Yitang Zhang
Yitang Zhang | |
|---|---|
Zhang in 2014 | |
| Born | February 5, 1955 Shanghai, China |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Peking University (BS, MA) Purdue University (PhD) |
| Known for | Establishing the existence of an infinitely repeatable prime 2-tuple |
| Awards | Ostrowski Prize (2013) Cole Prize (2014) Rolf Schock Prize (2014) MacArthur Fellowship (2014) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Number theory |
| Institutions | University of New Hampshire University of California, Santa Barbara Sun Yat-sen University |
| Thesis | The Jacobian conjecture and the degree of field extension (1992) |
| Doctoral advisor | Tzuong-Tsieng Moh (莫宗堅) |
Yitang Zhang (Chinese: 张益唐; born February 5, 1955) is a Chinese-American mathematician primarily working on number theory and a professor of mathematics at Sun Yat-sen University.
Previously working at the University of New Hampshire as a lecturer, Zhang submitted a paper to the Annals of Mathematics in 2013 which established the first finite bound on the least gap between consecutive primes that is attained infinitely often. This work led to a 2013 Ostrowski Prize, a 2014 Cole Prize, a 2014 Rolf Schock Prize, and a 2014 MacArthur Fellowship. Zhang became a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Santa Barbara in fall 2015. Zhang left Santa Barbara in summer 2025, became emeritus, and joined Sun Yat-sen University as a professor.