Yau has been a professor at Harvard for 20 years, specializing in geometry, differential equations and mathematical physics.

FORBES: Plugging A Math Gap

For his day job he's been a professor at Harvard for 20 years, specializing in geometry, differential equations and mathematical physics.

FORBES: Plugging a Math Gap

His strategy is unusual among cancer researchers, who have tended to focus on identifying cancer-causing genes rather than writing differential equations to describe the rate of tumor spread.

FORBES: Ideas & Opinions

Instead of just looking at one gene at a time, it uses an emerging method called systems biology that marries differential equations, computer simulations, and wet-lab biology to try to understand how molecular circuits go awry in cancer.

FORBES: A New Way To Find Cancer Drugs