astronomy

Zhang Pingwen

Zhang Pingwen is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Zhang Pingwen rather than just read about it. In short: Zhang Pingwen (Chinese: 张平文; born July 1966) is a Chinese mathematician and university administrator, currently serving as president of Wuhan University. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Key takeaways

Zhang Pingwen belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Zhang Pingwen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Zhang Pingwen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Zhang Pingwen (Chinese: 张平文; born July 1966) is a Chinese mathematician and university administrator, currently serving as president of Wuhan University. He is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Biography Zhang was born in Changsha County, Hunan, in July 1966. He attended Changsha County No. 1 High School. In 1984, he was accepted to Peking University, where he majored in the Department of Mathematics. After graduating in 1992, Zhang stayed and worked at Peking University, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1994 and to full professor in 1996. In 2015, he was appointed director of the Discipline Construction Office of Peking University, a post he kept until 2019, when he became director of the Peking University Big Data Science Research Center. He moved up the ranks to become assistant president in August 2019 and vice president in December of that same year. On 28 December 2022, the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party appointed Zhang as president of Wuhan University, a position at vice-ministerial level.

Honours and awards 1999 Feng Kang Prize 2014 State Natural Science Award (Second Class) 2015 Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) November 2016 Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) 2020 Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) 2021 Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Zhang Pingwen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Zhang Pingwen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Zhang Pingwen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Zhang Pingwen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Zhang Pingwen

In research: Zhang Pingwen appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Zhang Pingwen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Zhang Pingwen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1966 births, Academic staff of Peking University, Chinese mathematicians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Zhang Pingwen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Zhang Pingwen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Zhang Pingwen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Zhang Pingwen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Zhang Pingwen in simple terms?

Why does Zhang Pingwen matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Zhang Pingwen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Zhang Pingwen.