A Fields medalist recounts his lifelong effort to uncover the geometric shape—the Calabi-Yau manifold—that may store the hidden dimensions of our universe. Harvard geometer Shing-Tung Yau has provided a mathematical foundation for string theory, offered new insights into black holes, and mathematically demonstrated the stability of our universe. In this autobiography, Yau reflects on his improbable journey to becoming one of the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. Beginning with an impoverished childhood in China and Hong Kong, Yau takes readers through his doctoral studies at Berkeley during the height of the Vietnam War protests, his Fields Medal–winning proof of the Calabi conjecture, his return to China, and his pioneering work in geometric analysis. This new branch of geometry, which Yau built up with his friends and colleagues, has paved the way for solutions to several important and previously intransigent problems. With complicated ideas explained for a broad audience, this book offers not only insights into the life of an eminent mathematician, but also an accessible way to understand advanced and highly abstract concepts in mathematics and theoretical physics. “The remarkable story of one of the world’s most accomplished mathematicians . . . Yau’s personal journey—from escaping China as a youngster, leading a gang outside Hong Kong, becoming captivated by mathematics, to making breakthroughs that thrust him on the world stage—inspires us all with humankind’s irrepressible spirit of discovery.” —Brian Greene, New York Times–bestselling author of The Elegant Universe “An unexpectedly intimate look into a highly accomplished man, his colleagues and friends, the development of a new field of geometric analysis, and a glimpse into a truly uncommon mind.” —The Boston Globe “Engaging, eminently readable. . . . For those with a taste for elegant and largely jargon-free explanations of mathematics, The Shape of a Life promises hours of rewarding reading.” —American Scientist

Before he died at the age of twenty, shot in a mysterious early-morning duel at the end of May 1832, Evariste Galois created mathematics that changed the direction of algebra. This book contains English translations of almost all the Galois material. The translations are presented alongside a new transcription of the original French and are enhanced by three levels of commentary. An introduction explains the context of Galois' work, the various publications in which it appears, and the vagaries of his manuscripts. Then there is a chapter in which the five mathematical articles published in his lifetime are reprinted. After that come the testamentary letter and the first memoir (in which Galois expounded on the ideas that led to Galois Theory), which are the most famous of the manuscripts. These are followed by the second memoir and other lesser known manuscripts. This book makes available to a wide mathematical and historical readership some of the most exciting mathematics of the first half of the nineteenth century, presented in its original form. The primary aim is to establish a text of what Galois wrote. The details of what he did, the proper evidence of his genius, deserve to be well understood and appreciated by mathematicians as well as historians of mathematics.