Mathematicians were prominent in the development of the computer, from the early 19th century ideas of Charles Babbage to the modern fundamental work of Alan Turing and John von Neumann in the middle of the 20th century. But computer science has now developed into a vast enterprise and the close connection with mathematics is in danger of being lost, to the detriment of both.

　　David Mumford and Wu Wentsun are two leading mathematicians who have, in the second part of their careers, re-established that link in two different ways.

　　Mumford, who made outstanding contributions to the classical subject of algebraic geometry, has applied sophisticated mathematical analysis to the subject of computer vision. This tries to mimic by computer the complex process by which human beings see and understand the world around us.

　　Wu Wentsun began as a geometer (under the great Shiing-Shen Chern, the first recipient of the Shaw Prize in mathematics) but went in the opposite direction to Mumford, showing how to develop effective computer algorithms for the automatic proof of theorems in geometry.

　　It is notorious that computers, which are digital machines, are not well adapted to spatial processes, so that bridging the gap between the computer and geometry or vision as Mumford and Wu have done is a great achievement. They represent a new role model for mathematicians of the future and are deserved winners of the Shaw Prize.