On December 15, 2014, academician Mr. Lin Qun from the Research Institute of Mathematics and Systems Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) paid a visit to the Open University of China (OUC) and engaged in a discussion on how to produce five minute calculus lecture. President Yang Zhijian of The Open University of China (OUC) presented Mr. Lin with a letter employing him as a member of the Technical Committee of the OUC Research and Development Centre for Digital Learning.

Mr. Lin hopes that his visit to the OUC will facilitate the presentation of simple calculus through the five-minute lecture, and help to popularize mathematics knowledge. Zhang Shaogang has suggested that CAS academicians can help fill the gap in five-minute mathematics lecture resources. The OUC places a great deal of importance in this cooperation and has called for staff from the OUC Digital Learning Resources Centre and Research and Development Centre for Digital Learning to hold discussions with Mr. Lin on five-minute calculus lecture construction. It has also defined the development group members and progress.

Born in Lianjiang County, Fujian Province in June 1935, Mr. Lin was chosen as a CAS academician in 1993. His research contributions include the analysis of various equations and algorithms unified for precision and tabulation, reached based on the finite element analysis of integral identities techniques, optimal triangulation and “super-convergence shape function”; and setting up a systematic theory for high accuracy algorithms, including super convergence, calibration and extrapolation, which has changed the technical path to obtaining high accuracy to optimal triangulation. His research achievements have been praised by his peers at both home and abroad. In 1989, he was chosen as a national expert with outstanding contributions to China. In 1998, he was elected a deputy of the National People’s Congress. In 1999, he was given academic membership of the Third World Academy of Sciences. Furthermore, he was selected as a member of the Program Committee, and Director of the Finance Committee, of the 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians. In 2003, he was elected a deputy to the 10th National People’s Congress for a second time. He has been honored by the National Science Conference, and received first prize for CAS natural sciences. In 2001, he was honored with an Honorary Medal of Achievement in the Science of Mathematics by Czechoslovak State Academy.

Mr. Lin is dedicated to the popularization, distribution and teaching of mathematics, and has written books including “A Journey Through Calculus in Pictures”, “Differential Equations and Trigonometric Measurement”, and “Fast Food Calculus”. He acts as director of the Committee of Chinese Mathematics Competitions, and director of the Committee for the Beijing Undergraduate Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

By Shunping Wei, the OUC