The top student must be diligent

Chapter 178

For a moment, almost everyone in the audience sat up straight and looked at the IMU president.

Carlos Koenig smiled slightly, glanced at the mathematicians on the scene, and then said: "I know what everyone is looking forward to, but before that, wait for me to finish my speech."

He took out a piece of paper in his hand and showed it, "Not much, just this piece of paper, very quickly."

Everyone smiled.

"Dear colleagues and friends:

Welcome to the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians. As the president of the International Mathematical Union, I feel very honored to be able to speak here.

Despite the global challenges we face, the power of mathematics is still pushing the frontier of knowledge, solving practical problems, and inspiring countless young minds.

This conference brings together top mathematicians from all over the world to share the latest research results and explore the future development of mathematics. We not only focus on the theoretical discussion of pure mathematics, but also attach importance to its wide application in science, technology and engineering.

Here, I would like to express my special thanks to all the people who have contributed to the conference. The organizers, volunteers and sponsors who have made great efforts to hold the conference successfully, your hard work and support have enabled us to maintain the enthusiasm and vitality of academic exchanges in such a special period.

Finally, I wish this conference a complete success. I hope everyone can gain knowledge, build friendships, and continue to move forward on the road of future research.

Thank you all! "

After that, he shook the paper in his hand again and said with a smile: "How is it? Short!"

"Then let's enter the most important part of this opening ceremony, the award ceremony!"

Sure enough, as he said this, the atmosphere on the field immediately reached a peak.

"The first award is the Chern Award."

The Chern Award is naturally to commemorate the Chinese mathematician Chern. As one of the greatest mathematicians of the last century, his achievements are very important to the mathematical community. He pioneered and led the overall differential geometry, fiber bundle differential geometry, Chern's characteristic class and other heavyweight achievements. For example, his fiber bundle theory has profoundly influenced the theoretical physics community.

For example, the Chern-Simons theory used by Xiao Yi to prove the mass gap problem is also his achievement.

The Chern Prize is also a lifetime achievement award.

Finally, under Koenig's announcement, the award was given to Barry Mazur, a mathematician from Harvard University, in recognition of his profound discoveries in topology, arithmetic geometry and number theory, as well as his guidance and selfless dedication in cultivating a new generation of mathematicians.

Then came the Gauss Prize, the highest honor in applied mathematics, which was finally awarded to Elliott Leb, a mathematician from Princeton University, in recognition of his extraordinary breadth and depth of mathematical contributions in quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, computational chemistry and quantum information theory.

After Professor Elliott Leb received the award and returned to the stage.

Koenig walked back to the center of the podium and said with a smile: "Then the next award will be the Fields Medal."

Everyone in the audience held their breath, waiting for Koenig's announcement.

"The Fields Medal is an award established by the International Mathematical Union at the request of Professor John C. Fields, who is an important supporter of the International Mathematical Union. It was with the support of Professor Fields that the International Mathematical Union became a truly international academic event..."

After introducing the history of the Fields Medal, Koenig finally began to read out the first winner.

"...In recognition of his contribution to analytic number theory and his significant progress in understanding the structure of prime numbers and Diophantine approximation, I, on behalf of the International Mathematical Union, award Mr. James Maynard the Fields Medal!"

The first winner was James Maynard, who was only 35 years old this year. His ability to win this award is enough to prove his talent.

Applause broke out.

In the seat, Xiao Yi also looked at James Maynard, who was sitting not far from him, and smiled and applauded him.

James Maynard's winning was not a surprise, as it had been predicted two years ago.

The voting results given on those websites showed that if Xiao Yi was excluded, the number of people who believed that James Maynard could win the Fields Medal was the largest.

Then, James Maynard came on stage to receive the award.

Soon, it was the turn of the second winner, Hugo Dimini-Copan, who solved the long-standing problem in the probability theory of phase transitions in statistical physics, especially in three and four dimensions.

Of course, although his results are mainly applied to physics, because he focuses on probability theory and statistical physics, he cannot be classified as a physicist like Edward Witten.

Then, it was the third winner, Huh Jun-il, a Korean-American, whose experience in mathematics was slightly unusual, because when he was a child, he was convinced that he was not a good student of mathematics because his math grades were not good.

When he entered college, he dreamed of becoming a poet, but found that poets could not help him make a living, so he planned to become a science journalist, majoring in astronomy and physics.

It was not until his senior year that a Fields Medal winner, Hironaka Heisuke, came to his university for a visiting scholar, so as a science journalist, he planned to use Hironaka Heisuke as his first topic.

In the end, he was planning to do an interview, but he became the last student to stay and attend the class, and officially started to study mathematics. When he was studying for a master's degree, he was rejected by more than a dozen graduate schools because he had no experience in mathematics in his undergraduate studies. However, he finally entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, which is known as the Public Ivy League in the United States. Until today, he has become a Fields Medal winner.

