Shiing-Shen Chern

Shiing-Shen Chern (October 26 1911 –  December 3 2004) was a Chinese American mathematician, one of the leading differential geometers of the twentieth century. His surname is a common Chinese surname which is now usually spelt Chen. The unusual spelling "Chern" is a transliteration in the old Gwoyeu Romatzyh romanization for Mandarin Chinese used in the early twentieth century China. It uses special spelling rules to indicate different tones of Mandarin, which is a tonal language with four tones. The silent "r" in "Chern" indicating a second-tone syllable, which represents the same syllable as "chén" in  pinyin, while the spelling "Chen" now in use does not specify the tone. In the same romanization, the spelling of his given name "Shiing-Shen" indicates a third tone for Shiing and a first tone for Shen, which are equivalent to the syllables "xǐng shēn" in pinyin.
See more at Wikipedia.org...