Nobel Prize Countdown

Sometimes, people need a little stimulation to unleash their potential.

Zhou Yu'an was provoked by Shen Qi, and he provoked Shen Qi in return; the two of them were provoking each other.

The stimulating result was that Zhou Yu'an finished his Partial Differential Equations paper, which he hadn't been able to complete for over a year, in just over a month.

This paper is eighty-three pages long. Over the past year, Zhou Yu'an has been slowly conceiving and meticulously deriving the paper, following the pace of Princeton, and has written more than thirty pages.

In the past month, Zhou Yu'an has experienced a surge in inspiration, suddenly writing fifty pages in a row.

"Boss Shen, please review this." Zhou Yu'an handed the manuscript to Shen Qi.

As a subordinate, Zhou Yu'an had an obligation to submit the manuscript to the center director for review.

As a fellow mathematician, Zhou Yu'an was more interested in hearing Shen Qi's professional opinion.

Shen Qi took the paper and said, "You spent a year and a half writing this paper, and almost two years including the preliminary research. It wasn't easy, thank you for your hard work. Give me half a day, I'll come find you after I've finished reading it."

Shen Qi reviewed Zhou Yu'an's paper very carefully, frequently taking out a pen to calculate a few formulas to verify Zhou Yu'an's derivation logic.

In the afternoon, Zhou Yu'an came to Shen Qi's office again. "Boss Shen, please give your instructions."

Shen Qi handed the annotated manuscript to Zhou Yu'an: "Overall, your paper is at the level of a PhD in mathematics from a Princeton University and a student of Fields Medal winner. You proved that the formal power series solutions of this class of first-order nonlinear Partial Differential Equations with non-regular singularities belong to the Gaysworth class, and you completed a precise characterization. This is meticulous work, and you did it very rigorously. My suggestion is to use the implicit function theorem to develop an analytic function equation for Y, and the paper will be perfect. After you finish it, just submit it to the journal; you don't need to show it to me again."

Zhou Yu'an took the paper that Shen Qi had personally annotated and flipped through it. "OK, I'll revise it, thank you."

"Why are you being so nice today?" Shen Qi asked.

"Because in you, I see the image of that scholar who prioritizes academic excellence again." Zhou Yu'an put away the paper and asked with concern, "How is your recovery going?"

"Fine."

"That's good." Zhou Yu'an said goodbye and went to revise her thesis.

Having recovered well, Shen Qi keeps up with the latest developments regarding this year's Nobel Prizes through online news and academic reports.

In just over two months, in October, Swedish authorities and the Norwegian government will announce the winners of this year's six Nobel Prize categories.

The Nobel Prize selection process is strictly confidential, and outside predictions vary widely.

The renowned author Haruki Murakami is over seventy years old, has once again been nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. It's hard to remember how many times the old man has been nominated for the Nobel Prize, but this year he is considered a strong contender.

Of course, for the past ten years or so, Haruki Murakami has been a strong contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but he has yet to win it.

"He's over seventy and still writing. He just published a new book. Mr. Murakami is so diligent; he deserves respect." Shen Qi had read several of Haruki Murakami's bestselling novels, but being a bestseller didn't matter; the Nobel Prize committee didn't look at sales figures.

No one knows what criteria the six Nobel Prize committees value in their evaluations; for a century, they have never disclosed the specific details of their evaluations.

As always, this year's Peace Prize nominees include several heads of state and some international organizations.

Of the six categories of Nobel Prizes, the Peace Prize is perhaps the most controversial.

The Peace Prize does not consider academic achievements or research results; the evaluation criteria are relatively subjective.

The US president has received the Peace Prize, European Union has received the Peace Prize.

In terms of military spending, the United States ranks first in the world, China second, and the major European Union countries combined rank third.

"War and peace?" Shen Qi said this out of the blue. He noticed that the name of the US president was on this year's Peace Prize nominee list again.

Shen Qi was only interested in the Nobel Prizes in Literature and Peace Prize; what he cared about most were the Nobel Prizes in the sciences.

As is customary, the Nobel Prizes in Physics Prize, Chemistry Prize, and Physiology or Medicine Prize are typically awarded to two to three candidates each year.

