Louis Nirenberg is one of the greatest analysts of the 20th Century. He was born on February 28th, 1925. From 1949, he has been teaching at the Courant Institute of Math Science, New York University. His doctoral dissertation (finished in 1949, published by CPAM in 1953) solved two long standing problems in differential classical geometry: the Weyl problem and the Minkowski problem. These problems involved Monge-Ampere equations and Nirenberg (and Pogorelov) was one of the mathematicians that could give an important analysis of this fully nonlinear PDE. Later on, his research covered different types of partial differential equations (linear or non-linear), and the issues of partial differential equations applied to geometry and physics such as interior and boundary estimate of elliptic PDEs, BMO, local solvability of hyperelliptic PDE, Cauchy problems for equation, free boundary problems, pseudo-differential operators, Navior-Stokes equation, Monge-Ampere equation (real or complex) , intergrability problem of complex structure as well as the method of moving plane, and so on and so forth. On these issues, he either established a basic theory, or he opened a new domain for research. In essence, his research determined the non-linear partial differential equations in the latter half of the 20th century. Before Shin-Tung Yaw, Nirenberg can be said to be the most important mathematician who applied partial differential equations to classical differential geometry.

Because of his achievements, the American Mathematical Society (AMS) awarded him the Bocher Prize in 1959 and the Steele Prize in 1994 in recognition of his contributions to partial differential equations and other aspects. In 1982, he was the recipient of the first Crafoord Prize, which was established by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1982 for those who did not fit into the Nobel Prize. Nirenberg was the first mathematician to win this prize. Additionally, he was the recipient of America's National Medal of Sciences in 1995.

Nirenberg received honorary doctorate degree from many universities, including: Mcgill University, University of Pisa (Italy), University of Paris, Dauphine (France), and Mamaster University. He is a fellow of American Academy of Arts and Science, Acamedic des Science de France, Istitute Lombardo, Accad. Scienze e Lettre and Academy of Science of Ukraine.

Nirenberg is scheduled to visit the Math Department and Math Center of NTU from November 6th to November 12th. On Novermber 9th, from 1:20 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. he will participate in the "Meeting with Louis Nirenberg" colloquium to be held at room 101 at the New Math Building. Math Department Professors Chiun-Chuan Chen, Chin-Lung Wang, Jenn-Nan Wang and Chun-Hsiung Hsia will talk about their research works in recent years to which Louis Nirenberg will give critiques. After the colloquium a tea party will be held in the New Math Building. All interested students and colleagues are welcome to attend.