Shing-Tung  Yau is a Chinese-born American mathematician. He was awarded the Fields Medal in 1982. He was born on April 4, 1949 in Shantou, China. Yau's work is mainly in differential geometry, especially in geometric analysis. His contributions have had an influence on both physics and mathematics and he has been active at the interface between geometry and theoretical physics. Yau studied for his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley under Chern's supervision. He received his Ph.D. in 1971 and, during session 1971-72, Yau was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1997. Since 1987, he has been at Harvard University, where he has had numerous Ph.D. students. He is also involved in the activities of research institutes in Hong Kong and China. He takes an interest in the state of primary and secondary mathematics education in China, and his criticisms of the Chinese education system, corruption in the academic world in China, and the quality of mathematical research and education, have been widely publicized.