For example, in 2016, the Physics Prize awarded to three scientists from the United States and the United Kingdom for their contributions to the field of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. This was a single research topic, and the three scientists jointly received the prize.

The 2010 Physics Prize was awarded to two scientists from the Netherlands and Russia for their outstanding achievements in the preparation of Graphene. This was a joint award for the same research project.

The 2008 Physics Prize was awarded to two Japanese scientists and one Japanese-American scientist, representing three recipients from two different research areas.

How will this year's Nobel Prize in Physics be awarded, and how many scientists and projects will be recognized?

Nobel Prize nominee Shen Qi had no way of knowing the specifics; he could only make predictions.

"There's a lot of competition."

Shen Qi discovered that competitors from around the world are mainly concentrated in sub-fields such as astrophysics, Quantum Physics, and Condensed Matter Physics, which are also the most cutting-edge research directions in the Physics Community today.

"Harry Clark, Professor of Physics at Princeton Physics Department, 37 years old, Condensed Matter Physics." The name of an American scientist caught Shen Qi's attention.

When Shen Qi was a mathematics professor at Princeton, he had heard of Harry Clark from the Physics Department next door. At that time, this guy wasn't a professor yet; he was a researcher or something.

Harry Clark himself is not very famous, but Princeton, which he is associated with, has a high international academic standing and influence.

Shen Qi was well aware of the power Princeton wielded; he had once received some assistance from it.

Princeton's fundamental mathematics program is world-class, Princeton University physics program is equally renowned and highly competitive.

In fact, the number of front-line researchers in the Physics Department of Princeton University is not as many as that in the Yanjing University Physics Department.

The academic philosophy of pursuing excellence rather than comprehensiveness has permeated every department at Princeton.

The three flagship programs of the Physics Department at Princeton University Physics Department are astrophysics, Quantum Physics, and Condensed Matter Physics. They concentrate their superior resources on cutting-edge research. In terms of classical physics research, the Physics Department of Princeton University is about the same level as the Yanjing University Physics Department.

"After all the competition, my biggest rival is most likely my former colleagues." Shen Qi now works for Yenching University. Although he holds the title of Honorary Professor of Mathematics at Princeton, in the field of physics, Shen Qi will inevitably face competition from the Physics Department of Princeton University.

Shen Qi's Condensed Matter Physics project and Harry Clark's Condensed Matter Physics project are very similar. The two people, or rather the two Condensed Matter Physics teams from China and the United States, are competing for the same opportunity.

"Harry Clark's progress has been rapid, and most importantly, his mentor is Professor Duncan Haldane."

Duncan Haldane is a British national, currently a professor of physics at Princeton University, a master of Condensed Matter Physics, and the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Haldane Laboratory is hailed as the Rutherford Laboratory of our time.

The two British physicists shared a common trait: they were both highly accomplished and had won the Nobel Prize.

Both of them possess exceptional academic abilities and are skilled at mentoring students.

After Rutherford won the Nobel Chemistry Prize, his laboratory produced eight more Nobel laureates, all of whom were winners of the Physics Prize.

After Haldane won the Nobel Prize in Physics, two more Nobel Prize in Physics emerged from his Princeton laboratory in recent years.

"Will Harry Clark become the fourth Nobel Prize laureate from Haldane's laboratory? The first three are Duncan Haldane and two of his students." --- This is a prediction from the American journal * Chemical Reviews *.

"Shen Qi's personal academic ability is beyond doubt, but his achievements in cultivating talent are not particularly outstanding. Shen Qi vs. Haldane's students, who will win?" --- This is a commentary from the British journal Nature.

That's how the British are; yesterday they're kneeling and weeping for you, today they might be making sarcastic remarks about you.

It is said that Haldane declined to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics again this year, indicating that the Nobel laureate wants to fully promote his student Clark.

In fact, Shen Qi had some connection with Professor Haldane and had interacted with him before.

At the beginning of last year, Shen Qi published his first Condensed Matter Physics paper after returning to China. Haldane was the first to stand up and affirm Shen Qi's research results. As a result, Shen Qi Phase Transition Rule and Shen Qi Equation were quickly recognized by the ICTP and included in textbooks.