Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education. - Mahatma Gandhi

For the curious... and the "famous" birthday puzzle!

I was born in the coastal city of Tianjin in China. You can solve for my birthday, as well as my wife's, by conquering the following cute puzzle. The puzzle was a birthday gift I designed for my wife some years ago.

The solution is believed to be unique.

  1. My wife's month of birth is a prime number, so is mine.
  2. Her day of birth is a prime number, so is mine.
  3. The sum of all the digits in her month and day of birth is a prime number, so is mine.
  4. Connect her month of birth with her day of birth, you get a prime number; but if you reverse all the digits, the number is not a prime. For example, if her birthday were January 23, then the connection would lead to the number 123 and reversing all the digits, you would get 321.
  5. Connect my month of birth with my day of birth, you get a prime number; but if you reverse all the digits, the number is not a prime.
  6. Connect my day of birth with her month of birth, you get a prime number; but if you reverse all the digits, the number is not a prime.
  7. Connect my month of birth with her day of birth, you get a prime number; but if you reverse all the digits, the number is not a prime.
  8. Connect her day of birth with my month of birth, you do NOT get a prime number; but if you reverse all the digits, the number is a prime.
  9. Connect her month of birth with my day of birth, you do NOT get a prime number; if you reverse all the digits, the number is NOT a prime either!
  10. Well, things cannot too perfect, can it? So it looks like there is a "difference of a prime". That is true: the difference between the digit sum of my month and day of birth and the digit sum of hers, is a prime!

After finishing Nankai High School in China, I came to Canada on a fellowship to start my university life at the University of Waterloo. I obtained my Bachelor of Mathematics (BMath) and Master of Mathematics (MMath) degrees from Waterloo. My MMath degree supervisor was John Brzozowski (RIP) and I was a winner of the University of Waterloo Alumni Gold Medal. I earned my Ph.D. from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Eugene Fiume.

Family

My father was a full professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, and then at the School of Mathematics and Statistics, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. My mother was a professor from the School of Economics at Nankai, specializing in Insurance and Risk Management. My sister obtained her Ph.D. in Statistics from Columbia and now resides in the US with her family. My own family started soon after I met my wife in the US, where she was doing grad school after finishing her undergrad studies from Tsinghua University.

In October, 2010, my son was born. We gave him a Chinese name that means "beyond materialism" (the best translation I could find). My daughter was born two years later in November, and her Chinese name reflects a sense of "quiet happiness and self-fulfillment". We wanted our little girl to be not so stressed, not even trying to be beyond anything, like her brother :)

Recreational interests

I used to play a lot of volleyball with friends, but my Number One passion now is badminton. I play regularly, about 2-3 times a week. Following my passion, my son is now training competitively and I expect him to surpass me soon!

I also run 5-10K per week just to stay in shape. Along the way, I have "completed" a full marathon by having competed and finished in two half-marathons :) one in Hawaii (Valley to the Sea, to celebrate my wife's birthday) and one in Vancouver! About three years ago, my wife and I finally picked up skiing, and after one year, I was able to ski Black!

If I did not have to purchase all of the life's necessities, I'd spend all my money to travel. My dream job was not being a university professor but a photographer for the National Geographic Magazine ...

Go (围棋) used to be my favorite board game, though I was not that good. My highest internet rating was a 2d at the IGS. My proudest moment came on September 28, 2008, when I won a game against Ms. Cathy Li, a former professional Go player who was also coaching the Canadian national Go team. I won the game with a 4-stone handicap. In retrospect, Ms. Li probably did not play her hardest.

 : myself "avatarized"

 : my name in Chinese

 : my name "Hao" in Hebrew

 : my name "Hao" in Hindi

 : my name "Hao" in Arabic

 : my name "Hao" in Bengali.