He achieved international renown in his chosen career - mathematics - even while putting patriotism over personal gain. He won national acclaim as a professor and administrator, taking the helm of Fudan University, one of China's most prestigious academic institutions.

And yesterday, he celebrated his 100th birthday.

Su probably would have preferred another location for his party: a room at the Hua Dong Hospital, where he's been confined since 1995 for treatment of lung, kidney and liver problems. And surely he wished his infirmities hadn't robbed him of his ability to speak.

But he couldn't have asked for a greater outpouring of support and affection.

Su received tens of thousands of celebration letters and flowers from President Jiang Zemin, the students he taught and the colleagues he worked with. And he was visited by a delegation that included China's education minister, Chen Zhili, and top city officials.

Su's academic career began at a Zhejiang Province middle school when a teacher saw a boy with promise and arranged for him to study abroad.

He studied hard, and 70 years ago, Su was awarded a doctorate in mathematics at Tokyo's Tohoku University. Though the Japanese wanted him to stay there and teach, Su insisted on coming back to China, according to Wang Zengfan, who became his secretary in 1980.

In March 1931, Su returned to his native Zhejiang Province and began lecturing at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.

Shortly after that, a telegram came from another Japanese university seeking to recruit him as a professor.

Still, Su turned down the offer, telling his colleagues and students that a higher salary and better living conditions couldn't change his commitment to cultivating China's talented students.

"During the 20 years I've known him, I've been deeply impressed not just by his devotion to his research and his students but also by his patriotism," said Wang.

In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was established, Su became a professor at Shanghai's Fudan University and was promoted to president in 1978, serving in that capacity until his retirement in 1983. Even then, he continued his research and tutoring.

Su once told his students, "Scientific development is the key to rejuvenating the whole nation, and education in math is a key to that effort."

Over the years, Su's work in advanced geometry won him international acclaim as one of China's founders of modern mathematics.

But teaching others was just as important as his personal research.

"His goal was to encourage students to make even greater academic achievements than his own," said Gu Chaohao, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a former Fudan vice president.

Gu, in fact, may be living proof of that statement as his own advances in mathematics are said to rival, and perhaps surpass, Su's.

As Su once declared, "A professor has to be measured on the worth of the students he or she produces."

(Eastday.com 09/26/2001)