It can also be called a protagonist's experience.

Soon, Xu Jun'er also received the award and left the stage.

The three places have been awarded, and according to the usual practice of the Fields Medal, it will only be awarded to four people each year.

In other words, there is only one place left.

For a moment, everyone in the audience couldn't help but turn their eyes to the position in the first row.

Xiao Yi.

Is it true that the International Mathematical Union does not intend to give him this award because Xiao Yi is too young?

People couldn't help but think so in their hearts.

This reason seems reasonable, but is it a bit too much?

"Brother Xiao..."

In the back row, Ye Cheng looked at Xiao Yi in the front row and clenched his fist.

Beside Xiao Yi, Schultz turned his head and glanced at him.

He wanted to know if Xiao Yi really didn't care.

But he couldn't tell, because although Xiao Yi looked at Carlos Koenig on the stage, he didn't look nervous at all, and looked like a more serious listener.

On the other side, Faltings, Deligne, Witten and other big guys frowned slightly, wondering if they were a little dissatisfied.

Probably, the only ones who didn't want Xiao Yi to win the prize were the other competitors for the Fields Medal.

After all, even if Xiao Yi didn't win the prize, he still had several more chances, and if they didn't win the prize, they would never have another chance in the future. After the age of 40, they would never win the prize again, unless they could come up with a heavyweight result like Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem, then they would have a chance to win a special Fields Medal, although this was not a real Fields Medal.

Just like that, the atmosphere in the whole venue almost froze.

At this moment, Carlos Koenig on the stage finally spoke the award speech for the fourth winner.

"From algebraic geometry to analytic number theory, from topological theory to mathematical physics, whether it is p-adic Hodge theory or cohomology, or automorphic forms and trace formulas... 200 years ago, the mathematical community defined genius as omnipotent, but with the birth of more and more methods and the refinement of mathematical directions, there are fewer and fewer such omnipotent geniuses, not to mention that geniuses who can make great contributions in almost every field are even more extinct."

"But until now, such geniuses have appeared again in the mathematical community..."

When Koenig said this, the people in the audience had already realized the identity of these winners.

After all, in today's mathematical community, there is only one person who can truly be called omnipotent and genius!

Suddenly, even though Koenig was still speaking, some people applauded, and more and more people were infected.

So much so that Koenig wanted to increase the volume to cover the applause, but he couldn't do it.

They applauded not only for the decision made by the International Mathematical Union, but also for the most deserving winner!

Finally, Koenig had to stop and spread his hands helplessly.

"Friends, I know you are all very excited, but don't get excited first. Wait for me to finish reading the words, and then applaud when the award is presented later, okay? Give me face."

He activated the ability of the Face Fruit.

"Hahaha~"

Everyone laughed, and then stopped clapping very respectfully.

Koenig continued: "... He proved the correctness of the twin prime conjecture and revealed the final answer to the Goldbach conjecture. He has won two of the three crowns in Hilbert's eighth question."

"And his numerous theoretical achievements, whether it is the self-conservation theory of Etale algebraic clusters or the Xiao polynomial expansion method, have spread throughout the mathematics community and become the core methods in various related fields."

"Even to this day, the Hodge-vertex algebra analysis method he pioneered has successfully proved the Yang-Mills existence and mass gap problem. He has won the second of the seven millennium problems."

Speaking of this, Koenig also specifically mentioned the prover of the previous millennium problem: "Today is in St. Petersburg. Although Professor Perelman did not come here, I think he would be very happy if he heard the news."

St. Petersburg is Perelman's hometown. It is indeed a pity that he did not come here today.

"Xiao Yi, this genius who seems to have come from the void, has used his extraordinary ability to create new glory for our mathematics."

"Although he is only 19 years old, mathematics never cares about age, and the Fields Medal also favors young geniuses. Therefore, on behalf of the International Mathematical Union, I announce that today's fourth Fields Medal winner is Xiao Yi!"

"Please invite Mr. Xiao Yi to the stage to receive the award!"

Finally, the applause rang out again, especially intense.

Everyone sincerely sent their congratulations.

Well deserved!

Even other strong contenders for the Fields Medal gave up their fantasies and gave applause as the name was confirmed.

Because even in their hearts, Xiao Yi deserves the title.

They would rather compete with the other three people than with Xiao Yi.

"Congratulations."

Beside him, Schultz said to Xiao Yi with a smile.

And the big guys of Faltings also relaxed their brows at this time and smiled to express their congratulations to Xiao Yi.

As the protagonist, Xiao Yi smiled at this time, and he was happy.

I am lucky if I get it, and I am dead if I lose it.