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

Chapter 87: Is Collecting Back Issues a Waste of Foreign Exchange? A Conversation Between Qiu Chengtong and His Apprentice

Mid-to-early September 1978, China Resources Headquarters, Tim Wah Road, Central, Hong Kong Island.

"Leader, another telegram has arrived."

Yang Zongli took the telegram from the telegraph councillor and saw the information on it. He couldn't help but widen his eyes and said to himself in disbelief, "They actually asked me to collect professional journal articles on the Poincare conjecture from the past ten years? These people are really troublesome. What's the point of collecting these papers? I can only read them but not use them. Isn't this a complete waste of money?"

To be honest, Yang Zongli was very dissatisfied with this because professional journal papers are not cheap.

If you only subscribe to one or two books, then it’s no big deal, but a few days ago they asked you to buy mathematical journals from the past three years. Isn’t that just looking for trouble?

Because professional journals are only accepted by subscription, people who still keep journal articles from the past one or two years are most likely scholars and professors. If you want to get these journals from them, you have to spend more money, right?

Now it's even worse, they even ask for the collection of professional papers on the Poincare conjecture, which will cost even more money.

However, what is the point of collecting these papers?
Aren't these just pure waste paper? Can they turn into gold?

Not to mention the waste of money, the authorities now require us to import chemical equipment and other equipment. Foreign exchange is already extremely scarce. At this time, we still have to waste this foreign exchange to buy waste paper?

So Yang Zongli was very worried.

It was already dusk outside. The sunset over Victoria Harbour was beautiful, but Yang Zongli was not in the mood to appreciate it.

Tonight, he needs to attend a dinner party at the Huo Mansion and is not in the mood to worry about these things.

The dinner at the Huo Mansion was very grand. Yang Zongli only showed up outside and was soon invited to the study for a detailed discussion.

In the study, Ho Ying-tung had been waiting for a long time. The two sat together and chatted about the past, and then quickly got down to business.

After finishing the discussion, Huo Yingdong suddenly asked:
"Leader Yang, I noticed you seemed to be frowning when you came here just now. Is there something difficult for you? Or is there anything I can help you with? If you need anything, just let me know. I will definitely do my best."

Yang Zongli remained silent and did not speak immediately, because he knew that collecting papers was indeed difficult, and the urgent telegram from the headquarters of China Resources Company in Beijing also stated that it should be done faster.

If he had any other options, he wouldn't want to trouble Ho Ying-tung.

"That's right, Mr. Huo."

After a period of silence, Yang Zongli finally told his troubles, but after listening to him, Huo Yingdong laughed and said:
"If it were anything else, it might be very troublesome, but this should be very simple. I know the Chinese-American mathematician Shiing-Shen Chern, and perhaps he could help."

Shiing-Shen Chern is well-known in the global mathematics community. He has been active in the SAM mathematics community for a long time and is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

The reason why Ho Ying-tung knew the other party was through the other party's student Shing-Tung Yau.

In recent years, Shing-Tung Yau has become increasingly famous. This year, he was invited to give a one-hour report at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki, and was praised by the media as a strong contender for the next Fields Medal.

"Really? Wouldn't that be troublesome?" Yang Zongli had an idea when he heard that. It would definitely be a very good thing if he could establish connections with people like Shiing-Shen Chern and Shing-Tung Yau.

Although Chen Shiing-Shen was elected as a member of the American Academy of Sciences in 1961 and joined the country, his identity was no longer Chinese.

But if the other party can come back to the mainland to study or something, it will be a great thing for the mainland mathematics community.

"No, how could that be?"

Huo Yingdong readily agreed to the task, leaving Yang Zongli to wait. In a villa at the University of California, Berkeley, after returning from Helsinki, Shing-Tung Yau had become a professor at the university, and he was only twenty-nine years old.

Yuan Jigang, also 29 years old, is still a freshman in the Department of Computational Mathematics at Harbin Institute of Technology, and is still worried about his scores in the entrance examination.

When Shing-Tung Yau received a telegram from Hong Kong, the telegram asked him to collect professional mathematics journals from the past ten years. He suddenly thought that he could do it.

Even this matter is not worth mentioning to him.

Because he received his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1971, and has been staying in the United States ever since, he subscribes to a large number of mathematical journals every year.

Perhaps five dollars for a journal is too expensive for many people, but he joined the Department of Mathematics at Stanford University in 1974, serving as an associate professor and then a professor.

His salary here is not low, no less than 50,000 US dollars per year.

He kept all the past journals and was reluctant to throw them away because he had this habit.

"A paper on the Poincaré conjecture? Is there anyone trying to solve this world's most difficult problem? If I remember correctly..."

The next day, he went to see his teacher Shiing-Shen Chern and obtained from him the paper published by Smale in the 1960s on proving the Poincare conjecture in five dimensions and above.

"What's wrong? Is this your next research direction?"

Chen Shiing-Shen, who was already 67 years old, asked with a smile.

He is very satisfied with his disciple and can say that he is his best Chinese student so far.

He had three other students, one of whom was Zhou Yulin, who was said to be a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Peking University. However, more than ten years had passed and he had no way of hearing about this student.

The second one is Wu Wenjun. In 1946, Chen Shiing-Shen recruited him as an assistant researcher at the Institute of Mathematics. Later, he was recommended to study in Paris. He returned to the mainland in 1951 and is said to be doing very well in the mainland.

The last one is Isadore Singer, who was already a full professor at MIT in 1959.

And now Shing-Tung Yau is expected to become his most outstanding student, as he has completed the proof of Calabi's conjecture, Wolf's conjecture and others.

In 1976, based on his research on the existence of the Kähler-Einstein metric, he introduced the concept of Calabi-Yau, proved the Calabi conjecture, and ushered in a new era of differential geometry.

"No, teacher, this is a telegram from an elder of mine in Hong Kong Island," said Shing-Tung Yau truthfully. Upon hearing this, Shiing-Shen Chern fell silent.

"In fact, you might as well try to study the Poincare conjecture. It's a very popular topic, and the timing is perfect for you. You're still so young, and it's entirely possible that you could win two Fields Medals."

Shiing-Shen Chern avoided talking about anything else and only talked about mathematics.

Yau smiled and nodded. "Okay, Professor, I'll give it a try. However, the Poincare conjecture is quite difficult. Many mathematicians have tried to prove it over the past decade, but none of them have succeeded."

In the summer of 1961, Smale announced his proof of the Poincare conjecture in five-dimensional space and above at the Nonlinear Oscillations Conference in Kiev, which caused a sensation in the global mathematics community and made this conjecture the biggest hot topic at the time.

Many mathematicians have tried their best to solve it, but until now, no one has been able to conquer it.

(End of this chapter)