Wu Wentsun (1919- ) is a native of Shanghai. Wu is a world-famous mathematician. He graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1940. He received doctorate degree of Topology in France in 1949. He was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1957. He is an honorary director of Mathematics Mechanization Research Center at the Research Institute of System Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wu was also elected an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences. From 1992 to 1996, He was the director of the mathematics and physics division of the Chinese Academy of Science. Wu was a member of the standing committee of the 5th through 8th CPPCCs.

Wu Wentsun's research domain covers various mathematical fields, and significant results are obtained in each area. He is the founder of the mathematics-mechanization research in China and makes a lot of important contributions to the Chinese mathematics research and science development. His doctoral thesis "Sur les Classes Caracteristiques des structure Fibrees Spheriques", published in 1952, is a classical contribution to the fundamental problem of this area. Since then he published a series of papers with deep influence and repeatedly quoted. The imbedding classes and the formulas he discovered now are bearing his name. In recent years he proposed a systematic and unified method efficiently and automatically proving hundreds of geometric theorems using computer. Now his method is cited as Wu's method. It is a landmark in the history of automatic reasoning. In addition, the essential tool used in theorem proving is the so-called Wu's Elimination for polynomial system solving. The power of this elimination process becomes so clear due to the wide applications. In recognition of his remarkable achievement, he was awarded National Science Conference Preeminent Achievement Award in 1978, Science and Technology Progress Prize of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, Mathematics Award of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1990. In 1997, Wu was awarded the Herbrand Prize-the highest prize in automated reasoning. In 2001, Wu won the first National Preeminent Science and Technology Award, the highest-level prize of science and technology in China.