Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Molina brought Lu Zhou to the Princeton Hotel and after she handed him to one of the hotel staff, she then left.
After entering Lu Zhou’s information into the hotel system, the hotel staff said, “Your room is 306. Do you need me to bring you there?”
Lu Zhou answered, “No need, I can get there myself.”
He dragged his luggage into the elevator and went into his hotel room. The first thing he did was to take a hot shower. Once he came out of the bathroom, he fell asleep on the bed.
He had such a long flight, so he was still jet lagged.
He laid down and soon he started to snore…
…
Normally an academic conference was only three to four days long. However, because this was the first conference after the Christmas break, and lots of important people came, the conference was six days long.
Lu Zhou’s presentation was on the fifth day, and it was about the research on the distribution of Mersenne primes. He had 30 minutes to present.
Presenting for 30 minutes as an undergraduate student was considered a great honor, and not to mention, he was invited to come here.
Doing a presentation at a conference of this level was a lot stricter than submitting an SCI thesis.
Especially the once every four years international mathematics conference organized by the International Mathematician Union (IMU), to be able to attend that conference alone was already an impressive feat.
Unfortunately, the organizer of this academic conference was the Federal Mathematician Society, and it was held once a year. It mainly aimed at younger mathematicians, so the weight was much lower. However, genius mathematicians still attended it!
In the first day of the conference, Lu Zhou met Luo Wenxuan at the entrance of the hotel.
What surprised Lu Zhou was that even though Luo Wenxuan was already forty-something years old, he still looked young. He wore a pair of glasses and had a windbreaker on. Instead of a mathematician, he looked more like a historian.
Luo Wenxuan shook Lu Zhou’s hand eagerly before they both walked toward Princeton University.
On the way, Luo Wenxuan asked, “How are you feeling? Are you still jet-lagged?”
Lu Zhou replied, “I should be fine enough to listen to the talks. You’re also participating in this conference?”
Luo Wenxuan smiled and said, “I’m just there to listen. This conference is mainly focused on number theory, which is not in my field of research. But there are famous people like Professor Deligne and Professor Robert who are acting as judges of the presentations. I can’t miss this opportunity.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Which direction is your research?”
Luo Wenxuan said, “The branch of functional analysis space theory. I mainly do theoretical research on the Hilbert space. But I also study some quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, so I think I deserve a physics degree by now.”
Lu Zhou, “How is the physics department at Princeton?”
“How is it? It’s really good, I don’t even know how else to describe it,” said Luo Wenxuan as he smiled. He added, “In short, there are geniuses everywhere. If you want to study mathematics and physics, studying here is a pretty good option. You should be able to easily get an offer, right? But I don’t really recommend you going this direction.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Why?”
Luo Wenxuan said, “Because you’ve already shown great potential in the field of number theory, why don’t you just continue along that path?”
“Because… Life needs a challenge?” said Lu Zhou. His tone was uncertain and he casually came up with this reason.
“Impressive!” said Luo Wenxuan as he gave him a thumbs up. He then said, “… Okay, we’re here, it’s just over there. There are small gifts at the front door. You can get them with the invitation card. But don’t get your hopes up, it’s all stuff like pens and notebooks.”
“Thanks.”
Luo Wenxuan waved his hand, “You’re welcome!”
Foreign academic conferences were very different than domestic academic conferences. Especially in the poster exchange stage, there were no specific rules here.
Instead of exchanging goods, they were exchanging knowledge.
Everyone here had the right to express their own opinions, without worrying about their identity or status. The academic soul was sublimated in the collision of this kind of thinking. Inside the conference, there would be highly respected professors, and there would also be undergraduate students.
Of course, to be able to get a spot for one’s academic poster meant that one had some strength. Even though one’s opinions might not be absolutely correct, one still had the option of discussing one’s opinions.
In addition to sharing academic issues with the stall owners, people had different ways of participating in academic conferences. The geniuses were rushing to showcase their research results while the dumb students were here to learn. Of course, even though the dumb students did not have any impressive research results to bring to the table, they could still participate.
As Lu Zhou stood in the crowd, he was glad that he did not wear a suit. Everyone was wearing casual clothes. First of all, if he wore a suit, he could be mistaken as a member of the management team. Secondly, his suit was not very warm, and the air conditioning made the hall very cold.
Once Luo Wenxuan brought Lu Zhou into the hall, he disappeared.
This was a great opportunity to communicate with geniuses at the frontier of fields, so to stay with acquaintances was a waste of time.
The first thing that Lu Zhou did after he entered the venue was to look through the gifts booth.
There were pens, notepads, and even ties. However, he could only take one of each. Lu Zhou planned to take a pen as a gift for his sister.
Of course, the small gifts were just a small part of the conference.
Lu Zhou did not forget the main reason he was here.
Generally speaking, the first two days of presentations had the highest value. Last night, Lu Zhou went on the conference website and printed out the presentation times and locations.
The first presentation had yet to begin, so Lu Zhou wondered around the booths in the hall and looked at the posters.
Suddenly, he was attracted by an impressive poster.
[Proof of the Twin prime number guess.]
[Author: Dijan]
[…]
Lu Zhou: ? ? ?
The f*ck?
Lu Zhou was shocked after seeing the title of the poster.
The problem that troubled him for half a year was solved by someone else?
This is big news!
Maybe, I’m witnessing history?
This is so exciting!
But, why is no one around?
Lu Zhou walked forward while he held his curiosity close to his heart.