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 when “National Wuchang Higher Normal School” developed up to eight departments. 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 mathematics and computer science 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 permanent position teachers. The school has thus cultivated a large number of mathematicians and professional talents including five 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, Collaborative Innovation Centre of Mathematics, Institute of Mathematics (approved by the Ministry of Education in 1980), and Research Centre for Teaching Common Required Mathematics, etc. 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 Base in 2002. The School’s Mathematics and Applied Mathematics major was acknowledged by Ministry of Education as “Undergraduate Featured Majors of Higher Education” in 2009. In 2010, the School was included under the “National Plan for Cultivating Top-notch Students of Basic Discipline” and 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 so was Statistics PhD in 2011. The School was approved to establish postdoctoral research station in 1987.
The School currently has over 120 teaching faculties including over 40 professors and near 40 PhD supervisors. There are 12 scholars granted by China’s 1000 Talent Plan (8 of them are 1000 Young Talent plan), 3 Distinguished Professors Changjiang Scholarship Program and 3 Chair Professors Changjiang Scholarship Program, 1 Young Scholar of Changjiang Scholarship Program, 4 National Distinguished Young Scholars of the NSFC, 2 receivers of National Oversea Scholars Cooperation Fund of NSFC, 1 receiver of National Ten Thousands Plan for Science and Technology Leading Talents and Young Top Talents, 1 committee member of MOE’S Teaching Instruction Committee for Higher Education of Mathematics, 1 committee member of Mathematics Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, 2 Excellent Young Scholars of NSFC, 1 receiver of the 14th China Young Women Scientists Award, 2 receivers of MOE’s Trans Century Training Program Foundation for Talents and 3 receivers of the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, 3 scholars granted by Hubei Province 100 Distinguished Expert Plan(1 of which is Young Expert Plan), 3 receivers of Hubei Province Chu Tian Young Scholar program, 2 receivers of China Mathematical Society "Zhong Jia Qing mathematics prize", 2 receivers of Baosteel Education Fund Excellent Teachers Award. The School currently has over 800 undergraduates and around 400 graduate students.
Since the establishment of new China, 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 recent two decades, the School teaching faculties have obtained 1 ICTP Atiyah Award, 3 National Natural Science Awards, near 40 Science Awards and Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards at both provincial and ministerial level.
In 2007, school’s second level major ”Pure Mathematics” was acknowledged as National Key Discipline. In 2008, school’s first level major “Mathematics” was acknowledged as Provincial Key Discipline and ”Pure Mathematics” as the State Preponderant Discipline of Hubei Province.
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.