The unparalleled talent of the country started from Harbin Institute of Technology

Chapter 84: A good cook cannot cook without rice. Is it possible for us to produce a Fields Medal mathematician?

In the office of the Department of Computational Mathematics, Liu Taoshun was completely stunned.

Liu Taoshun's eyelids twitched wildly after just one glance at the list Wang Duoyu took out: How much foreign exchange will this cost?

The head of the department, Professor Wu Congxin, happened to walk in from outside and asked a question curiously. Liu Taoshun was immediately overjoyed and quickly threw this difficult question to the former.

Wu Congxin is 43 years old this year. He was promoted to professor in July and is currently the only full professor in the Department of Computational Mathematics at Harbin Institute of Technology.

Just when he was feeling very proud and successful, Wang Duoyu, a mathematical genius, unexpectedly posed him a huge problem the very next day after he reported for duty.

"Mr. Wang, as you know, we only started to recover last year, and the country doesn't have much foreign exchange right now. You want to buy so many journals at once?"

At this moment, Wu Congxin carefully considered his tone when discussing with Wang Duoyu, but the latter shook his head and said:

"Professor Wu, the reason I chose Harbin Institute of Technology was actually because of its library. But I went to check it out yesterday, and there weren't any professional mathematics journals I was looking for, not even any professional journals in mechanics, biology, or chemical engineering."

"Without these journals, it would be practically impossible for us students to learn. You can't expect us to just stand still, right? I've probably already learned enough basic math. What I need to learn is more advanced professional knowledge."

"In my opinion, these professional journals are the only martial arts secrets we can access. Forget about domestic journals, I've already read them all."

Liu Taoshun really wanted to say something that made sense, but at this moment he wished he could pretend to be invisible.

Wang Duoyu had gotten a great deal by studying in the Department of Computational Mathematics at Harbin Institute of Technology, but now it seems that this deal is not so easy to get.

The school has just started, and Wang Duoyu has already made such a request. Who knows what kind of requests he will make later?
Wu Congqin fell silent for a moment, then asked Wang Duoyu to go back first while he thought about it.

After Wang Duoyu left, Liu Taoshun immediately asked, "Director Wu, what should we do? Wang's meaning just now was very clear. If we're not careful, the genius we've just got might fly away."

"He has already been given a student ID, where else can he fly to?" Wu Congqin rolled his eyes at the other person. How could he not understand the meaning of Wang Duoyu's words?

Although Wang Duoyu spoke very obscurely, he was not a fool, so how could he not understand?
But then he sighed again:

"The most difficult thing right now is foreign exchange. Sigh! As long as we have foreign exchange, everything will be easy. Unfortunately, the country is also in a difficult situation now."

The Chinese Science Conference was held in March this year, and the spring of mathematics is coming.

However, the country's important development direction is still the economy, and university education and basic mathematics are only auxiliary.

However, even if there is no other way, Wu Congqin must give it a try.

In the principal's office, Wu Congqin has been sitting here for two hours. Liu Deben has already reviewed and approved several documents, but the former seems to have taken root and is unwilling to leave.

"Old Wu, please don't make things difficult for me. I just became the principal, and the school has no foreign exchange at all."

"I don't believe it. It's only $10,000. We don't have that much money, do we? Besides, we're going to use it to buy professional journals, which is very good for students."

After a pause, Wu Congxin continued:

"Didn't you just go to Beijing half a month ago? You should have brought back five million RMB, right? With so much money, can't you give us ten thousand US dollars in the Department of Computational Mathematics?" Liu Deben was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. "One is RMB, the other is US dollars. They're two different things, okay?"

“It’s all money, there’s no difference!”

"Then if I give you RMB, can you buy professional journals?"

"That's fine, then just give me 500,000 RMB."

"Impossible, no way!"

After being firmly rejected by Principal Liu, Wu Congyin didn't care about anything else and was determined to get the money.

"President Liu, you know Wang Duoyu, the math genius. If he really goes to Peking University or Tsinghua University, the gap between us at Harbin Institute of Technology and them will only widen. Haven't you always wanted to establish aerospace and missile programs? Without talented math professionals, how could we possibly establish them?"

"Bullshit! Even if we don't have math talent, can't we at Harbin Institute of Technology establish majors like aerospace missiles?"

"Tsk, President Liu, you're just being stubborn. Mathematics is the foundation of all disciplines. If the math at Harbin Institute of Technology is so poor, we won't be able to keep these cutting-edge majors even if we restore them."

After moving south, it was quickly restored in less than four years, but the aerospace and missile majors were taken away.

Upon hearing this, Liu Deben curled his lips and said, "You know nothing! Our Harbin Institute of Technology belongs to the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building. The aerospace major will be restored sooner or later. It's not like you didn't attend this year's science conference. Didn't you hear what the leaders said?"

"And even if we give you the computational mathematics department this money, what can you do with it?"

Hearing this, Wu Congxin was no longer sleepy and said immediately:

"Why can't we do anything? Principal, haven't you seen the papers Wang Duoyu has published? If we train him well, maybe we can even produce a Fields Medalist."

"Damn it, why didn't you say that your Department of Computational Mathematics is going to the sky?" Liu Deben's eyes almost rolled to the sky. The Fields Medal has come out, can the Westerners give us that?

"If they really wanted to, they should have given this year's International Congress of Mathematicians to Chen Jingrun."

Wu Congxin rolled his eyes in response. "President Liu, the Fields Medal is awarded only to mathematicians under the age of 1. However, his 2 '+' paper, although over pages long, lacked a detailed proof, and therefore was not recognized by the international mathematical community."

"Besides, even if Researcher Chen Jingrun later published the entire proof in 1972 and it was actually passed, it would have been too late, because he was already 39 years old at the time, and that International Congress of Mathematicians..."

Liu Deben didn't pay much attention to mathematical information, so he made a joke.

Just then, Secretary Li Rui came in from outside. "Old Li, I'm bringing you a document. Oh, Xiao Wu is here too. What are you guys talking about?"

When Secretary Li came, Liu Deben was even happier and immediately passed the ball to the former.

"Secretary Li, you're here just in time. Director Wu is a scoundrel. He insisted on asking me for research funding, and in foreign currency."

(End of this chapter)