This year marks the 100^th birthday of the late professor Feng Kang, the most influential figure in the development of computational mathematics in China. We have witnessed tremendous growth and rapid developments in applied and computational mathematics in China over the past 30 years. China has produced many first rate applied mathematicians both within China and around the world. This is to a large extent due to the solid foundation that has been laid down by Professor Feng, by his great vision and tireless efforts in promoting applied and computational mathematics within China, and by educating many young talents in a few key areas of applied and computational mathematics. Today there are many outstanding undergraduate students who want to pursue applied and computational mathematics as their majors and in their graduate study. These students are among the most outstanding graduate students in many top universities in the US and Europe. This would not have been possible without the guidance, the leadership, and the vision by Professor Feng.  

　　I first met Professor Feng Kang in person in the summer of 1993. At that time, I just moved from the Courant Institute to Caltech and was invited to attend a PDE conference in the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) co-organized by Professor Xia-xi Ding and Tai-Ping Liu. The conference was held in the Friendship Hotel, which was considered as one of the best hotels at the time. This was my first time to visit Beijing. I got to meet with many outstanding mathematicians in China during my visit and established very good contacts with many PDE experts and applied mathematicians. My most memorable meeting was with Professor Feng. In the middle of the conference, Professor Feng invited Prof. Tai-Ping Liu and myself to have lunch in a Muslim restaurant in Beijing. I still remember vividly the lunch that we had together and our subsequent visit to the new building in the Computing Center. Professor Feng sent a car to pick us up from the Friendship Hotel and took us to the restaurant. Professor Feng told us that the Computing Center has only one car that they could use. We got a VIP treatment thanks to Prof. Tai-Ping Liu and had a great time chatting during our lunch.   

　　After lunch, Professor Feng invited us to visit the new building for the Computing Center. At the time, there were no office buildings in CAS. This was perhaps the first modern office building, which was completed a few months ago. Since the new building housed a number of new and expensive computers, the building was constructed using a very high standard with air-conditioning, which was considered a luxury at the time. The whole building was smoking free. But Professor Feng was a serious smoker. He told us that he got special permission to smoke in his Director’s office. He felt very proud about this special privilege.  He introduced us with many of his colleagues and we discussed a number of research topics of common interest. Since 1984, Professor Feng had made a number of pioneering contributions to symplectic algorithms for Hamiltonian systems. These algorithms use symplectic geometry and are structure reserving. He learned about my work on the convergence of the Point Vortex Method for the incompressible Euler equation, which also has a Hamiltonian formulation. He showed great interest in my work and wondered whether the Point Vortex Method could benefit from his symplectic algorithms.  We had a very stimulating and pleasant discussion that afternoon.  

　　This was my first, and unfortunately also my last meeting with Professor Feng. Since I did not pursue a graduate study in China, I had very little contact with the Chinese computational mathematics community before 1993. But I have many friends who did their graduate study in the Computing Center and CAS. They shared with me many interesting stories about Professor Feng and other Chinese applied mathematicians. During my visit to Beijing in the summer of 1993, I had a chance to meet with Professor Feng and many other outstanding Chinese mathematicians in person. This was an eye-opening experience for me. Since then, I have established excellent personal friendship with many senior and junior Chinese mathematicians and invited quite a few of them to visit Caltech. This includes a few young rising stars in applied mathematics, such as Zhang Pingwen from Peking University and Chen Zhiming from Institute of Mathematics of CAS. Pingwen came to visit me at Caltech for two years, in 1995 and 1997 plus a summer in 1998. Zhiming visited me for one year from 1998 to 1999. Both of them have become Academicians of CAS and have emerged as one of the leaders in Chinese applied and computational mathematics.  

　　Professor Feng has made many fundamental contributions in computational mathematics, especially in the theory of finite element methods, symplectic algorithms, and the natural boundary integral element methods. He enjoyed an excellent reputation in the international mathematics community. I have traveled to many international conferences over the past thirty years or so. Many professors talked about Professor Feng’s pioneering contributions in these areas with great respect and admiration. When I was a postdoc and a junior faculty member at the Courant Institute from 1989 to 1993, I was very fortunate to have a chance to collaborate with Professor Peter Lax. He often told me great stories about various leaders in mathematics, including many fascinating stories about Professor John von Neumann. He told me about his great impression of Professor Feng Kang and spoke very highly of his pioneering contributions in establishing the finite element theory in China in late 50s and early 60s without knowing the related efforts by the Western mathematics community. He compared Professor Feng’s contributions on the finite element method with that of his teacher, Professor Richard Courant, and considered Professor Feng as one of the three independent inventors of the finite element methods.   

　　There have been several extremely influential applied math leaders in the US and Europe. These include Professor Peter Lax in the US, Professor Jacques-Louis Lions in France, and Professor Heinz-Otto Kreiss in Sweden. Each of these giants built a school of applied mathematics around them and trained many outstanding students who later became leaders in their own fields. Professor Keng is considered in this same category as the leader who built up the Chinese school of computational mathematics with tremendous impact that last for several decades. This was especially difficult to achieve due to the lack of communication with the rest of the world for many years until the end of the Cultural Revolution.    

　　I learned all these good things about Professor Feng before I met him in person. When I finally had a chance to meet him for the first time in the summer of 1993, I was so excited. I was extremely impressed by his mathematical power, his vision for computational mathematics, and by his generosity of treating a very junior applied mathematician like myself with mutual respect. This meeting was one of the most memorable moments in my academic career. I was so shocked when I learned about his tragic passing later that summer. I was hoping that I could get back to him regarding the question that he raised for me on the Point Vortex Method using his symplectic algorithms. I found great comfort when I read the memorial article in honor of Professor Feng by Professor Peter Lax on the SIAM News later that year. This shows how much respect that the entire applied mathematics community values Professor Feng’s pioneering contributions and his great impact in computational mathematics.   

　　Professor Feng had devoted tremendous amount of time and energy to nurture the young Chinese applied mathematicians. Before his tragic death, he was very busy preparing for “1993 Conference on Scientific and Engineering Computing for young Chinese Scientists”.  We were devastating when we learned about the sad news of his unexpected passing on August 17th, 1993. I was very pleased to learn that the Computing Center decided to establish the Feng Kang Prize of Scientific Computing to honor his fundamental contributions to computational mathematics and his unselfish efforts in promoting young Chinese applied mathematicians. I felt extremely honored that I was awarded the Keng Kang Prize of Scientific Computing in 1997. It made me feel that I was reconnected with Professor Feng again.  

　　Professor Feng can now rest in peace. Since 1993, the Chinese computational mathematics has developed into a very dynamic and exciting field. Many outstanding Chinese applied mathematicians have made important fundamental contributions to various areas of applied and computational mathematics. Many of them have received high honors and awards at the international level. China has emerged as a major player in applied and computational mathematics in the world. The fact that Professor Yuan Ya-xiang, a former student of Professor Feng in the Computing Center and Academician of CAS, is now the President of The International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM) is an excellent indication of the status of the Chinese applied mathematics in the international applied mathematics community. 

本文原载于《冯康先生纪念文集》