Chen Jingrun was born on 22 May, 1933 in Fujian province of China. Chen’s father was a clerk in post-office and his mother passed away in 1947. Chen’s family was comparatively poor since the income of his father was low and his family was large. After the graduation of Chen in a middle school in Fuzhou, he entered the Department of Mathematics, Xiamen University in 1949.

Chen was appointed by the government as a teacher of the Beijing Fourth Middle School when he graduated in 1953. He was fired by the school because he was could not speak clearly. Mr. Wang Yanan, the president of Xiamen University, was informed on Chen’s situation. He hired Chen as a clerk in Xiamen University in 1955.

Chen was very interested in number theory at that time. Xiamen was a city in the coastal front. The air raid alarms were often triggered and the people have to hide in the air raid shelter. Chen brought several pages of Hua Luogeng’s book “Additive Prime Number Theory” and studied it even in the shelter.

Chen succeeded in improving some results in Hua’s book. He wrote a paper “On Tarry’s problem” and mailed to Hua. Hua was confident that Chen has high talent in mathematics after Chen’s paper was confirmed by some mathematicians in the number theory section of the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica.

Owing to Hua’s introduction, Chen attended the annual meeting of the Chinese Mathematical Society held in August, 1956, and gave a lecture on his result on Tarry’s problem. The participants were interested in Chen’s talk.

Recommended by Hua, Chen became an assistant in the Institute of Mathematics, Academia Sinica in 1957. There are great progresses in Chen’s research work when he stayed in the Institute. Using the estimation of trigonometric sums and their applications, he pushed forward some records of the famous circle problem, divisor problem, sphere problem and E. Waring’s problem.

Chen reached the climax of his research when he studied the sieve method and its applications in the 60’s. His results on Goldbach conjecture and the distribution of almost primes have wide international influences and were highly appreciated.

Since he has made important contributions in mathematics, Chen was appointed as the research professor of the Institute in 1978 and was elected as the fellow of Academia Sinica in 1980. Chen was awarded the 1st rank of National Natural Science Prize, He-Liang-He-Li Prize and Hua Luogeng Mathematics Prize.

Chen was often sick and his health was not well. He passed away in March 19, 1996.  

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陈景润（1933年5月22日～1996年3月19日），汉族，福建福州人。中国著名数学家，厦门大学数学系毕业。

1933年5月22日，出生于福建省闽侯县。
1948年2月，考入福建师范大学附属中学前身福州英华高一上春季班。
1950年夏，高三上提前考入厦门大学数理系。
1949年至1953年，就读于厦门大学数学系。大学毕业后，由政府分配至北京市第四中学任教。
1953-1954年，在北京四中任教，因口齿不清，被“停职回乡养病”。

1954年，调回厦门大学任资料员，同时研究数论，对组合数学与现代经济管理、科学实验、尖端技术、人类生活的密切关系等问题也作了研究。
1955年2月，经当时厦门大学的校长王亚南先生推荐，回母校厦门大学数学系任助教。
1956年，发表《塔内问题》，改进了华罗庚先生在《堆垒素数论》中的结果。
1957年9月，由于华罗庚教授的重视，调入中国科学院数学研究所任研究实习员。
1960-1962年，转入中科院大连化学物理所工作。
1962年，任助理研究员。
1965年，证明（1+2），由师兄王元审查后于1966年6月在科学通报上发表。
1966年，发表《表达偶数为一个素数及一个不超过两个素数的乘积之和》（简称“1+2”），成为哥德巴赫猜想研究上的里程碑。
1973年，在《中国科学》发表了“1+2”的详细证明并改进了1966年宣布的数值结果，立即在国际数学界引起了轰动，被公认为是对哥德巴赫猜想研究的重大贡献，是筛法理论的光辉顶点。他的成果被国际数学界称为“陈氏定理”，写进美、英、法、苏、日等六国的许多数论书中。这项工作还使他与王元、潘承洞在1978年共同获得中国自然科学奖一等奖。
1977年，被破格晋升为研究员。
1979年，完成论文《算术级数中的最小素数》，将最小素数从原有的80推进到16，受到国际数学界好评。
1979年，应美国普林斯顿高等研究院之邀前往讲学与访问，受到外国同行的广泛关注。
1980年，当选中科院物理学数学部委员。（院士）
1981年3月，当选为中国科学院学部委员。（院士）
1988年，被定为一级研究员。
1992年，任《数学学报》主编，荣获首届华罗庚数学奖。
1996年，3月19日下午1点10分，在北京医院去世，年仅63岁。