The morning of August 3rd.
The sky above St. Petersburg was clear and sunny.
The conference hall of the Corinthia Hotel was packed with people.
Even though the conference hall was spacious enough, there were too many people, and there were two security checks at the door. People still had to walk shoulder to shoulder, and the crowded aisles barely had a place to stand.
Like in previous years, Professor Viana, the chairman of the conference organizing committee, and Sen Chongwen, the chairman of the International Mathematical Union, stood on the stage and gave an opening speech. They welcomed scholars from all over the country and thanked Russia and Saint Petersburg City for their support of mathematics.
Then, the entire conference ushered in the most exciting part, the award ceremony, under everyone's anticipation.
This segment could be said to be the highlight of the entire convention. In fact, it could even be said that many people had come for it.
The four awards that were about to be awarded represented the highest honor in the entire mathematics world. It could be said that if the winner won any one of the awards, they would be able to have a meteoric rise in mathematics for the rest of their lives.
Especially the Fields Award.
Compared to the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was a consolation prize, the Fields Medal, which was only awarded to mathematicians under the age of 40, could be said to be the crown in the minds of countless mathematicians.
Most people respected hard work, but everyone wanted to be a genius.
This was especially true for mathematics, a field that belonged to geniuses.
Lu Zhou, who was sitting in the crowd, could clearly hear the people sitting next to him discussing who would win this supreme honor.
"Jody Williamson, the youngest mathematics academician in Australia. He established a pure algebraic Hodge theory on polynomial rings, and he successfully proved the Kazhdan-Lusztig conjecture on the Cauchy group. He didn't get it last year, but it's a pity this year it should be his."
"… Marina Viazovska should also have a chance. Her research in discrete geometry extended the 3-dimensional sphere stacking problem to 8 and 24 dimensions. She also won the 2017 Clay Research Award, Lalu Gold Award, and the European Combinatorics Award. My supervisor described her as a genius. She's 38 years old this year, so if she doesn't win, she won't have a chance."
"Marina Viazovska's research is indeed excellent, but the field of discrete geometry is too cold. Not to mention that her supervisor isn't a famous scholar. In contrast, I'm more optimistic about another Ukrainian mathematician, and she's also a woman. "
"Who?"
"The prover of the Collatz conjecture, the winner of the last Cole Prize, Ramanujan Gold Award, and the European Mathematical Society Award, Vera Pulyuy. Both her research results and supervisor are top-notch, and she's from Princeton. Even if the award committee doesn't consider her this time, they will. "
"Dammit, why is there only one Fields Award every four years? There are too many people who can win. "
"Because if there are too many, there won't be any value. We must choose the truly outstanding scholars who can change the future of mathematics …"
Lu Zhou had a surprised expression on his face when he heard the third sentence from the last.
So many things had happened in a place he didn't know about, but she hadn't told him anything.
Even though Lu Zhou understood that she probably wanted to give him a surprise, or maybe she thought that this wasn't worth mentioning at all, he still felt a little disappointed.
Professor Sen Chongwen didn't want to disappoint the audience, so he stood on stage and didn't let the audience wait for long. He held up the speech in his hand, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and quickly entered the award process.
"First is the Gauss Prize. I know you guys have been waiting for a long time."
The moment these words left his mouth.
The huge venue quietened down as if it had been hit by a Silence Spell.
After Professor Sen Chongwen looked around the venue, he spoke in a calm and solemn tone.
"We often say that mathematics is the foundation of natural science and applied science, and its boundaries determine our understanding of the universe and ourselves. However, in the research of applied science, there are very few scholars who can master the methods of advanced mathematics and skillfully use those tools to solve the major propositions of our future.
"I can spend an entire day talking about him, and I might not even be able to finish it …"
The attendees listened attentively, and so did Lu Zhou.
However, at this moment, a discordant grumble came from the side.
"Oh, sh * t, I already know who it is, hurry up and give him the prize!"
Soon after, someone whispered.
"Yeah, yeah, the Gauss Prize is the least suspenseful, hurry up and give it to the next one."
Lu Zhou: "…"
MMP！
Couldn't he just play along and wait for a while before saying that?
The pleasant surprise that he had brewed with great difficulty was gone in an instant!
Lu Zhou turned his head to see who was making fun of him, but there were too many people here. He couldn't tell who said it at all.
On stage, Professor Sen Chongwen spoke.
"Just like he said, our science is changing the world, and mathematics will change our science!
