Ding-Zhu Du

Ding-Zhu Du (born May 21, 1948) is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas.^[1] He has received public recognition when he solved two long-standing open problems on the Euclidean minimum Steiner trees,^[2] the proof of Gilbert–Pollack conjecture on the Steiner ratio of the Euclidean plane, and the existence of a polynomial-time heuristic with a performance ratio bigger than the Steiner ratio.^[3] The proof of Gilbert-Pollak's conjecture on Steiner ratios was later found to have gaps, thus leaving the problem unsolved.^[4]

Ding-Zhu Du
Born	(1948-05-21) May 21, 1948 (age 76)
Scientific career
Fields	Computer algorithms
Institutions	University of Texas at Dallas
Thesis	Generalized Complexity Cores And Levelability Of Intractable Sets  (1985)
Doctoral advisor	Ronald V. Book
Doctoral students	Mihaela Cardei Maggie Cheng
Website	Ding-Zhu Du

Education

Ding-Zhu Du received his M.Sc in Operations Research from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1985. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics with research area in Theoretical Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1984.^[1]

Career

Early in his career he solved two long-standing open problems on the Euclidean minimum Steiner trees, the proof of Gilbert-Pollak's conjecture on the Steiner ratio, and the existence of a polynomial-time heuristic with a performance ratio bigger than the Steiner ratio.^[2]

He was Program Director for CISE/CCF, National Science Foundation, USA, 2002-2005,^[5] Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota, 1991-2005.^[6] and Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986-1987.

He has been active in research on Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithm for 30 years. And over these years he has published 177 Journal articles, 60 conference and workshop papers, 22 editorship, 9 reference works and 11 informal publications.^[7]

Books published

• Theory of Computational Complexity.^[8]
• Problem Solving in Automata, Languages, and Complexity.^[9]
• Pooling Designs and Nonadaptive Group Testing.^[10]
• Mathematical Theory of Optimization.^[11]
• Combinatorial Group Testing and Its Applications (2nd Edition).^[12]
• Connected Dominating Set: Theory and Applications.^[13]
• Design and Analysis of Approximation Algorithms.^[14]
• Steiner Tree Problems In Computer Communication Networks.^[15]

Awards and honors

• 2007 Received the Best Paper Award from International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems and Applications (WASA'07), Chicago, Illinois, USA
• 2009-2014 Honorary Dean of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University
• 2003 Received the Best Paper Award from the 22nd IEEE International Performance, Computing, and Communication Conference at Phoenix, Arizona, USA, April 9–11.^[16]
• 1998 Received CSTS Prize from INFORMS (a merge of American Operations Research Society and Institute of Management Science) for research excellence in the interface between Operations Research and Computer Science
• 1996 Received the 2nd Class National Natural Science Prize in China.
• 1993 Received the 1st Class Natural Science Prize from Chinese Academy of Sciences.
• 1992 Received the National Young Scientist Prize from China
• 1990-1991 The proof of Gilbert–Pollak conjecture was reported in The New York Times.^[2]
• 1989 Received the 1st Class Young Scientist Prize from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
• 1988 Received the 3rd Class National Natural Science Prize in China.

References

1. "Du, Ding-Zhu - Department of Computer Science - The University of Texas at Dallas – Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science". cs.utdallas.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
2. Kolata, Gina (1990-10-30). "Solution to Old Puzzle: How Short a Shortcut?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
3. Ding-Zhu Du. "Minimax and its Applications: Revisit the Proof of Gilbert-Pollak Conjecture" (PDF). University of Texas at Dallas. S2CID 17177695.
4. Ivanov, A. O.; Tuzhilin, A. A. (2012). "The Steiner Ratio Gilbert–Pollak Conjecture Is Still Open". Algorithmica. 62 (1–2): 630–632. doi:10.1007/s00453-011-9508-3. S2CID 7486839.
5. "National Science Foundation" (PDF). National Science foundation.
6. "Ding-Zhu Du - The Mathematics Genealogy Project". www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
7. "dblp: Ding-Zhu Du". dblp.org. Retrieved 2018-02-16.
8. Du, Dingzhu (2000-01-27). Theory of computational complexity. Ko, Ker-I (Second ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey. ISBN 978-0-471-34506-0. OCLC 864753086.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
9. Du, Dingzhu (2001). Problem solving in automata, languages, and complexity. Ko, Ker-I. New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-43960-8. OCLC 53229117.
10. Du, Dingzhu (2006). Pooling designs and nonadaptive group testing: important tools for DNA sequencing. Hwang, Frank. New Jersey: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-256-822-9. OCLC 285162303.
11. Du, Dingzhu; Pardalos, P. M.; Wu, Weili (2001). Mathematical theory of optimization. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. ISBN 978-1-4020-0015-7. OCLC 47716389.
12. Du, Dingzhu (2000). Combinatorial group testing and its applications. Hwang, Frank. (2nd ed.). Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-02-4107-0. OCLC 42421028.
13. Du, Dingzhu. (2013). Connected dominating set: theory and applications. Wan, Peng-Jun, 1970-. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. ISBN 978-1-4614-5242-3. OCLC 819816599.
14. Du, Dingzhu (2012). Design and analysis of approximation algorithms. Ko, Ker-I., Hu, Xiaodong, 1962-. New York, NY: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4614-1701-9. OCLC 765365870.
15. Du, Dingzhu (2008). Steiner tree problems in computer communication networks. Hu, Xiaodong. Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-279-144-3. OCLC 263426948.
16. "Conference Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Performance, Computing, and Communications Conference (Cat. No.03CH37463)". Conference Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Performance, Computing, and Communications Conference, 2003. 2003. doi:10.1109/PCCC.2003.1201985. ISBN 978-0-7803-7893-3.