Preface

Editor-in-chief:Boling Guo

Professor Xiaqi Ding was born on May 25,1928,in Taojiang,Hunan Province.He studied as an undergraduate student at Wuhan University.In 1951,he was selected to work as a research associate at the newly established Institute of Mathematics,Chinese Academy of Sciences,under the guidance of Prof.Luogeng Hua(Loo-Keng Hua)and Xinmou Wu(Sing-Mo Ou).He was promoted to be a full professor in 1978 and during 1985-1994,he was appointed as the director of Wuhan Institute of Mathematical Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences.He became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.

Prof. Ding was one of the pioneers in the analysis of partial differential equations and its applications in China.For more than 50 years of his academic career,he had published over 100 research papers and a number of monographs.Most of his distinguished research achievements are on partial differential equations and function spaces.These include his important contribution to the theory of hyperbolic conservation laws,the theory of elliptic equations,the theory of mixed-type PDEs,the theory of Ba spaces,the theory of weak functions(a class of generalized functions).In addition,in cooperation with others,he had done very significant research in number theory,harmonic analysis and numerical analysis.

Prof. Ding had been very enthusiastic in advising and training young mathematicians. Some of those influenced and helped by him in the 50's and 60's have become well known and distinguished researchers. Starting from the 80's,he trained more than 20 Ph.D students and over 30 master students,and some postdoctors. Many of them have become outstanding mathematicians.

The important contribution made by Prof.Ding to mathematics and to the development of mathematics in China won him reputation around the world.He had received a lot of honors and awards.In 1978,right after the culture revolution,Prof. Ding received two major national wide awards in sciences and one major award by CAS.In 1988,he received the First-Class Prize of Advances in Sciences and Technology awards by CAS.In 1989,he received the Second-Class National Prize of Natural Sciences of China.He was awarded the fourth Hua Luogeng Prize in Mathematics in 1999 and the Prize for Sciences and Technology Progress of Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in 2000.

Prof.Ding passed away on May 11,2015,at the age of 87.His distinguished research accomplishments and exemplary humanity have influenced many of us. On behalf of the contributed authors and the editorial board of Annals of Applied Mathematics,we dedicate this issue to the memory of Professor Xiaqi Ding.