Liu Jun, one of the world’s leading statisticians and a long-time professor at Harvard, has returned to China full-time, accepting a prestigious chair at Tsinghua University last month.
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The move marks the homecoming of an academic whose career has spanned research in data science, biostatistics and artificial intelligence – and whose early life reflected the complex interplay between intellectual pursuit and political engagement.
In 1988, Liu Jun transferred from Rutgers University in New Jersey to the University of Chicago, studying under statistician Wing Hung Wong.
While there, he became deeply interested in human rights issues and spent a considerable amount of time taking part in student protests.
The student movement he supported did not occur in Chicago, but in Beijing.
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In 1989, students held a massive demonstration in Tiananmen Square and overseas student groups have organised events in support of the cause. Liu was so actively involved in student activities in the United States that his mentor asked him if he wanted to be “a politician or a mathematician?”
This question was a turning point for Liu. After careful consideration, he decided to pursue a career in maths.