The morning of August 1st, 2018.
The venue was packed with people.
As the largest and most important conference in the international mathematics community, the International Congress of Mathematicians was known as the Olympics of mathematics. Since 1897, other than the two World Wars, it had never stopped.
As an international conference that provided a space for mathematicians around the world to communicate, discuss academic problems, meet old friends, and make new friends, every conference played a pivotal role in the history of mathematics.
This year's conference was particularly special.
Not only was this the first International Congress of Mathematicians held in the southern hemisphere, but it was also because of the Millennium Prize Problems. Therefore, this conference received a considerable amount of attention from the beginning.
Lu Zhou walked to the venue in a formal suit. In the hallway outside the venue, he bumped into Professor Fefferman, and the two walked into the venue together.
Lu Zhou found a less crowded spot near the entrance and looked at his watch.
It was only eight o 'clock, one hour until the opening ceremony.
Fefferman: "I heard that your country's CTV applied for a live broadcast from the IMU yesterday."
Lu Zhou looked at the corner of the venue and saw the CTV logo in the row of cameras.
Perhaps noticing his line of sight, the young man with the camera turned the camera towards him.
Lu Zhou quickly looked away and asked, "Is this rare?"
"Of course it's rare, this is the first time I've seen this." Professor Fefferman smiled and patted Lu Zhou's shoulder. He asked, "How is it, are you nervous?"
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, "… It's okay."
He even made it through the report yesterday. Today was just an opening ceremony, so he didn't have to do anything special.
As for CTV …
It wasn't his first time on CTV.
Professor Fefferman looked at Lu Zhou with surprise and said, "I can't believe it, that's a media outlet with 1.4 billion views, you don't feel anything?"
Lu Zhou coughed and said, "It's not that big of a deal …"
"… Actually, there's something else that might be very important to you, but I'm not sure if I should tell you." At this point, Fefferman's expression suddenly became hesitant, as if he couldn't decide whether to say it or not.
Lu Zhou: "What is it?"
Fefferman looked around and confirmed that no one was staring at them. He coughed and said in a low voice, "Yesterday at the party, I heard an old friend talking about this year's Fields Awards. He told me the names of the winners … "
Lu Zhou was shocked by this news, and he looked at him strangely.
After a long while, he finally spoke.
"… That's not very good."
Professor Fefferman said seriously, "It's really not good, so I hope you can keep it a secret for me."
Lu Zhou looked around.
Although he knew he shouldn't ask, he couldn't help but be curious.
"… May I ask who is on the list?"
Professor Fefferman raised his eyebrows and said, "You really want to know?"
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "… Yeah."
Fefferman lowered his voice and said, "Unfortunately, your name is not on the list … Although we all think that this year's Fields Awards will go to you."
Lu Zhou:???
The f * ck?!
No way?
That's not enough for a Fields Award?!
The moment Lu Zhou was shocked by this sentence, a familiar voice came from the side.
"Don't believe his nonsense, no one can know the name of the winner before the list is announced, even if that person is Fefferman." Professor Deligné walked over and mercilessly exposed Fefferman's nonsense. He stared at him seriously and said, "Or, tell me who your 'friend' is?"
Being stared at by Deligné, Fefferman coughed and quickly looked away. "Ahem, my dear Professor Deligné … This is just a joke to liven up the atmosphere, please don't take it so seriously. Otherwise, don't you think life will be a lot less fun?"
Lu Zhou was speechless. "… You almost fooled me."
Fefferman patted Lu Zhou's shoulder and said, "Don't be so serious! Look, don't you feel a lot more relaxed now? "
Lu Zhou: "Before you made this joke, I was very relaxed."
Professor Fefferman sighed and said, "Okay, I apologize …"
…
At nine o 'clock sharp.
The scholars in the venue took their seats, and the 28th International Congress of Mathematicians officially kicked off.
Professor Sylviana, the chairman of the conference organizing committee, and Professor Sen Chongwen, the chairman of the International Mathematical Union, respectively delivered opening speeches on stage. They thanked the local organizers of the conference, as well as old and new friends who came to attend the conference. They also announced the opening of the mathematics conference.
After the opening ceremony was the award ceremony.
The moment they entered this segment, the atmosphere of the meeting was immediately pushed to the climax.
The first to be announced was the winner of the Gauss Prize. This prize mainly rewarded achievements in the field of applied mathematics.
Professor David Donohue from Stanford University won this year's Gauss Prize for his fundamental contributions to the mathematics, statistics, and computational analysis of important problems in signal processing.
Next was the Shiing-Shen Chern Prize, which was a lifetime achievement award. This year's Shiing-Shen Chern Prize was awarded to Masaki Kashihara in recognition of his outstanding and fundamental contributions to algebraic analysis and representation theory.
Then there was the Rewalati Award, and the winner was a Turk named Ali Nasin ….
Finally, as the focus of the award ceremony and the highlight of the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians, the chairman of the International Mathematical Union would announce the winners of the Fields Prize.
Most mathematics achievements were made under the age of forty, and the Fields Prize was the highest honor that mathematicians under the age of forty could receive. It was known as the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
Although the medal did not determine whether a scholar was great or not, the scholars recognized by this medal were all super-class scholars who influenced the development of mathematics. They were the mainstay of the academic community.
While the list of names was being announced.
A lot of people subconsciously held their breath as they stared at the stage.
Especially the candidates who were expected to win the Fields Prize.
Zhang Wei sat in the middle of the crowd and had a dignified look on his face as he unconsciously clenched his fists.
Sophie Morel, who was sitting next to Molina, gently rubbed her fingers in front of her knees. She was either nervous or praying.
There was also James Maynard from the United Kingdom. He was sitting in the corner of the venue with his arms crossed. This young analytic number theory expert was also one of the popular candidates for the Fields Prize. Although he once lost to someone in the competition for the twin prime conjecture …
Perhaps Professor Shigefumi Mori sensed the heated gazes from the audience, so he smiled at them in a friendly manner.
After clearing his throat, he used a solemn and steady voice to read the first prize winner's speech.
"He has extremely high achievements in the understanding and application of mathematical methods. At the same time, he has extraordinary ambition and endless curiosity.
"… From the Chou – Lu theorem to the twin prime number theorem, from the Polignac – Lu theorem to the Goldbach – Lu theorem, his research in additive number theory has injected new blood into the ancient and great discipline of number theory, making it rejuvenate."
"Not only in number theory, but also in functional analysis, group theory, topology, differential geometry, partial differential equations … His work has spanned multiple disciplines, and the difficulty and contribution cannot be described in a few words.
"I believe that this is not only the inspiration of a genius, but it is also the condensation of countless sweat and tears."
The chairman of Sen Chongwen paused for a second before he solemnly announced.
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