Zhouli Xu (Chinese: 徐宙利; born 1987) is a Chinese mathematician specializing in topology as a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles, known for computations of homotopy groups of spheres.
[2] His research accomplishments include his joint works with collaborators in proving that the 61-dimensional sphere has a unique smooth structure, proving a "10/8 + 4"-theorem on the geography problem in 4-dimensional topology, developing the motivic deformation method and the Chow t-structure, and computing the classical and motivic stable homotopy groups of spheres in the previously unknown range of dimensions.
[2][5] Xu is a recipient of the K-Theory prize in 2022, which is awarded to two recipients of no more than 35 years of age once every four years by the K-Theory Foundation,[6] for his work in the computation of homotopy groups of spheres using motivic homotopy theory.
[7] Xu is an invited speaker in the topology section at the International Congress of Mathematicians 2022.
[4][8][9] Xu is elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society of class 2023, for contributions to stable homotopy theory, applications to manifold topology, and motivic homotopy theory.