Chen Jingrun

Chinese mathematician

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July 23, 2026

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Chen Jingrun was a Chinese mathematician renowned for his significant contributions to number theory, particularly his work on the Goldbach conjecture. The conjecture, first proposed by Christian Goldbach in 1742, states that every even integer greater than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers.

In 1973, Chen Jingrun made a groundbreaking advancement by proving that every sufficiently large even number can be expressed as the sum of a prime number and a number that has at most two prime factors. This is often referred to as "Chen's theorem" and represents a major step towards proving the Goldbach conjecture itself.12

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Goldbach conjecture
…1973, when the Chinese mathematician Chen Jing Run proved that every sufficiently large even number is the sum of a prime and a number with at most two prime factors.
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…1973, when the Chinese mathematician Chen Jing Run proved that every sufficiently large even number is the sum of a prime and a number with at most two prime factors.
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Waring’s problem
In 1964 the Chinese mathematician Chen Jingrun showed that f(5) = 37. A general formula for higher powers has been suggested but not proved true for all integers.
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In 1964 the Chinese mathematician Chen Jingrun showed that f(5) = 37. A general formula for higher powers has been suggested but not proved true for all integers.
Read More