Professor Don Zagier (second from right) receives the Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award.

Globally eminent mathematicians Benedict Gross and Don Zagier have been granted this year's Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award this year.

They were recognized for their formulation and proof of the Gross-Zagier formula, which relates the height of Heegner points with the central derivatives of the zeta function of the corresponding elliptic curves.

Gross, emeritus professor of mathematics at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, and Zagier, emeritus scientific member and director of Max Planck Institute for Mathematics, established striking cases of the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer Conjecture.

Their results brought many applications to longstanding problems and greatly influenced the development of number theory in recent decades.

Apart from the Gross-Zagier formula, Gross is recognized for laying the groundwork for the modern theory of automorphic forms and their periods, specifically the Gan-Gross-Prasad conjectures which are at the center of many far-reaching recent advances.

Professor Don Zagier

Zagier is also recognized for his profound work on modular forms and special functions which resolve questions and problems in diverse areas ranging from topology and moduli spaces to geometry and mathematical physics.

The Fudan-Zhongzhi Science Award was jointly founded by Fudan University and Zhongzhi Enterprise Group in 2015 to recognize global scientists who have made fundamental and distinguished achievements in the fields of mathematics, physics and biomedicine.

The award is announced every year on rotation in these three fields. Its purpose is to provide an internationally-shared platform for communication, research and discussion.

By gathering global talent in technology innovation, the award is aimed at boosting the technology competitiveness of China and reserving candidates for world-class awards.

The award selects the best from the best and puts quality before quantity.

The candidates must be living scientists who have made fundamental and original achievements representing the cutting-edge standard of current global science and technology, while also remarkably promoting the progress of society and improving the quality of life.

The award is sponsored by Zhongzhi Enterprise Group with a specialized donation fund. Scholars who make equally significant contributions in their field of expertise can share the award and 3 million yuan (US$471,000).

Professor Benedict Gross