Zuowei Shen

Zuowei Shen’s Homepage

Zuowei SHEN (沈佐伟)

Distinguished Professor

Zuowei Shen is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He received his bachelor’s degree from Hohai University in 1982 and briefly taught there before pursuing graduate studies in Canada. He obtained his M.Sc. in 1987 and Ph.D. in 1991 from the University of Alberta, followed by postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He joined NUS in 1993, was promoted to Professor in 2002, and appointed Distinguished Professor in 2009. From 2013 to 2021, he held the Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professorship at NUS.

At NUS, he has held several senior leadership positions, including Vice Provost, Dean of the Graduate School, Dean of the Faculty of Science, and Head of the Department of Mathematics. For his contributions to university service and academic development, he was awarded the Singapore Public Administration Silver Medal.

His primary research interest is the mathematical foundation of data science, with a focus on developing rigorous theories and efficient algorithms and applying them to solve problems arising in data science. He draws inspiration from practical challenges to drive theoretical innovation. His influential contributions span approximation theory, wavelet frame, image processing, compressed sensing, and machine learning, advancing both theory and applications. Details of his research can be found at here.

He has published over 170 papers, demonstrating his interdisciplinary research approach. His work prominently appears across a wide range of applied mathematics journals, exemplified by his publications in eight SIAM journals: Math. Anal., Numerical Anal., Sci. Computing, Matrix Anal., Optim., Control Optim., Imaging Sci., and Multi-Scale Modeling. He also publishes in journals bridging applied and pure mathematics, such as J. Math. Pures Appl., and pure mathematics venues like J. Amer. Math. Soc., J. Eur. Math. Soc., J. Funct. Anal., Duke Math. J., Amer. J. Math., and Adv. Math. His research extends to engineering and computer science, with publications in IEEE Trans. Image Process., IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell., and J. Mach. Learning Research, alongside contributions to leading conferences like CVPR, ICML, and NeurIPS. Here are citations of his publications.

He has been invited to speak at major international conferences, including the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) and the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM). His contributions have been recognized with several honors, such as the Singapore National Science Award and the Wavelet Pioneer Award from the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). He is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), and has been elected to the Singapore National Academy of Science, The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and the European Academy of Sciences (EurAsc).

He is also active in academic service, with editorial roles on leading journals such as Forum of Mathematics Pi and several journals of SIAM and AMS. His other international contributions include membership on the ICM Speaker Selection Panels, the ICIAM Scientific Program Committee, the ICIAM Prize Committee, and the TWAS Membership Advisory Committee for Mathematical Sciences.