Professor Juncheng Wei obtained his B.Sc. degree in Mathematics in 1989 at Wuhan University. Then he was selected under the S.S. Chern Program to further his studies at the University of Minnesota in U.S. In 1994, he obtained his Ph.D. degree from the same University. His Ph.D. thesis was rated "the best thesis of the year" at the University of Minnesota. In 1995, Professor Wei was offered a one-year research fellowship at IAS/SISSA in Italy. He joined The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1995 as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Professor in 2002.

　　Professor Wei's work is internationally recognized. His primary research is nonlinear partial differential equations, in particular, equations arising from physical and biological sciences. A key issue in developmental biology is a mathematical understanding of how diverse patterns in nature, such as spots and stripes on sea-shells, fish and zebra, are produced. Using the basic idea from Turing (1952), these problems can be transformed into the study of system of partial differential equations (PDEs). During the last twenty years, there have been many studies on such systems, using standard linear method. Such method can only predict linear patterns, that is, patterns near uniform state. By using rigorous and sophisticated nonlinear PDE methods, Professor Wei and his collaborators developed a systematic approach in treating nonlinear patterns. As a result, a complete understanding of nonlinear patterns in one or two spatial dimensions is obtained. Professor Wei and his team of collaborators are considered as leading group in the world. Their studies have opened up new dimensions in both pure and applied mathematics, and attracted many researchers from different areas. Professor Wei's research projects secured various support from RGC grants, HK/Germany Joint Programme and HK/France Joint Programme. Professor Wei has been invited to give invited talks at more than 40 international conferences, including the 3rd World Congress of Chinese Mathematicians in 2004. He himself has organized many prestigious international conferences, such as BIRS of Canada, Oberwolfach of Germany, East-Asia PDE, etc.

　　Professor Wei has published more than 120 papers in top mathematical journals, such as Comm. Pure Appl. Math., Comm. Math. Physics, and Duke Mathematical Journal. One of Professor Wei's paper was cited as one of the hottest papers in the last ten years by ISI. On the list ranked by "citations" of the ISI Essential Science Indicators, covering the period from 1 January 1994 to 31 December 2004, Professor Wei is ranked 20th out of 897 scientists in the field of "Mathematics" by ISI, the first in Asia.

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