Fan Chung

Fan-Rong King Chung Graham, known as Fan Chung, is a distinguished Taiwanese-American mathematician born on October 9, 1949. Her work primarily focuses on spectral graph theory, extremal graph theory, and random graphs, with significant contributions to generalizing the Erdős–Rényi model for graphs that exhibit various degree distributions, including power-law graphs relevant to large information networks.

Since 1998, Chung has held the prestigious position of Paul Erdős Professor in Combinatorics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1974, under the mentorship of Herbert Wilf. Following a nineteen-year tenure at Bell Laboratories and Bellcore, she made history by becoming the first female tenured professor in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Chung's influence extends beyond her teaching and research; she serves on the editorial boards of over a dozen international journals. Since 2003, she has been the editor-in-chief of Internet Mathematics, showcasing her commitment to advancing mathematical discourse. Her expertise has led to invitations to present at numerous prestigious conferences, including the International Congress of Mathematicians in 1994 and a plenary lecture on PageRank mathematics at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Mathematical Society.

In recognition of her contributions to the field, Chung was selected as a Noether Lecturer in 2009. Her accolades continued to grow, culminating in her election to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2024, marking her as a leading figure in contemporary mathematics.