Distinguished YNU graduate urges students to excel

Cheng Bing who is widely seen as an inspirational graduate of Yunnan University (YNU) – located in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province – recently conveyed his best wishes to his old school and urged the students there to redouble their efforts.

Cheng Bing, a distinguished alumnus of YNU, has great hopes for the current generation of students. [Photo/ynu.edu.cn]

Cheng took the National College Entrance Examination in 1978. With a preference for physics, he applied to Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Although his total score exceeded the admission threshold, his physics did not reach the required standard and he failed.

Nonetheless, YNU learned that Cheng was great at math and admitted him to its mathematics department. "YNU chose me," Cheng said.

Teachers at YNU helped Cheng a lot.

YNU's library had the Mathematical Analysis Problem Book by famous Belarusian mathematician Boris Pavlovich Demidovich, with 4,500 questions but no answers. It stimulated Cheng's desire to explore his field.

On the recommendation of a YNU professor, Cheng entered the Institute of Applied Mathematics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences for postgraduate studies.

Subsequently, he studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science – one of the world's leading universities – as a postdoctoral student. He later worked as a lecturer at the University of Kent, a top research university located in the Southeast of England.

Cheng was then selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "Hundred-Talent Program" and returned to China in 2000. He has since been engaged in finance, nonlinear time series analysis and artificial intelligence research for an extended period.