Now a team led by Michael Kuhlen of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, has devised an explanation that lends weight to this idea.

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"He's unusual, because he's highly respected as a theorist, but he's also working directly in the field, " observes Eric Maskin, an economist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.

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But a big attraction is the 57-year-old Yau himself: He's the leading Chinese mathematician and ranks among the top ten in the world, says Phillip Griffiths, a math professor and a former president of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

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Hence teatime at the Institute for Advanced Study down the road from us in Princeton, credited for the birth of countless collaborations and papers since it began in the 1930s.

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