The Second Edition of History of Number Theory
Ultimately, Shen Qi chose Wu Shangfeng, who became his first doctoral student in mathematics after returning to China.
Wu Shangfeng became Shen Qi's disciple. He said he didn't care whether it took him three, five, seven, or eight years to complete his doctoral studies; the longer he could stay at the university, the better.
"Your calm attitude is very similar to that of one of my foreign friends." Shen Qi thought of Jonas, his Swedish friend from Princeton. Some people are just like that; they want to stay in school for as long as they can.
Shen Qi told Wu Shangfeng that the country's plan to improve the quality of undergraduate education is correct in direction, but it must not remain at the level of just shouting slogans.
Professors teach undergraduate classes and then ignore them—isn't that the same old thing?
However, it is unrealistic to expect every professor to provide meticulous guidance to undergraduates after class and answer all their questions.
After all, they are university professors, not high school tutors.
Therefore, it is necessary to establish a professional position that connects professors and students. At Princeton, this position is called a tutor.
Shen Qi worked as a part-time tutor at Princeton, a position that is more often held full-time.
Because of China's different national conditions, establishing a dedicated guidance and repair system is not something that can be accomplished overnight.
Shen Qi to establish a pilot program at Yenching University, where Wu Shangfeng will serve as a full-time tutor for the first two years of his doctoral studies.
The university supports Shen Qi, and the president suggested setting up a pilot program in the School of Mathematical Sciences.
Some people say that Shen Qi is not very concerned about academics anymore, and spends all his time thinking about things like reform.
Who has the audacity to speak to Professor Shen like that?
It was said anonymously online.
"These people don't even have the courage to file a formal complaint," Shen Qi said with a smile. He then turned to Wu Shangfeng and said, "I don't care what others think of me; I just want to do what I believe is meaningful."
"A scientist like you has the right to be capricious," Wu Shangfeng said.
"Tutoring undergraduates isn't easy. You have to understand what undergraduates understand, and you have to understand even more what undergraduates don't understand, and answer their questions in a way they can understand, giving them a sense of joy in constantly improving themselves." Shen Qi shared his valuable experience, saying, "The joy of learning lies in feeling stronger today than yesterday, getting stronger every day. Then students will be irresistible to learning."
"So you're saying learning can be addictive?"
"So, Xiao Wu, you bear a great responsibility. The reason I chose you to be my student is twofold: first, you are a Buddhist and have a heart that desires to do good and help all sentient beings; second, your performance during your undergraduate and graduate studies was outstanding. You achieved excellent grades in all your courses. While others had one girlfriend, you had seven. This demonstrates your excellent qualities of balanced development and consideration for the big picture."
"Chatting with Professor Shen is so much fun!" Wu Shangfeng laughed heartily. He hadn't expected Shen Qi to be such a humorous person.
"Xiao Wu, to become a qualified tutor, you need to become even stronger. What I mean is, I will mentor you to become a comprehensive mathematics PhD, not just in mathematics. If you are good enough, you can also develop in other fields." Shen Qi sent an email to Wu Shangfeng, saying, "The attached PDF is a manuscript of a mathematics paper from Oxford, about Algebraic Geometry. After you go back, please conduct a preliminary review of this paper."
"Huh? I'm reviewing it?" Wu Shangfeng was quite surprised. He knew that Shen Qi was a reviewer for various well-known journals, but he did not expect that Shen Qi would ask him to conduct the initial review of the submitted manuscript.
During the first two years of his doctoral studies, Shen Qi would not assign Wu Shangfeng any research projects, but he also could not allow Wu Shangfeng to become completely disconnected from academic research.
So Shen Qi had Wu Shangfeng review the manuscript, just to give him some practice.
The process of doctoral students reviewing manuscripts is also a learning process. Wu Shangfeng reviews manuscripts whenever he can, and if he can't continue reviewing them, he looks up relevant information.
Of course, Shen Qi was the final judge.
This situation is common in academia. Authors submit their manuscripts to prestigious journals, assuming that the reviewers are well-known experts in the field, when in fact the initial reviewers are unknown students or subordinates of these renowned experts.
"Shall I give it a try?" Wu Shangfeng attempted the initial review. He had published three articles during his graduate studies, one of which was an SCI paper, and his English proficiency was acceptable.
Today's graduate students are engaged in both academic and research-based learning. The first year of graduate school is essentially an enhanced version of undergraduate studies, with the primary focus still on academic learning, including graduate-level courses, allowing for deeper and more specialized study.
