The morning of August the third.
The skies above St. Petersburg were clear as day.
The Corinthia Hotel was full of people.
Even though the conference hall was spacious, due to the sheer amount of attendees, two security checkpoints were set up at the entrance.
The chairman of the International Mathematical Union, Professor Shigefumi Mori, as well as Professor Viana, chairman of the organizing committee, stood on stage and delivered an opening speech. They were welcoming the scholars coming from all over the world and thanked the city of St. Petersburg for supporting the conference.
After that was the most eagerly anticipated stage, the award ceremony.
This was the highlight of the entire conference, and most people came just for the award ceremony.
The four award categories were considered one of the top honors of mathematics. Rumor went that obtaining any one of them would allow the scholar to follow the road of mathematics for the rest of their life.
Especially the Fields Medal.
Compared to the Golden Horse Award for Lifetime Achievement Award, this award could only be given to scholars under 40 years old, so it was the crown of mathematics.
Most people admired hard work, but everyone aspired to be a genius.
Especially for a field like mathematics, which required talent.
Lu Zhou, who was sitting in the crowd, could clearly hear people discussing next to him on who would receive this award.
“Jody Williamson, the youngest mathematician academician in Australia, established a pure algebraic Hodge theory on polynomial rings and successfully proved the Kazhdan Lusztig conjecture for Kirch group. He didn’t win it last time, but this time it should be his.”
“… Marina Vyazovska should also have a chance. Her research is in discrete geometry, and she extended the 3-dimensional sphere problem to 8 and 24 dimensions and also won the 2017 Clay Institute award, as well as the Ramanujan Prize. My mentor described her as a genius. She’s already 38 years old, this is her last chance.”
“Marina Vyazovska’s research is indeed excellent, but the field of discrete geometry is too unpopular, not to mention that her supervisor is not a famous scholar. I’m more optimistic about another Ukrainian mathematician, also a lady.”
“Who?”
“The person that proved the Cole Number Theory Prize, Vera Pulyuy, the winner of the Cole Number Theory Prize, the Ramanujan gold award, and the European Mathematical Society award. Both her research and her mentor are top notch. Plus she’s from Princeton. If they don’t consider her this time, they definitely would next time.”
“Jesus, why is the Fields Medal only once every four years? There are too many people who deserve to win.”
“Because if they hand out too many awards, the awards will become meaningless. We have to select the best of the best, the people that will change the future of mathematics.”
Lu Zhou overheard their conversation, and he had a surprised look on his face.
He didn’t know that Vera won all those awards.
He thought that maybe she didn’t think the awards were worth mentioning, which made him a little sad.
Professor Mori didn’t let the attendees wait for long. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and began the award process.
“First is the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize, I know you guys have been waiting a long time for this.”
The second he finished speaking.
The huge venue went dead silent.
After Professor Mori looked around the venue, he spoke in a calm and solemn voice.
“We often say that mathematics is the foundation of science. It’s the tool that allows us to understand the universe. Integrating advanced mathematical methods into applied science can change the world. However, there are very few scholars that are able to create the tools that shape our future.
“I can spend the entire day talking about his achievements…”
Everyone was listening attentively, including Lu Zhou.
However, suddenly, someone spoke.
“… Oh, Jesus, I already know who it is, just give it to him!”
Soon after, someone spoke.
“Yeah, yeah, everyone knows who’s going to win the Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize, just go next.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
F*ck sake!
Can’t you guys just shut up?
This is ruining the suspense!
Lu Zhou turned his head and wanted to see who was ruining the moment, but there were too many people in the venue, he couldn’t tell who were the ones speaking.
Professor Mori continued on stage, “His mathematics is changing science, changing the world!”
“The award winner is…
“Lu Zhou!”
A thunderous round of applause began.
Lu Zhou stood up in the midst of the applause and took a deep breath. He walked calmly on stage and received the medal from Professor Shigefumi Mori’s hands.
This professor gently tapped Lu Zhou on the arm, and he had a friendly smile on his face.
“Congratulations, we meet again.”
Applied science had little to do in the mathematics world, so scholars such as Grothendieck and Hardy were proud to call mathematics as “pure” and “rigorous”.
But regardless, applied science was one of the important applications of mathematics. Not to mention that even scholars like Grothendieck eventually had their tools applied in the sciences.
The Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize was for scholars that applied mathematics to the sciences.
“Thank you, it’s nice to see you again.” Lu Zhou shook hands with this elderly scholar and said, “I hope we will meet again.”
Shigefumi Mori paused for a second and smiled.
“Do you mean… another prize ceremony? Unfortunately, there aren’t many medals left we can give you, and when you’re seventy years old, I will no longer be here.”
Lu Zhou: “But there’s still a Leelavati Prize?”
Shigefumi Mori coughed and said,”… Please give other mathematicians a chance, Professor Lu. Please head off the stage.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
The Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award was a lifetime award, and Lu Zhou was far from being retired. However, Lu Zhou felt like he should have a chance at receiving the Nevanlinna Prize for mathematical computer science, as well as the Leelavati Prize, which was mathematics “public outreach”.
He still remembered that the Turkish guy that won the Leelavati Prize seemed to have built numerous primary schools in remote desert areas?
I’ve contributed way more to mathematics than a couple of primary schools, why shouldn’t I win the award?
Even though Lu Zhou didn’t really care about the medal, he still felt a little unjust.
After he got off stage, he sat in his designated Carl Friedrich Gauss Prize seat and quietly waited for the award ceremony to continue.
Next up was the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award and the Leelavati Prize; the former was a lifetime award, and the latter was an award for “ordinary” people who have made outstanding contributions to popularizing science and mathematics.
The atmosphere in the venue was pushed to a max when the Fields Medal ceremony began.
Lu Zhou was sitting in the front row. He could feel the pairs of eyes behind him, all staring at the stage.
Professor Shigefumi Mori spoke.
The second he spoke, everyone froze.
“Number theory is an ancient discipline, it has been around ever since the beginning of mathematics. Ancient conjectures have yet to be solved. It is the origin of all of the knowledge we have mastered so far.
“Few people are able to make truly outstanding achievements in this field. Only the bravest warriors are able to climb the daunting mountains.
“The first winner of the Fields Medal is—
“Vera Pulyuy from Princeton!”
Thunderous applause immediately erupted, echoing in Lu Zhou’s ears.
Vera?
It wasn’t like he didn’t think about this possibility.
But he didn’t expect this at all!
She was indeed an excellent scholar, there was no doubt that her research was worthy of an award consideration. But she was far too young.
If Lu Zhou recalled correctly, she was 22 when she received her PhD from Princeton.
It had been four years, and she was only 26 years old…
Of course, what caught Lu Zhou off guard wasn’t the fact that Vera won.
It was the line of blue text that appeared in front of him.
[Congratulations, User, hidden achievements unlocked!]
[Please enter the system space to collect your rewards!]
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