Renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been invited to the Fourth International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians (ICCM), to be held in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, ICCM chairman Yau Shing-Tung confirmed on Friday.

The Chinese-American mathematician said that he had extended the invitation as a friend of Hawking for over 20 years, noting that the government of Hangzhou had also sent Hawking an official invitation.

"Mr Hawking will visit Hangzhou if he is in good shape," said Yau Shing. "If he comes, we will try to give the master an opportunity to get closer to ordinary people."

At Yau's invitation, Hawking visited Hangzhou in 2002 and delivered a speech at Zhejiang University. He was offered the title of "Honorary Citizen of Hangzhou" by the city government last year.

ICCM's fourth congress is slated for December 17 to 23 and is expected to draw some 1,500 participants.

ICCM is a triennial event that brings together Chinese and overseas mathematicians. The three previous conferences were held in Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong in 1998, 2001 and 2004 respectively.
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(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2007)