Lu Zhou could only think of Professor Qiu Chengtong as an authority in the field of partial differential equations.
Professor Qiu's achievements in differential geometry didn't need to be mentioned.
Lu Zhou flipped to the preface of his Differential Geometry Lecture Notes and saw this sentence: "He is the founder of the school of geometric analysis."
What was geometric analysis?
It was the application of partial differential equations to differential geometry.
Because of his conflict with Yan University, the Chinese academic community had a mixed opinion of him. However, the international academic community still had a high opinion of this Chinese scholar.
This could be seen from the honors he had received.
There were only two mathematicians in history who had won the Fields Prize, Wolf Prize, and Clayford Prize. One of them was Lu Zhou's supervisor, Deligné, and the other was Professor Qiu Chengtong.
Lu Zhou and Professor Qiu met at the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award ceremony. However, because of their different research directions, they didn't have much interaction.
The Navier – Stokes equation was a partial differential equation problem. Professor Qiu was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable scholar in the field of partial differential equations among all the scholars that Lu Zhou knew.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a sturdy Ford Explorer was parked near the mathematics department building.
After Lu Zhou got out of the car, he looked around. He didn't know where to go.
Therefore, he used his intuition and stopped a passerby who looked like a mathematics researcher.
"Hello, may I know how to get to Professor Qiu's office?"
"You're looking for Professor Qiu?" The boy with glasses looked at Lu Zhou. He felt like this person looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before. Therefore, he asked, "Why are you looking for Professor Qiu?"
Lu Zhou: "I have some questions."
Perhaps because Lu Zhou was too young, the man with glasses smiled faintly and said, "Professor Qiu doesn't have time to answer those simple questions for you. If you have any questions, just ask me."
Slightly stunned, Lu Zhou immediately smiled and said, "Really? Can you help me answer the reason why the Navier-Stokes equation does not have a non-trivial backward self-similar solution? "
The moment he heard the question, the bespectacled man was immediately stunned.
However, he didn't want to admit that he couldn't figure it out, so he started to think about it. However, he frowned and thought hard for a long time, but still couldn't think of a way to answer this question.
It was obvious that he specialized in partial differential equations. He also had some understanding of the Navier-Stokes equation.
However, it was also obvious that he didn't have a deep enough understanding of his profession, or rather, his research direction wasn't in this area.
Otherwise, it would not be difficult for him to know that this question had actually been answered by Necas and the other two mathematicians in 1995.
Lu Zhou looked at his watch and casually said, "Can you take me there now?"
"Sure, bro, you got me." The bespectacled man smiled and reluctantly nodded. He said, "Come with me, but Professor Qiu is a busy man, I can't guarantee that he will see you."
Lu Zhou smiled and didn't say anything. He followed behind him.
Lu Zhou learned that this guy's name was Zhao Wei. He graduated from Shuimu and was currently studying at Harvard's mathematics department. He was doing his PhD under Professor Qiu's good friend, Professor Steve Nadis.
"You're a new undergraduate student?"
Lu Zhou didn't deny it. Instead, he asked, "Why do you say that?"
Zhao Wei smirked and said, "Because you have a lot of hair, you look younger."
Lu Zhou: "…?"
This …
Is that a reason?
Zhao Wei didn't stop there. He continued to speak, "You probably saw that question in a reference book. But I suggest that before you start researching these cutting-edge things, it's better to focus on your own professional knowledge. Building a solid foundation is more important than researching things that are beyond your scope."
This guy is quite interesting. He's not a bad person, but he's a bit too enthusiastic.
If I become a professor in the future, I'm sure I'll be loved by my students.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "That makes sense, thanks for the lesson."
Zhao Wei was very happy to see his "little brother" being taught so much. He smiled and said, "We're all compatriots, so we should help each other out. If you have any questions in the future, you can come find me. Call me Brother Zhao or Brother Sihuo! "
Lu Zhou: "Then I'll call you Brother Sihuo."
This name sounds interesting.
Zhao Wei smiled and said: "You already know my name. Junior Brother, tell me your name."
"Lu Zhou."
Lu … Zhou?
Zhao Wei paused for a second and frowned. His brain didn't know what to do.
As they walked, they arrived at the door of Old Qiu's office.
Even though the office door was open, Lu Zhou still knocked on the door out of courtesy.
Old Qiu stopped writing and looked up.
When he saw the person who appeared at the door, the old man was slightly stunned at first. Then, his tightly knitted brows relaxed into a kind smile.
"Oh, what a rare visitor." Old Qiu put down his pen and stood up from his chair. He smiled and walked toward Lu Zhou as he said, "What brings you out of your room in Princeton?"
Lu Zhou smiled and said humbly, "I encountered a bottleneck in my research, so I wanted to ask you some questions about partial differential equations."
Zhao Wei looked at Old Qiu's attitude toward this young man, and his brain froze. He stood there with a muddled look on his face.
At this moment, he couldn't help but recall the reason for that sense of déjà vu …
He thought back to how he acted in front of Lu Zhou and wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground.
Old Qiu didn't notice the change in expression on Lu Zhou's face. After Old Qiu heard Lu Zhou's reason for coming, he suddenly had a look of interest in his eyes.
"Partial differential equations? That's something I'm familiar with, can you tell me what it is? "
"It's related to the Navier – Stokes equation."
Old Master Qiu was stunned for a moment, and the interest in his eyes grew stronger.
"Navier – Stokes equation? That's an interesting question … Have a seat, I'll go find my teapot. I'm afraid we can't talk about this for a while. "
Lu Zhou nodded and sat down next to the tea table.
Suddenly, Old Qiu noticed the person standing at the door and hesitated for a second.
"You are?"
Zhao Wei quickly stood up and said, "I'm Zhao Wei, I'm a PhD student at Professor Steve Nadis!"
"Oh, Professor Nadis's student," said Old Qiu. He adjusted his glasses and said, "You want to sit too?"
"No, it's fine," said Zhao Wei as he shook his head and said, "I'm just bringing Professor Lu over. I won't disturb the two of you."
Although listening to the big names talking about mathematics would definitely help his research …
But sitting next to these two great gods was too much pressure for a small, invisible person like him …
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