Starting in their second year of graduate studies, students get involved in research projects, working alongside their supervisors with the goal of publishing two or three papers, one of which is an SCI-indexed paper.
Wu Shangfeng performed quite well academically, publishing three papers during his three years of graduate studies, including one SCI paper.
While Shen Qi was assessing Wu Shangfeng's academic performance, he would also naturally pay attention to the papers Wu Shangfeng had written.
Speaking of academic papers, Shen Qi's proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, published seven years ago, has been cited more than 5,000 times.
The paper was published in the Annals of Mathematics. The IF value at that time was in the 4. x range, and it is still in the 4. x range now; only the digits after the decimal point have changed.
The impact factor algorithm for SCI journals is calculated by dividing the total number of citations for articles published in the previous two years by the total number of articles published in the previous two years. In other words, the IF value is the average number of citations an article receives.
A journal with an impact factor (IF) of 1.0 means that a paper published in that journal has been cited an average of 1 time over the past two years.
A value of 1 is not the minimum for an impact factor; there are plenty of journals with impact factors as low as a few tenths of a percent, especially in the field of mathematics.
The Impact Factor (IF) of the Annals of Mathematics is the highest among all mathematics journals, and it usually hovers between 3 and 5.
Let's take the maximum value of 5, which means that mathematical papers published in the "Annals of Mathematics" are cited an average of 5 times every two years, or an average of 2.5 times per year.
Shen Qi's paper proving the Riemann Hypothesis has been cited 5,000 times in seven years, which means it has been cited more than 700 times per year.
What does this mean?
This is a truly terrifying concept.
Articles published in Nature and Science are typically cited 30 to 40 times on average, which is normal, because their impact factor (IF) values are that high.
An article in Nature or Science that has been cited more than 300 times is considered a top-tier article.
Articles cited more than 500 times are extremely rare; that's considered exceptionally good.
In a journal like the * Annals of Mathematics *, with an impact factor (IF) of less than 5, Shen Qi's articles are cited an average of over 700 times per year. This can be interpreted as over 700 mathematicians or teams citing Shen Qi's paper annually. Of course, there are also cases where an author cites a paper repeatedly.
The Riemann Hypothesis belongs to the field of Analytic Number Theory, which is a very niche and high-end field of extremely hard analysis.
It's already quite remarkable if each of the world's top 100 universities has ten people conducting in-depth research in this field and producing valuable results.
In other words, almost every scholar in the world engaged in the study of Analytic Number Theory has cited Shen Qi's proof of the Riemann Hypothesis.
Shen Qi's breakthrough in solving the Riemann Hypothesis was achieved in two phases, and the paper published in the Annals of Mathematics represents the results of the first phase.
Shen Qi included the complete proof of the Riemann Hypothesis in his monograph, "History of Number Theory."
The History of Number Theory has been on the market for six years, during which many academic events have occurred. Shen Qi began revising the second edition of the History of Number Theory a few months ago.
An American publisher has already contacted Shen Qi, hoping to acquire the publishing rights in the United States for the second edition of "History of Number Theory".
The first edition of "History of Number Theory" sold for over eighty dollars in the United States.
The second edition of "History of Number Theory" is estimated by American publishers to be priced at $150 or higher.
Why is it priced so high?
In the United States, academic monographs and textbooks are that expensive.
"Miss Domingos, do you mean that the second edition of 'History of Number Theory' will become a textbook in some American universities?" Shen Qi asked a mixed-race woman.
The mixed-race woman who came to visit Shen Qi had a complex bloodline. She had Asian, Latin, and Slavic ancestry, and the combination of multiple genes created a stunningly beautiful exotic woman with a classical beauty.
The mixed-race woman was a business manager at Springer Publishing Group's US branch. She spoke Chinese and was sent to China by the company to liaise with Shen Qi.
It doesn't matter if you can't speak Chinese; Shen Qi's English is good enough to communicate with Americans.
Mixed-race Americans who can speak Chinese might feel more at ease when interacting with Chinese people.
The mixed-race female manager said, "Call me Jennifer, Professor Shen. You collaborated with Springer on the first edition of *A History of History of Number Theory, and the collaboration was very successful; the results over the past six years are evident. We hope to continue our collaboration on the second edition. Yes, because of your academic influence—a number theory paper with over 5000 citations is undoubtedly a bible in the field of number theory—it's only natural that * History of Number Theory * has become a textbook in American universities."