I Am the President of the University

Merton College, University of Oxford.

The two universities in the UK, Oxbridge, implement a college system, which is different from the domestic and American systems.

University colleges in China and the United States are more of a gathering place for professional students, such as science schools, business schools, engineering schools, etc. Colleges are generally not responsible for students' food, clothing, housing and transportation, but are mainly responsible for their teaching.

Oxbridge is different, there are two systems.

The first set is divided into different departments according to different majors. These departments are mainly responsible for daily scientific research and teaching; the other set is the college system, which is responsible for taking care of students' daily life, academic counseling and personal development, and has higher autonomy.

Compared with universities, students have a greater sense of ownership and identity with their colleges, especially students from very good colleges in Cambridge and Oxford.

For example, there is a popular saying in the University of Cambridge: There are two schools in the University of Cambridge, one is Trinity (the famous Trinity College) and Other Colleges (other colleges).

Merton College, founded in 1264, is one of the oldest colleges in Oxford University and the alma mater of Professor Andrew Wiles.

After resigning as the chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, Professor Wiles returned to his alma mater to teach as a professor in the Department of Mathematics.

I had just finished a group meeting for my students and when I returned to the office, I was stopped by another professor and told him a very interesting news.

"Oh, [x^3+y^3+z^3=33] has been proved?" Wiles showed a surprised expression and asked with interest: "Which mathematician completed it? "

Although this question is not simple, it is very different from Fermat's conjecture and Poincaré's conjecture. Big names like Wiles, Witten, and Faltings will not touch it. It is like a One is the World Cup and the other is the provincial competition.

"He's a Chinese, his name is Lu Yi."

"Lu Yu?" Professor Wiles thought for a while, shook his head and said, "I don't have much impression. Which university are you a professor from?"

When Wiles mentioned the word "professor", Professor Thomson burst into laughter and said with great joy:

"Professor Wiles, this Lu is not a professor, but an undergraduate student."

Professor Wiles was stunned for a moment, "Undergraduate student???"

If a professor from the mathematics department can prove this question, it shows that the other person has a solid foundation and good talent.

If this target is changed from a mathematics professor to an "mathematics undergraduate", it would be quite shocking.

This question seems simple, but it is still not easy to prove. Even Wiles might not be able to do it when he was an undergraduate.

Suddenly, Professor Wiles became interested and asked Professor Thomson: "Which university is this student from?"

Thomson knew that Professor Wiles was interested in talents, but he still said regretfully: "Professor Wiles, this student Lu will go to Princeton University."

Hearing Princeton's name, Wiles rarely lost his mind for a moment.

From 1982, he served as a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, to 2005 as the Chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University, and then returned to his alma mater to teach in 2011.

29 years of teaching cannot be forgotten in a moment.

After a long time, he showed a smile.

"Princeton University is a very good school, and I very much hope that he can bring some changes to the mathematics community."

…

Department of Mathematics, UCLA.

[Proof of the integer solution of x^3+y^3+z^3=33] Once it was uploaded to the arXiv website, after an hour or two of silence, many mathematicians had already demonstrated it, and after it was confirmed that it was correct, the news also Start spreading.

Tao Zhexuan only found out about it from his student Yu Cang.

Yu Cang is one of the three doctoral students he currently leads, international students from Handong Province, China.

"You mean this Lu Zhou is an undergraduate?" Terence Tao asked curiously.

"Yes, Professor Edward from Princeton said it on Twitter." Yu Cang explained.

Upon hearing this, Tao Zhexuan understood that the other party had probably reached some agreement with Princeton University, and in all likelihood, he would go to Princeton to study for a Ph.D.

"It's really amazing. I checked and found out that this Lu Zhou is actually a student from Guanghua University. I thought he was my junior student at Peking University. What a pity." Yu Cang said regretfully.

After all, Peking University is unique in domestic mathematics majors, and it is difficult for other schools to put pressure on them.

He never imagined that this Lu Zhou was from Guanghua University!

"Guanghua University..." Terence Tao read.

He remembered that several outstanding young scholars seemed to have gone to this school, such as Professor Xu Chenyang, who was originally in the MIT Department of Mathematics, and he had even communicated with him.

Not to mention that the photonic screen developed by the other party is popular all over the world, and it is said that the optical core will be launched soon.

Seeing the teacher read Guanghua University for a moment, Yu Cang said to himself: "Teacher, this Guanghua University is just a pheasant university."

"Pheasant University?"

Tao Zhexuan glared at Yu Cang, "Students from Pheasant University can prove the question [x^3+y^3+z^3=33], but what about you?"

"So you are saying that Peking University is worse than a pheasant university?"

Yu Cang didn't expect that his casual words would make the teacher angry. He dared to say more, and said sarcastically: "Teacher, that's not what I meant...I was wrong..."

Tao Zhexuan ignored Yu Cang and smiled directly.

"Yu, it seems that your paper has been delayed for a long time, right? Since you are so free, it seems that it is almost completed. So, please submit your paper to me within a month."

"Teacher, I was wrong..."

The world of mathematics is only so big, and one question made many big shots take notice of Lu Zhou.

And domestically,

It was approaching 12 o'clock in the evening, and many people were getting ready to fall asleep.

News pop-ups suddenly appeared on mobile phones of major brands.

[NetEase News: The difficult problem of x^3+y^3+z^3=33 that has troubled the mathematics community for decades has been proven. The author is actually just an undergraduate student at Guanghua University! 】

[UC News: The integer solution of x^3+y^3+z^3=33 has been calculated! I never expected that the author’s identity turned out to be...]

[Northern Metropolis Daily: Lu Zhou, an undergraduate at Guanghua University, released a preprint on arXiv, claiming to have proved x^3+y^3+z^3=33. Fields Medal winner and famous British mathematician Professor Gowers Tweet your approval and praise. 】

The domestic mathematics community was silent.

The people were excited.

Comments on the Weibo accounts of several media outlets that first reported the news were polarizing.

[Yu Ling: Looking at the proof process here, I walked in confused and walked out confused. 】

[I'm not gay: Wait for a netizen who says "What's the use?" "I'm so idle". (funny face)]

[First-level registered brick mover: There is only one set of solutions. As a primary school graduate, I can calculate three sets of solutions without any effort. 】

[The Eternal God of Edinburgh: Did an undergraduate from Guanghua University calculate it? ? ? It’s true, why don’t I believe it! ??]

[Bourgeois comprador: This is a pain in the ass. What’s the use of calculating this? Can a chip be made? Really boring! 】

[Low-key Auguman: To be honest, I have no idea what the significance of this thing is in real life applications...]

[Drinking coffee in Edinburgh: 1. I would say that mathematics is the most useless subject. It is better to study more engineering subjects. 】

[Mental patient Lao Wang: Fortunately, the progress of the world is driven by this group of people, not by the few floors ahead! 】

[IP address cannot be obtained: A graduate student in the Department of Mathematics will explain that this function in life can provide a good idea for asymmetric encryption and decryption, making communication more secure. 】

There are all kinds of talents gathered in the comments, including keyboard warriors, funny people, melon-eaters, true believers and trolls, etc.

As a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics at Fudan University, Qian Chen was so angry when he saw some sarcastic posts in the comment area that he turned into a keyboard warrior and killed himself.

It is precisely because there are too many people like this that basic subjects in China are not taken seriously!

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