On December 11th, something big happened in the academic circle.
However, it was not in the mathematics field, it was in the medical field.
Three days ago, Professor Tu Youyou gave a speech at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden titled "The Discovery of Artemisinin: A Gift from Traditional Chinese Medicine to the World". Today, she received the "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine" medal at the award ceremony in Stockholm!
William Campbell and Omura Tomo also won the prize. The three of them would share 8 million Swedish kronor (about US $920,000).
Because of this, the first Chinese Nobel Prize winner outside of the Peace Prize was finally born!
Lu Zhou was happy for China's academic community. He could not help but feel emotional.
The first Chinese Nobel Prize winner was born. It was time for him to work towards the Fields Prize.
Interestingly, a few days after the Nobel Prize award, the official website of the National Knowledge Bureau published an article titled "The Revelation of the Artemisinin Patent", which told the story behind the Nobel Prize.
Due to the times, there was no intellectual property system in China at that time. The only choice was to publish research results in international journals. However, the China Academy of Military Medical Sciences developed a derivative "artemether" based on artemisinin. The patent was not in China's hands. Instead, it was taken by the Swiss company Novartis.
There were many reasons for this, but in the end, it was because of the ignorance of the patent issue.
It was clearly something that he had invented, but in the end, he had to be controlled by others. It made him sigh endlessly.
What was even more frustrating was that even though Tu Youyou was the one who won the Nobel Prize, this research had nothing to do with her. Many departments had the relevant technical materials, and everyone was rushing to cooperate with foreign companies. She was the only one not involved.
The highest reward for this hero was a second prize in the 1979 National Invention Award. The prize money was 5000 yuan, but she only received 200 yuan.
In contrast, Omura Tomo, who won the award in the same year, had accumulated a personal wealth of nearly 30 billion yen through various patent fees in the field of microbiology. At the age of 80, he had both fame and fortune. He was no longer engaged in scientific research. Instead, he played with his art collection and lived out his old age.
This showed the importance of intellectual property protection.
Because Lu Zhou had been paying attention to the patent issue recently, he happened to see this article on the official website of the National Knowledge Bureau.
To him, this was a wake-up call.
…
The end of the year academic conference was finally scheduled for a week before Christmas.
On the morning of the 18th, a flight landed at a California airport.
After leaving the airport with his suitcase, Lu Zhou took a taxi to the University of California, Berkeley.
The annual end-of-year academic conference organized by the Federal Mathematics Society would be held at Berkeley.
The Cole Prize would be announced at the opening ceremony.
Although he, the winner of the award, had been exposed two months in advance, and even before the official paperwork was released, he already knew that he had won the award. However, the excitement of the advance was definitely not as strong as the moment he received the medal and the check.
Lu Zhou got out of the car at the entrance of the Berkeley campus and saw Luo Wenxuan waiting for him.
As soon as he saw him, he gave him a warm hug. Luo Wenxuan smiled and said, "Why didn't you call me earlier? I'll pick you up at the airport. "
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Your car is on the East Coast. If you came here, you would have to take a taxi with me. I might as well take a taxi myself."
Before he came to America, he did not notify anyone in advance. He only called Luo Wenxuan after he got off the plane.
As a member of the Federal Mathematics Society, Edward Witten obviously would not miss this kind of conference. Luo Wenxuan was a PhD student under Witten, so it was reasonable for him to come. Lu Zhou did not even ask before he guessed this.
He looked at his watch and saw that it was getting late. Luo Wenxuan said, "Let's go, I'll take you to your place. This time, the organizers prepared a five-star hotel for us … Although it's called a five-star hotel, I think it's only a four-star hotel. "
Lu Zhou said, "How does it compare to the Princeton Hotel?"
Luo Wenxuan smiled and said, "The Princeton Hotel? You mean the one across Palmer Square? Compared to that, the living conditions here are better, but the academic atmosphere is a lot less. "
Berkeley was located in the San Francisco Bay Area, which was the second largest metropolitan area in California, after the Greater Los Angeles area. Compared to Princeton, which was a quiet town, the atmosphere here was undoubtedly more impetuous.
On the way, the two talked about what happened a while ago. Luo Wenxuan could not help but feel emotional.
"Not bad, Lu Zhou. This year isn't over yet, but you got to show off again before the end of the year."
Lu Zhou coughed and said in a low-key manner, "What do you mean by showing off? You're not showing off when it comes to academics."
"Sure, you sound more and more like Old Tang," said Luo Wenxuan. He then paused for a second and said, "So, as the winner of this year's Cole Prize in Number Theory, Mr. Lu Zhou, what do you think?"
"I don't think so, I haven't even started yet."
Although the award ceremony was in a few days, the email said that it was confidential, so Lu Zhou felt like he had to put on an act.
However, Luo Wenxuan saw through Lu Zhou and did not believe him at all. He rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, okay, stop pretending. The written notice should've come a month in advance. You must've already heard about it."
Lu Zhou, "Okay … I did receive the written notice, but the email also said that it needs to be confidential before the official award ceremony."
"Okay, okay, I won't tell anyone," said Luo Wenxuan as he patted Lu Zhou's shoulder and said, "When you get the award, remember to buy me a drink!"
Lu Zhou remembered his unpleasant experience last time and quickly said, "Drink is fine, but let's go to a normal bar this time."
Luo Wenxuan waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, this is near the university. The bars nearby are very formal, and many professors come here. Oh yeah, did you get that pretty girl from last time? Do you still contact her? "
Lu Zhou paused for a second and did not understand what Luo Wenxuan was talking about. "What pretty girl?"
When Luo Wenxuan saw Lu Zhou's reaction, he said, "At CERN … No way, it's only been half a year, and you already forgot about her?"
Lu Zhou was speechless.
"Are you talking about that? I didn't do anything to her. "
Luo Wenxuan pinched his eyebrows and said, "Wait a second, I don't quite understand what you're saying … You're saying that you dragged her into the room, covered her with a blanket, and then left without doing anything?"
Lu Zhou looked at him and said, "I didn't cover her with a blanket, I closed the curtains … What else could I have done? Wait for her to wake up? "
Luo Wenxuan stared at Lu Zhou and went silent for a while. He then sighed.
"Brother …"
Lu Zhou, "What?"
Luo Wenxuan sighed and continued, "I thought that there was nothing left to teach you. I didn't expect that you would have to start from scratch …"
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