"The winner is —"
"Lu Zhou!"
There was a thunderous applause.
Lu Zhou stood up and took a deep breath. He walked steadily to the front of the stage and took the medal from Professor Sen Chongwen's hands.
The old professor gently patted Lu Zhou's arm with his right hand. He had a friendly smile on his face as he nodded and spoke.
"Congratulations, young scholar, we meet again."
Applied science didn't have much of a reputation in the mathematics world. The Bourbaki school of mathematics was proud of the "uselessness" and "purity" of mathematics. Scholars like Hardy and Grothendieck had publicly expressed the view that mathematics was great because of its purity.
But in any case, applied science was indeed a part of mathematics. Not to mention that even scholars like Hardy and Grothendieck who pursued "glorious isolation", their theories were eventually reflected in other disciplines.
The Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize existed to reward this type of scholar.
"Thank you, I'm also happy to see you again." Lu Zhou shook hands with the old scholar and said with a smile, "I believe we will meet again."
Professor Shigefumi Mori paused for a second and spoke with a smile.
"You mean … in an occasion like this? That's a shame. I'm afraid we won't be able to give you any more medals before you're seventy years old. I'm afraid I won't be alive after you're seventy years old. "
Lu Zhou: "Isn't there still the Levalati Prize?"
Professor Sen Chongwen coughed and said, "… Please give other people who love mathematics a chance. Okay, Professor Lu, you can go now."
Lu Zhou: "…"
The Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Prize was a lifetime achievement. He didn't need to think about it for the time being. However, Lu Zhou felt that he still had some hope of winning the Nevanlinna Prize, which honored the mathematical sciences in computer science. There was also the Levalati Prize, which honored the scientific popularization of mathematics. He definitely had a chance.
He still remembered that the Turks who won this award last year had only built a few primary schools in remote mountainous areas (deserts)?
His contribution to the scientific popularization of mathematics was far more than just a few elementary schools. Why couldn't he participate in the award?
Although Lu Zhou didn't really care about the medal, he still felt a bit upset.
After he got off the stage, he sat in the front row for the Gauss Prize winners and quietly waited for the award ceremony to continue.
The next awards were the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Prize and the Levalati Prize. The former was a lifetime achievement award, while the latter was for "ordinary people" who had made outstanding contributions to the scientific popularization of mathematics.
The atmosphere in the venue was pushed to a climax. Especially when the Fields Prize award ceremony began, the enthusiastic atmosphere reached its peak.
Lu Zhou was sitting in the front row with his back facing the venue. He could even feel the pairs of eyes focused on the stage, as if they could light something on fire …
Professor Sen Chongwen looked at the crowd and spoke.
When the professor spoke, Lu Zhou, who was sitting in the front row, froze.
"Number theory is an ancient discipline, and its history runs through the entire history of mathematics. The classical propositions that have been solved and have not been solved can be said to be the origin of all the knowledge we have mastered so far.
"There are very few people who can achieve truly outstanding results in this field. The tall mountains make people flinch at the sight of them, except for those brave warriors with bright eyes and firm beliefs."
"… She constructed a clever transcendental whole function and proved that there is an entire function h (z), and {g ^ ok (z0)} ∞/k = 1 converges to 1. This proved the Collatz conjecture, which has troubled us for many years, and improved the Group Structure Method.
"The first winner of the Fields Prize is …
"Professor Vera Pulyuy from Princeton University!"
The thunderous applause was like a storm, hitting Lu Zhou's eardrums and making him feel like he was in a mess.
Vera?
It wasn't that he didn't consider this possibility.
But all of this was too sudden!
There was no doubt that she was an excellent scholar. There was no doubt that her research results in number theory could add points to awards, but no matter what, she was too young.
If Lu Zhou remembered correctly, when he left Princeton, she received her PhD. At that time, she was only 22 years old.
Now, four years had passed, and she was only 26 …
Of course, what really caught Lu Zhou off guard was not just the news of Vera winning the prize.
Almost at the same time, a line of light blue text appeared in his field of vision.
[Congratulations, User, for unlocking the hidden achievement!]
[Please go to the system space to check your reward!]
(The third chapter is dedicated! The plot has basically entered the middle stage. I will moderately speed up the pace. Also, the genius comic has been scheduled for the summer, and it will be available soon. Students with WeChat can follow me. Chen Xing will announce the character designs and the comic immediately.)
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