The Morning Star Mathematics Award
This year's Chinese Mathematicians Congress was held in Beijing, Shen Qi and Ou Ye were invited to attend.
The conference will last for four days. The first three days will feature academic presentations by Chinese mathematicians from across China and around the world, and the Morning Star Mathematics Award will be awarded on the last day.
Shen Qi was not nominated for the Morning Star Mathematics Award, but he delivered a keynote speech entitled "Prospects for the Future Development Trends of Mathematics in China".
The reports by other mathematicians, including Ou Ye, focused on specific mathematical topics or research findings.
Shen Qi was the only one who did not report a specific research topic; he mainly talked about his outlook on the development trend of Chinese mathematics over the next ten to twenty years.
In his outlook, Shen Qi pointed out that for Chinese mathematics to grow bigger and stronger, it cannot be separated from the support of the country. Most importantly, universities and research institutions need to place basic Mathematical Research at a strategic high ground.
Shen Qi predicts that the international Mathematics Community will undergo tremendous changes in the next ten to twenty years. The most popular Mathematical Research fields today, such as Algebraic Geometry, may become more accessible or even mediocre. We should devote our main efforts to new fields that are interdisciplinary or even cross-disciplinary.
Strategic research and trend forecasting are considered rather abstract concepts by most people. Nowadays, most stock market investors don't trust investment experts' market predictions; they'd rather close their eyes and guess blindly than trust experts.
Shen Qi didn't expect every mathematician present to listen attentively to his trend forecast report; he noticed someone yawning.
However, most of the guests agreed with Shen Qi's point of view: Fields Medal winners would not use strategic deception to make irresponsible statements, at least not to deceive their Chinese mathematics colleagues.
At this conference, Shen Qi met several colleagues and recruited them to the Shen Qi Mathematical and Physical Research Center.
The three colleagues were from Zhejiang University, Fudan University, and Nankai University, respectively. They had already made contact with Shen Qi by phone through the introduction of Director Shi of the Mathematics Department at Tsinghua University. This trip to Beijing was essentially an interview.
The mathematics team at the Shen Qi Mathematical and Physical Research Center continues to grow and now has six Mathematical Research, covering important research areas such as Algebraic Geometry, Mathematical Physics, Dynamical Systems, and Functional Analysis.
Over the next three days, relevant mathematicians reported on their specific research topics, Ou Ye took to the stage to present his report on "The Proof of the Yesmanovich Conjecture".
This paper is Ou Ye's doctoral dissertation, which she published in a mathematics journal while she was in the United States.
This is Ou Ye's first time appearing on a reality show stage.
Ou Ye was still a little nervous. She started by asking all the guests, "I'm not very good at speaking, could you just get to the point?"
"OK."
"If the pretty girl doesn't want to talk, she can just let the PowerPoint presentation play automatically, no problem."
The guests in the audience applauded, encouraging Ou Ye to give her bold performance.
Then Ou Ye played the PowerPoint presentation and gave her report in her own way, "This, the Lucas sequence."
"This, Lucas pair, is equivalent."
"Given a positive integer k, there are no positive integer solutions with z ≥ 3."
"Any (x, y, z) in S satisfies the algebraic ring of integers."
"Z=2, substitute into the expression."
This equation has only integer solutions: 2, 2, 2.
"The Yesmanovich Conjecture is a correct proposition."
"That concludes my report, thank you."
Ou Ye really only got to the point; she finished explaining the proof of the Yesmanovich Conjecture in a few minutes, bowed in thanks, and left.
"Hey, this beauty from Peking University is so unique!"
"Concise and to the point."
"She is Shen Qi's girlfriend."
"A strong contender for the Gold Award."
The guests in the audience were buzzing with discussion. Shen Qi was incredibly talkative; once he started, he couldn't stop. His girlfriend, on the contrary, was very concise. This couple was quite interesting; how did they manage their daily life?
As expected, on the last day of the conference, Ou Ye won the Morning Star Mathematics Award for being the first person in the world to prove the Yesmanovich Conjecture.
The gold medal is awarded with a medal and a prize of $25,000.
Ou Ye returned to the stage to give her acceptance speech. "I'm so happy to receive this award."
"I'm so happy!" Ou Ye said, then stood there speechless with joy.
Shen Qi, sitting in the audience, tensed up. Oh no, Dr. Ou had forgotten his lines.
When it comes to using mathematical terminology, Ou Ye performed reasonably well, but when faced with a huge crowd of people in the audience giving her remarks, she got stuck.
"Bravo!" A person in the audience led the applause and cheers; he was Xiao Junlong, a researcher under Shen Qi.
Xiao Junlong stood up and continued to applaud, paying the highest tribute to the first female gold medalist in the history of the Morning Star Mathematics Award.
The other researchers at the Shen Qi Mathematical and Physical Research Center stood up and applauded, genuinely acknowledging the remarkable achievements of Ou Ye, the female mathematician.
Female mathematicians are extremely rare to stand on the highest podium, and the entire audience stood up and applauded, highlighting the rarity of such achievements.
Shen Qi found the scene particularly touching, and he stood up to offer his heartfelt congratulations to Ou Ye.
A hero needs three helpers, and a female math whiz needs a whole group of helpers.
Amidst cheers and encouragement from the guests, Ou Ye regained her composure and remembered her lines: "Thank you to my parents, my mentor, and my boyfriend, Shen Qi."
Ou Ye spoke, her words flowed more smoothly. "I study number theory, and I strongly agree with Shen Qi's mathematical ideas. The depth of theory determines the depth of application, and interdisciplinary collaboration determines future development. Thank you, that concludes my remarks."
The audience erupted in applause. "I'm so happy to receive this award!" That's so Ou Ye. Her subsequent acceptance speech was just like Shen Qi's.
"You taught Ou Ye her lines, right?" asked Lao Qiu, a mathematics expert standing next to Shen Qi.
Shen Qi shook his head. "No, no, she taught herself. Really, she has an amazing learning ability."
Fields Medal winner, Mr. Qiu, is the chairman of the Morning Star Mathematics Award selection committee, and he acknowledges Ou Ye's achievements in number theory.
"You two are amazing, winning prizes all over the world," Old Qiu said, then asked, "Who manages the money at home?"
"Whoever gets the best math score manages the money," Shen Qi laughed.
"I didn't recommend you as a candidate for this year's Morning Star Mathematics Award because I felt that, apart from myself, the other members of the judging panel would find it difficult to evaluate you. We don't operate on a one-man rule, so you're out of the running this year," Old Qiu explained to Shen Qi, explaining why he hadn't nominated Shen Qi for the award.
Shen Qi pointed to the stage. "This award is fine with her, no need to give it to me."
"That Ma Chaofan from your center, I brought him to Tsinghua University from Brown University in the US. He worked there for a year, and then you poached him." Old Qiu, who also holds a title at Shuimu University, pointed to the stage. "In exchange, I'll poach a few people from your center too."
This alarmed the big boss of the Tsinghua University mathematics camp. Shen Qi faced it calmly. "Professor Qiu, you don't know this, Ou Ye is not from our center, she is employed by the Big Mathematics Department."