Jiang Boju's Life Experience

1937, born in Tianjin on September 4, Han nationality, ancestral home in Pingyang, Zhejiang (now Cangnan, Zhejiang). Father Jiang Lifu is a famous mathematician in China and one of the most effective pioneers of modern mathematics in China.

Jiang Boju was smart and studious in his early years, and he loved science in his youth.

1953 was admitted to the Department of Mathematical Mechanics in Peking University. During his study, his grades have been among the best, and his mathematics foundation is solid and extensive.

1955- 1956 was twice rated as a top three student in Peking University.

1957 Stay in school to teach after graduation. Since 196 1, he has been the assistant of the famous mathematician Jiang Zehan, teaching the specialized course of topology. 1978 was promoted to associate professor, and 1983 was promoted to professor. He was one of the youngest professors at Peking University at that time. 1979 paid an academic visit to Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies, and 1980- 198 1 was invited to give lectures at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Since then, he has gone abroad to give lectures, cooperate in research and attend meetings many times.

1980 was elected as an academician of China Academy of Sciences.

1985 was elected as an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences, and concurrently served as the deputy director of Nankai Institute of Mathematics in the same year.

1988 won the Chen Shengshen Mathematics Award.

1995- 1998 served as the first dean of Peking University College of Mathematical Sciences.

65438-0995-2000 Director of the Teaching Steering Committee of Mathematics and Mechanics in Science, Ministry of Education.

1983- 1987 once served as director of chinese mathematical society and director of its education work committee.

1989- 1997, President of Beijing Mathematical Society.

1979, 1983 Member of the 5th-6th All-China Youth Federation, 1988 Member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

In 2002, he won the China Mathematics Award.

Mathematical insights Mathematics not only trains mathematicians.

Jiang Boju's achievements in mathematics are influenced by his family. His father, Jiang Lifu, was a seeder in the field of mathematics in China, and he was the oldest among the five academicians of Academia Sinica in the 1920s. The Mathematics Department of Nankai University, which he founded, was one of the few mathematics departments in China universities at that time. And Jiang Boju's talent in the field of mathematics embodies "shine on you is better than blue"!

Jiang Boju's greatest achievement in mathematics is to break through the "fixed point theory", and he created methods called "Jiang Ziqun" and "Jiang Space" in the calculation of Nelson numbers. However, when someone called him "Master", he shook his head and said, "I am not qualified to be a master. I still have a lot to learn from studying, doing things and being a man. " As a mathematical researcher, Jiang Boju emphasized the application of mathematics in other disciplines and technical fields. However, China is seriously out of touch in this respect. On the one hand, the training goal of the department of mathematics is relatively narrow, on the other hand, the scientific and technological community does not know enough about mathematics. During the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Boju went to a factory to teach and help enterprises with some projects. He found that these enterprises have great difficulties in the application of mathematics, and most engineers and technicians don't understand mathematics, so he has to do everything in the mathematical model of engineering problems. In his view, this is the embarrassment of mathematics in China. Mathematics did not enter other disciplines, nor did it help other industries solve practical problems.

In sharp contrast with China, people in engineering and scientific circles abroad know a lot about mathematics. At the same time, people who have received good math training or graduated from the department of mathematics abroad are also willing to change careers and do things outside the field of mathematics, such as weather forecasting and computers. Therefore, in foreign countries, all aspects of science and technology and social life are closely related to mathematics, and mathematics can really help scientific research and technological construction.

Jiang Boju believes that China should change the concept that "mathematics is to train mathematicians and mathematical researchers".

In order to promote the development and application of mathematics, 1995, Jiang Boju led 14 colleges and universities to participate in the project of "2 1 century mathematics teaching content and curriculum system reform" of the former State Education Commission. He personally presided over the teaching reform of Peking University Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and consciously integrated the Department of Mathematics with the Department of Probability and Statistics, the Department of Engineering Computing and the Department of Information Science, and established the Institute of Mathematical Sciences. 1997 On the eve of the Asian financial crisis, he also established the Department of Financial Mathematics, because he saw that the relationship between mathematics and finance was getting closer and closer. These departments as a whole adopt the training concept of one base. In the first year and a half, or the first two years, there was no division. Students from the School of Mathematics all came in to the same class, laid a good foundation, and then began to be diverted in the third and fourth grades.

Jiang Boju hopes that China's mathematics can reach such a state that people in engineering, natural science, physical chemistry, biology and other fields can know more about mathematics. In addition, many people who have received good mathematics training in the department of mathematics can also switch to various fields.

Mathematics cultivates people's basic qualities.

"It takes ten years to plant trees and a hundred years to educate people", and it is impossible to cultivate talents overnight. Now 70-year-old Jiang Boju still sticks to the front line of teaching. He has always stressed that his profession is a "teacher" and educating people is his bounden duty. "I will be a teacher first, and then do some research."

