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)