiver of the Foreign Experts Recruitment Program by Chinese Academy of Sciences, 3 fund receivers of China’s Young Talents Plan, 1 receiver of the Hubei Provincial Foreign Experts Recruitment Program, 1 receiver of the Hubei Provincial One Hundred Talent Program award, 5 receivers of MOE’s Cross Century and New Century Excellent Talents Program, 2 receivers of Hubei Provincial Outstanding Scholars Award, 4 receivers of Wuhan University’s Distinguished Professors Award, 1 member of Discipline Appraisal Group of State Council Degree Committee, 1 scholar included in China’s national Cryptology Management Bureau’s Hall of Fame, 2 receivers of Jiaqing Zhong Mathematics Award, 1 receiver of Baosteel Education Foundation Award.
School of Mathematics and Statistics has achieved remarkable performance in function theory, partial differential equations, algebra, probability statistics, computational mathematics, etc. both domestically and globally. A batch of young scholars has devoted numerous noted efforts to fields as PDEs, complex analysis, functional analysis, differential geometry and geometrical analysis, control theory of differential equations, stochastic differential equations, large deviation theory, stochastic process, number theory and security code, dynamical systems, optimization decision theory, wavelet analysis and its application, numerical analysis of PDEs, multiscale modeling and computations, uncertainty theory, financial mathematics, biometrics, computational system biology, etc. in recent years.
In the past two decades, the School teaching faculties have obtained 1 ICTP Atiyah Award, 2 National Natural Science Awards, near 40 provincial and ministerial Science Awards and Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards, 20 national and provincial Excellent Teaching Prizes.
The Pure Mathematics major was acknowledged as State Key Discipline of Hubei Province in 1999, and as National Key Discipline in 2007, as well as the State Preponderant Discipline of Hubei Province in 2008.
To the new opportunities and challenges for the future development, the School of Mathematics and Statistics will be in full wing with goals of top-level disciplines construction and more excellent talents cultivation.