At the SIAM annual meeting (July 10-14, Pittsburgh), the 2017 SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession is awarded to professor Ya-xiang Yuan for his extraordinary achievements in developing and promoting applied mathematics in general and optimization in particular in China.

The SIAM Prize for Distinguished Service to the Profession, established in 1985, is awarded to an applied mathematician who has made distinguished contributions to the furtherance of applied mathematics on the national or international level. Since 1986, this prize has been awarded to 18 mathematicians, of whom professor Ya-xiang Yuan is the first ethnic Chinese.

Ya-xiang Yuan graduated from Xiangtan University in 1981, and obtained his Ph.D. at University of Cambridge in 1986. He is a winner of the National Natural Science Award of China (Second Grade), the TWAS (The World Academy of Sciences) Prize in Mathematics, and the Feng Kang Prize. Ya-xiang Yuan delivered a plenary lecture at the 4th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and a 45-minute invited lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Seoul. He is also a SIAM Fellow (2011), an AMS Fellow (2012), a TWAS Fellow (2014), and a Corresponding Member of Brazilian Academy of Sciences (2014). Besides, Ya-xiang Yuan was elected president of the Chinese Mathematical Society in 2015, vice president of the China Association for Science and Technology in 2016, and president-elect of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2017. Yuan Yaxiang has played an active and important role in China's industrial and applied mathematics field. He used to be a vice president of the International Federation of Operational Research, the president of the Asia-Pacific Operational Research Society, the president of the Chinese Operational Research Society, a vice president of the 3rd and 4th CSIAM council, and a member of the Scientific Program Committee of the 8th International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics. For more information, please refer to his homepage.

(By CSIAM Office)