Preface

Ta-Tsien Li is since 1980 Professor at the prestigious FudanUniversity in Shanghai, one of the best universities in China. Hebegan his scientific career as a student of the famous mathematician Chao-hao Gu, also at Fudan University. Afterhe finished his in-service graduate study in 1966, he spent thedifficult years of the so-called “Cultural" Revolution in totalisolation. It is only after 1976 that he could begin to resume theusual scientific activities. In this respect, the two years that hespent from 1979-1981 as a Research Fellow at the celebratedCollège de France in Paris were decisive. It is the late ProfessorJacques-Louis Lions, one of the most eminent and influential appliedmathematicicians of the twentieth century, who had invited Ta-TsienLi in Paris, a sure sign that he had an excellent opinion of him!There he became acquainted with the theory of partial differentialequations and control theory, together with some of their manifoldapplications, such as nonlinear elasticity or gas dynamics.

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