Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The Cole Prize in Number Theory and Cole Prize in Algebra were completely different awards. The two winners each had their own medal, so they each had their own prize money.
A check for $100,000 USD as well as a medal was sent to both Lu Zhou and Schultz.
At night, the Federal Mathematics Society held a dinner party at a five-star hotel near the Berkeley campus.
Since it was Christmas season, the atmosphere of the dinner party was lively.
Although there were no Christmas trees or Santa, Lu Zhou saw the classic roast turkey and a Buche de Noel cake.
As the youngest winner of the Cole Prize in Number Theory, and the only person to cause the Federal Mathematics Society to make an exception, Lu Zhou was naturally the focus of the dinner party.
Especially for people in number theory.
Many number theory mathematicians took this opportunity to meet him.
The younger and less accomplished scholars would only chat for a bit to Lu Zhou as they felt intimidated.
This was because Lu Zhou was considered a big name in the field of mathematics.
Cole Prize at the age of 21 years old. The Fields Medal must be coming soon then?
It was just a matter of time.
After dealing with the people who kept asking for his email address and Facebook, Lu Zhou felt a little hungry. He put down the champagne down and took a plate as he started to look for food.
He asked the hotel waiter to cut him a leg from the roast turkey. Coincidentally, Schultz was also there.
The two were interested in each other, so they found a seat and sat down.
At first, the two started to discuss mathematics, but because of the differences in the area of research, they started to talk about their life instead.
Lu Zhou, “I heard that you’re married?”
Schultz smiled and said, “Yes, the second year after I was hired as a professor at the University of Bonn, I proposed to my wife. We’ve been together for three years.”
Lu Zhou said, “Wow, I didn’t know. We’re close in age but you’re already a dad.”
“Hey it’s nothing strange, I’m already 28 years old,” Schultz smiled and said, “How about you? When are you going to get married?”
Lu Zhou smiled and said, “I don’t have plans to marry yet.”
Lu Zhou suddenly regretted saying this.
Why did I bring up this heavy topic?
Schultz smiled and said, “I understand. Being married isn’t always fun. There’s not as much freedom compared to when you’re single. I also thought like you when I was young. Until I met her… Thing is, having a family brought me more joy than I can imagine, second only to mathematics. Especially because she brought me a cute little angel and this angel plays with my medals all the time.”
Yes, his medals were toys for his children.
If he won the Fields Medal, imagined how many people would be pissed off.
While talking about Schultz’s wife and daughter, Schultz began to move away from the University of Bonn and started talking about their vows in front of Munster Cathedral.
“Real talk, my friend. I sincerely suggest that you try a relationship. If you don’t experience these things, it’s like something is missing from your life,” said Schultz as he looked at Lu Zhou seriously. He smiled and said, “I promise you that it won’t affect your mathematics research. In fact, it might even bring you unexpected inspiration.”
Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly. He did not want to talk.
F*ck sake!
You think I don’t want to be in a relationship?!
…
The next day, Lu Zhou woke up a little later than usual. He slept until afternoon and nearly missed the afternoon report.
He quickly brushed his teeth, washed his face and changed his clothes before walked to Berkeley and went to the report meeting.
This report speaker was Helfgott, the Peruvian from France!
The report content was about Goldbach’s conjecture!
Two years ago, this French mathematician used a “circle method” to prove a smaller conjecture related to Goldbach’s conjecture. Each odd number of >10^30 could be expressed as the sum of three prime numbers.
As for the 10^30 number, this had been checked by computers and it was correct.
This method of proof lacked some mathematics sophistication, but it was still a proof. The fact was that the Goldbach’s conjecture had been proved under established conditions. What remained to be done was to prove the Goldbach’s conjecture without these conditions.
Different from the “circle method” was Brown’s “a+b” method. It was the same line of logic and was a fairly promising method in number theory.
Using this method, he narrowed down an infinite problem to a lower bound that could be calculated. All odd numbers greater than this limit was correct, and as for the odd numbers smaller than this limit, it had to be checked one by one with a computer.
At present, the mathematics community accepted Helfgott’s research results. This was why he was invited to give an hour report at the mathematics conference.
Naturally, Lu Zhou was interested in this talk. Helfgott was the biggest Goldbach’s conjecture researcher for decades.
Lu Zhou started to listen carefully and he even took some notes.
Although the Cole Prize was a great honor, Lu Zhou knew that his strengths could be improved. He did not bathe in the joy of winning for long and he was ready to grind again.
He did not even realize that his Cole Prize would cause another sensation in China…
…
[Shook! The Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award winner won another international award!]
Shi Shang was doing his homework. When he looked at the news on his phone, he said, ” Motherf*cker, this guy did it again!”
The day Lu Zhou won the Cole Prize in Number Theory, his name blew up in the University of Jin Ling.
The aura of the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award had not even faded yet, and he already won another award.
This time, it was not just people from the mathematics department. Even the students from the liberal arts department, physics department, and foreign language department all worshiped this god.
As the first Chinese winner of the Cole Prize and as the record holder for the youngest winner ever, this glory was enough for the professors of University to brag for a year.
Previously the department of mathematics of the University of Jin Ling had no sense of existence at all, so this award was extremely impactful for them.
Huang Guangming raised his head and said, “Bro, the banner outside the school changed again!”
Liu Rui raised his head and said: “…”
Huang Guangming saw that Liu Rui did not respond, so he said, “Liu Rui, it’s still Lu Zhou on the banner!”
Liu Rui: “…”
Huang Guangming, “Liu Rui, why are you like this?”
“…”
Goddamn it!
Are you guys done bragging about Lu Zhou yet?!
In his head, Liu Rui slammed the pen down.
Dorm 201 once again heard the screams of Huang Guangming…