'Grandpa' applies math to biology
By Liang Yiwen |
July 8, 2012, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GERMAN mathematician Andreas Dress, a specialist in computational biology, is known to students, faculty and colleagues as "Grandpa."
Dress, 74, who moved back to Germany early this year, was co-director of a Shanghai institute for computational biology, established in 2005 by the Max Planck Society in Germany and the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences (SIBS).
Pei Gang, president of SIBS at that time and now president of Tongji University, gave Dress his Chinese name "De Lesi," which sounds somewhat like "Dress" and means "The German who likes to think."
However, Dress, who wore a white beard, soon found he had another popular name, "Lao Ye Ye", which means "Grandpa" in Chinese.
Dress learned of his nickname from Jin Li, codirector of the new institute and deputy president of Fudan University.
"Jin wondered whether I would take offense," Dress said. "(On the contrary), I liked it. I said no problem. They can keep doing this."
"I even got English e-mails beginning with 'Dear Grandpa,' and my real grandchildren found it amusing that I had so many other grandchildren."
"Lao Ye Ye" is also a title of honor, Dress said, noting that Emperor Shunzhi (1644-61) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was close to the German Jesuit missionary Adam Schall von Bell, who helped reform the Chinese calendar, and called him "grandfather." Dress visited his tomb when he was in Beijing.
Dress is very interested in Chinese culture and has read extensively. Back in the 1980s he and his wife drove 200 kilometers to see an exhibition of the Terra-cotta Warriors in Germany.
So he jumped at the chance to attend a conference in Shijiazhuang in 1989, then visit Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
When he was offered the opportunity to launch the Sino-German institute, he agreed immediately.
"It was a great challenge," he said. "I've been doing all sorts of things, trying to understand how mathematics can be applied in various contexts, including biology, economy, chemistry and so on. Building the institute was once-in-a lifetime chance."
"I was a pure mathematician for half of my life," he said. "But I didn't want to stay there forever."
Dress studied mathematics in Berlin and earned his doctorate in 1962. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, for many years and became a full professor of mathematics at Bielefeld University when he was only age 30.
In his late thirties, he wanted to apply mathematics to other sciences, including biology.
"At that time, my colleagues thought I was crazy," he said. "Biology was not that popular."
He started working in mathematical biology when he was at age 38, introduced by Manfred Eigen, a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work in measuring fast chemical reactions.
In Shanghai, he emphasized that the new institute, the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, is designed to be "a place where science is driven by curiosity."
In the early planning stages, faculty said their goal was to become one of the world's top 10 computational biology institutes.
"Being a scientist, I said 'no, that's all wrong'," Dress said. "I don't want to be better than anybody else. I just want to understand something."
He wondered how to express this tactfully and emphasize the quest for knowledge, not status. The next morning he suggested the institute should be known worldwide as a place where scientists are driven by curiosity.
It worked.
Many overseas scholars have asked to visit the institute while they were in Shanghai for conferences or research.
"Grandpa" retired in 2010.
Dress, 74, who moved back to Germany early this year, was co-director of a Shanghai institute for computational biology, established in 2005 by the Max Planck Society in Germany and the Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences (SIBS).
Pei Gang, president of SIBS at that time and now president of Tongji University, gave Dress his Chinese name "De Lesi," which sounds somewhat like "Dress" and means "The German who likes to think."
However, Dress, who wore a white beard, soon found he had another popular name, "Lao Ye Ye", which means "Grandpa" in Chinese.
Dress learned of his nickname from Jin Li, codirector of the new institute and deputy president of Fudan University.
"Jin wondered whether I would take offense," Dress said. "(On the contrary), I liked it. I said no problem. They can keep doing this."
"I even got English e-mails beginning with 'Dear Grandpa,' and my real grandchildren found it amusing that I had so many other grandchildren."
"Lao Ye Ye" is also a title of honor, Dress said, noting that Emperor Shunzhi (1644-61) in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) was close to the German Jesuit missionary Adam Schall von Bell, who helped reform the Chinese calendar, and called him "grandfather." Dress visited his tomb when he was in Beijing.
Dress is very interested in Chinese culture and has read extensively. Back in the 1980s he and his wife drove 200 kilometers to see an exhibition of the Terra-cotta Warriors in Germany.
So he jumped at the chance to attend a conference in Shijiazhuang in 1989, then visit Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
When he was offered the opportunity to launch the Sino-German institute, he agreed immediately.
"It was a great challenge," he said. "I've been doing all sorts of things, trying to understand how mathematics can be applied in various contexts, including biology, economy, chemistry and so on. Building the institute was once-in-a lifetime chance."
"I was a pure mathematician for half of my life," he said. "But I didn't want to stay there forever."
Dress studied mathematics in Berlin and earned his doctorate in 1962. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, for many years and became a full professor of mathematics at Bielefeld University when he was only age 30.
In his late thirties, he wanted to apply mathematics to other sciences, including biology.
"At that time, my colleagues thought I was crazy," he said. "Biology was not that popular."
He started working in mathematical biology when he was at age 38, introduced by Manfred Eigen, a German biophysical chemist who won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work in measuring fast chemical reactions.
In Shanghai, he emphasized that the new institute, the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, is designed to be "a place where science is driven by curiosity."
In the early planning stages, faculty said their goal was to become one of the world's top 10 computational biology institutes.
"Being a scientist, I said 'no, that's all wrong'," Dress said. "I don't want to be better than anybody else. I just want to understand something."
He wondered how to express this tactfully and emphasize the quest for knowledge, not status. The next morning he suggested the institute should be known worldwide as a place where scientists are driven by curiosity.
It worked.
Many overseas scholars have asked to visit the institute while they were in Shanghai for conferences or research.
"Grandpa" retired in 2010.
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