Preface Special Issues in Honor of Professor Zhong-Ci Shi(Part I)

Professor Zhong-Ci Shi,a professor of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)and worldrenowned computational mathematician,passed away on 13 February,2023.Annals of Applied Mathematics will devote a few special issues to mark his long and outstanding research career in computational mathematics.

Professor Shi was born in Ningbo,Zhejiang on 5 December 1933.In 1955 he graduated from Ningbo Middle School.He first studied mathematics at the Department of Mathematics of Zhejiang University,and then was transferred to Fudan University.After graduating from Fudan University in 1955,he became one of the first Chinese visiting scholars in former Soviet Union,and studied computational mathematics at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics in Moscow from 1956 to 1960.

Upon returning in 1960,Professor Shi worked at the Institute of Computing Technology of the CAS where he played an important role in the development of computational mathematics in China under the direction of Professor Kang Feng.From 1961 to 1986,he worked at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC),where he held several positions including the Chairman of the Department of Mathematics and the Director of Computer Center of USTC.Professor Shi returned to Beijing in 1987 and worked in the Computing Center and the Institute of Computational Mathematics of CAS.He was the Director of the Computing Center(1987-91)and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Scientific and Engineering Computing(1991-95).In 1991,he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Professor Shi had made profound and significant contributions in many areas of scientific computing,including finite element methods,domain decomposition methods and multigrid methods.His achievements in the development of nonconforming finite element methods have been particularly recognized by the community.He is not only a leading research scientist,but also an energetic leader for the computational mathematics community in China.He was the chief scientist of the State Key Project Large Scale Scientific and Engineering Computing Research from 1993 to 1999 and the President of the Chinese Computational Mathematics Society from 1993 to 2011.

Professor Shi was a teacher,a mentor,a collaborator,and a very dear friend to many of us.We are saddened by the news of his passing and would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.This is a great loss to the Chinese Computational Mathematics community.

Finally,we would like to thank all the authors and referees for their contributions to make the special issues possible.

Special Issue Editors:

Weinan E

Peking University

Song Jiang

Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics,Beijing

Tao Tang

BNU-HKBU United International College

Pingwen Zhang

Wuhan University&Peking University