After returning from a visit abroad, Jiang Boju deeply realized that if China wants to catch up with the advanced world level in mathematics, it hopes to be in the next generation. "As a university teacher, cultivating a group of outstanding talents is more valuable than achieving one or two achievements. The most urgent task at present is to make great efforts to train the younger generation. " Based on this idea, for many years, Jiang Boju has insisted on offering courses for undergraduates and postgraduates, and spent a lot of time offering new courses, trying to impart the latest international academic achievements and ideas to students, so that students can catch up with the new level of international mathematics research as soon as possible.

In view of the New Curriculum Standard of nine-year compulsory system formulated in 20001and implemented in 2004, Jiang Boju pointed out that the direction of the reform of the New Curriculum Standard has been greatly deviated, and the curriculum system has completely started from scratch, which has caused confusion in teaching in practice. According to this "new curriculum standard", it is difficult to cultivate students' ability of analyzing problems and logical reasoning, let alone cultivating innovative ability. The effect of education is lagging behind. Ten years later, this generation of grown-up middle school students is not strong in rational thinking ability, and it is too late to regret it.

Jiang Boju pointed out that both the traditional culture of China and the social atmosphere of China value experience over theory. Therefore, middle school mathematics education should also undertake the mission of enlightening rational civilization and scientific spirit. Mathematics can train the intelligence of clear thinking needed by other disciplines. In mathematics, even a child can solve a problem and confidently say, "My answer is correct". This guarantee does not come from the teacher's correctness, but that the child can believe that his inner logic is correct. This is a basic step to cultivate independent thinking, which is actually very important for the healthy growth of teenagers.

Jiang Boju believes that primary and secondary education is more important than university education to some extent. At present, there are nearly 200 million primary and secondary school students in China, and mathematics education in primary and secondary schools is related to the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Mathematics not only cultivates mathematicians, but also cultivates the basic quality of the people.

Although Jiang Boju's views were also sneered at by some people, he still boldly put forward his worries and solutions at the "two sessions" and called for the "new curriculum standards" to be stopped as soon as possible.

In the interview, Jiang Boju answered the above questions: the new curriculum standard completely negates the past teaching system, and each learning period (three years is a learning period) is replaced by four sections: number and algebra, space and graphics, statistics and probability, practice and synthesis, and the teaching of knowledge is chaotic. It underestimates students' understanding, and students ask why they have to wait for the next spiral. The majority of middle school teachers are at a loss after getting the new textbook, so they have to find ways to deal with it: high-level and experienced teachers speak according to their own ideas; Ordinary teachers in key or quasi-key middle schools fill in theorems and definitions with past textbooks; However, more teachers, especially those in remote areas in the west, lack teaching AIDS and multimedia. There are a lot of so-called examples close to life in the teaching materials, which rural children have never heard of and don't know how to teach. Parents find teachers to make up lessons, make up old textbooks and wear new shoes, which greatly increases the burden on students and parents.

Mathematics education has its special position in basic education? "Mathematics is the language of science", which means that mathematical knowledge is the basis of learning other subjects. Mathematics is the gymnastics of thinking, which means training clear thinking intelligence needed by other disciplines. This has a lot to do with the healthy growth of teenagers. Mathematics education in primary and secondary schools shoulders the enlightenment mission of rational civilization and scientific spirit; This mission is particularly important in the strategy of "rejuvenating the country through science and education". The new curriculum standard completely negates the fine tradition of middle school education in China, greatly dilutes the reasoning proof in mathematics, and replaces it with the real life that students are familiar with, so that life and mathematics can be integrated. Even the word plane geometry is gone, only space and graphics can be said; The basic theorem that the sum of the internal angles of a triangle is equal to 180 degrees does not need to be proved. Some textbooks use so-called reasoning instead, so that students can splice the three angles with scissors. Students are discouraged from asking why. Without proof, math class will lose its soul. In fact, many concepts in mathematics are not completely experimental. For example, the sum of the internal angles of a triangle is 180 degrees. If you really measure with a ruler, there may be errors, and you may not get this 180 degree. Now we don't talk about these concepts, just let students know a specific angle. Is this still math?

Many concepts in plane geometry seem simple, but they can't be done without clear explanation. One is to let students know about graphics, and the other is to let students learn how to understand and analyze problems from simple to deep. The simplest things are often the most essential and basic things. Grasping simplicity, establishing a thinking system and reasoning, the results are often amazing. This is a mathematical thinking, a scientific spirit, and an important content that we should focus on. Many people say that plane geometry is an important lesson in life. On this point, the scientific and technological circles have * * * knowledge.

We popularize compulsory education, not for everyone to have a diploma, and we cannot lower the original training standards. Now the third year of high school is all about sea tactics, with too much content or repetition. I've been here once in the third grade now. What students should learn in three years must be learned in two years, and then they have to do a lot of exercises.