Lam Lay Yong

Lam Lay Yong ( born Oon Lay Yong, born February 12, 1936 in Singapore ) is a Singaporean mathematics historian with Chinese roots.

Life

Lam comes from a dynasty of rich Chinese businessmen in Singapore. She is the granddaughter of the Singaporean businessman (Chief of the China Chamber of Commerce in Singapore) Tan Kah Kee ( 1874-1961 ), who died because of his support of the Communists under Mao Zedong in exile in Beijing, and niece of his son in law Lee Kong Chian (1893 - 1967), in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Singapore and founder of the Lee Foundation.

Lam studied at the National University of Singapore (NUS, then still the University of Malaya ), where she received her mathematics degree in 1957 with honors and a scholarship ( Queen's Scholarship ) continued her studies at Cambridge University. Then she taught from 1960 at the University of Singapore, where it was in 1966 and his doctorate in 1988 received a full professorship. In 1996 she retired.

Lam dealt with Chinese mathematics history and is considered internationally as an authority in this field.

1974 to 1990 she was co-editor of Historia Mathematica. She is a member of the International Academy for the History of Sciences. In 2001 she was awarded the Kenneth O. May Prize. In 2005 she received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the NIS.

Writings

  • A Critical Study of the Yang Hui Suan Fa, a Thirteenth - Century Mathematical Treatise, National University of Singapore Press 1977.
  • Jiu Zhang SuanShu ( Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art): An Overview, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 47, 1994, pp. 1-51.
  • Zhang Qiujian Suanjing ( The Mathematical Classic of Zhang Qiujian ): An Overview, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 50, 1997, p.201 - 240.
  • Ang Tian Se: Fleeting Footsteps. Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient China, World Scientific, Singapore, 1992, 2nd Edition 2004
  • A Chinese Genesis, rewriting the history of our numeral system, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 38, 1988, pp. 101-108
  • Ang Tian Se: Circle measurements in ancient China, Historia Mathematica, Volume 13, 1986, pp. 325-340.
  • Shen Kangsheng: Mathematical problems on Surveying in Ancient China, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 36, 1986, pp. 1-20.
  • The geometrical basis of the ancient Chinese square-root method, Isis, Volume 61, 1970, pp. 92-102.
  • The conceptual origins of our numeral system and the symbolic form of algebra, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 36, 1986, pp. 183-195.
  • Linkages: exploring the similarities in between the Chinese rod numeral system and our numeral system, Archive for History of Exact Sciences, Volume 37, 1987, p 365-392.
  • On the Chinese Origin of the Galley Method of Arithmetical Division, The British Journal for the History of Science, Volume 3, 1966, pp. 66-69
  • The Development of Hindu Arabic and Traditional Chinese Arithmetics, Chinese Science, Volume 13, 1996, pp.35- 54
  • Shen Kangshen: Methods of solving linear equations in traditional China, Historia Mathematica, Volume 16.1989, p.107 -122
  • Arithmetic in Ancient China Lam Pin Foo, October 3, 2009
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