Chinese mathematician Wan Daqing leaves US after 30 years to join Chongqing University

Wan, 62, retired from the University of California, Irvine in July 2025 and began his new role at Chongqing University in December, he recently confirmed to the South China Morning Post.

He won the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM) Medal in 2001 for proving the Dwork conjecture, a major mathematical problem first proposed in 1973 that is important for understanding the behavior of prime numbers.

The ICCM Medal, awarded every three years to mathematicians of Chinese descent under the age of 45, is widely regarded as the equivalent of the Fields Medal, often described as the "Nobel Prize" of mathematics.

Chinese mathematician Wan Daqing during a lecture at Institute For Advanced Study In Mathmatics, ZheJiang University, China in 2023. Photo courtesy of ZheJiang University

Before returning to China, several universities sought to recruit him. A public document from Southeast University in Nanjing showed that the university’s vice-president instructed staff to recruit Wan "at all costs" after he delivered an academic report there in 2023.

The document said hiring him would attract outstanding young scholars and strengthen the university’s international influence in basic mathematics.

Despite these efforts, Wan ultimately chose Chongqing University.

"I decided to join Chongqing University mostly because it is in my hometown and I still have many relatives there," Wan told SCMP. "In addition, I feel I could be more useful in less developed western China, to achieve a more balanced development of my research areas in China."

Wan was born in Bishan district of Chongqing and showed academic talent at an early age. He completed junior secondary school in three and a half years instead of five and finished high school in two years.

At 14, he was admitted to the Chengdu Institute of Geology, now Chengdu University of Technology, to study mathematics. After two years of study, he was admitted to Sichuan University’s graduate mathematics program in 1982 at age 18 and began doctoral studies there ahead of schedule.

Wan later earned his PhD in 1991 from the University of Washington under the supervision of mathematician Neal Koblitz.

In 1998 he proved the Dwork conjecture, named after Princeton University mathematician Bernard Dwork. During his tenure at the University of California, he also resolved several other well-known problems in number theory, including the Katz conjecture and the Gouvea-Mazur conjecture.