以表彰他開闢整體微分幾何學的成就，以及他對這個數學範疇一直以來的領導。整體微分幾何學的精妙發展佔著當代數學的核心，與拓樸學、代數學和分析學，簡而言之，與過去六十年數學的所有主要範疇都有密切關連。
Shiing-Shen Chern is the foremost geometer of our time. His mathematical work, centering on geometry and spanning almost seven decades, has shaped large areas of modern mathematics. More than any other mathematician he defined the subject of global differential geometry, one of the central areas in contemporary mathematics. The depth and originality of his mathematical insight is seen in the many basic concepts of modern mathematics to which his name is attached: Chern classes, the Chern-Weil map, the Chern connection, the Bott-Chern forms, Chern-Moser invariants, and the Chern-Simons invariants.
Chern’s talent became apparent early. He completed his undergraduate work at Nankai University and his M.Sc degree work at Tsinghua University. In the 1930s he was sent to Europe, where he studied with Wilhelm Blaschke in Hamburg and Elie Cartan in Paris. Guided by their influence he wrote, in effect, two theses: one on web geometry and one on the differential invariants of a third-order ordinary differential equation. Both works were published and remain of interest today.
陳省身 (Shiing-Shen Chern)（1911-2004）在中國浙江省出生，1930年南開大學畢業，1934年清華大學研究院畢業，其後赴德國漢堡大學深造數學，先後任教中國昆明西南聯合大學、美國芝加哥大學和加州大學柏克萊分校。其後陳教授創立南開大學數學研究所，並出任所長，1992年成為該所名譽所長。
陳教授曾獲多個榮譽及獎項，包括於1961年被選為美國國家科學院院士，1975年獲美國國家科學獎，1984年獲以色列政府頒發Wolf數學獎，2002年獲俄國科學院頒發Lobachevsky獎及2004年獲頒發第一屆邵逸夫數學科學獎。陳教授亦曾任2002年在北京舉行之國際數學會議之名譽會長。
