I Just Want to Be a Quiet Top Student

After the seminar, Shen Qi exchanged business cards with some scholars and experts.

One of the gentlemen from Washington chatted with Shen Qi for a long time, and he did not belong to any of the eight Ivy League universities.

"So you are eligible for the Ford Award, congratulations, Mr. Shen!" said the middle-aged white man.

The Fields Medal, the Wolf Medal, the Abel Prize, the Ramanujan Prize, the Crawford Prize, the Fermat Prize, the Cole Prize, the MacArthur Genius Award... Shen Qi has heard of many mathematics awards, but none Heard about the Ford Award.

If it wasn't for the "American Mathematical Association" written on this gentleman's business card, Shen Qi would not have chatted with him for so long.

But no matter what, one more award counts as one. Shen Qi politely asked: "Mr. Randall, what are the qualifications for the Ford Award?"

"Publish high-level mathematics papers, and you, did it." Mr. Landauer said.

"Okay, I see, thank you, Mr. Randall." Shen Qi shook hands with Randall.

Randall added: "The entry fee is 20,000 U.S. dollars. If you regret not being awarded in the end, we will refund you 20,000 U.S. dollars in full."

"Do you still need to pay first?" Shen Qi was inexplicably surprised. The method of your American Mathematical Association is exactly the same as that of some fraudulent organizations.

Randall took it for granted: "You have to spend money to run for the president of the United States. If you can't be elected, you won't get a refund."

"Okay, I understand, goodbye." Shen Qi said goodbye and left.

Randall gestured for the phone and called out, "Call me!"

Back in Princeton, Shen Qi checked on the Internet. The American Mathematical Association is located in Washington DC. This organization must be a formal one. They set up many awards, ranging from the American Mathematical Contest for Middle School Students to international mathematics awards.

The Ford Award was established in 1964 to commemorate Mr. Ford, the former chairman of the American Mathematical Society. It is an international formal mathematics award and is awarded to several students every year.

Just paying the money first and then judging the Ford Award made Shen Qi feel uncomfortable.

Twenty thousand dollars is not a small amount, and it also gives people a sense of shame for spending money to buy prizes.

Professor Muller disagreed with Shen Qi's point of view: "There is no shame in this. I won the Ford Award in 1999. At that time, the election fee was 30,000 US dollars. The recent economic situation in the United States is not good. The Ford Award election The fee has been reduced to $20,000."

Yes, it seems so, Shen Qi recalled, in Professor Muller's profile, he wrote that "he has won the German Science Progress Award, the Leibniz Award, and the Ford Award".

"The United States is like this. It is an extremely realistic country. Only Princeton is a real holy place." Professor Muller said, "However, you can'buy" the Ford Award without spending money. The final selection criteria still depends on The quality of the papers of the candidates. I can grant you $20,000 in academic funding if you want to compete for the Ford Prize."

"Then I'll try." Shen Qi saw that the government paid him to have a chance to participate in the Ford Award, so he could only reluctantly do so.

Princeton is a private university, and part of its scientific research funds come from the US government. Shen Qi doesn't know the specific channel of the funding source for Professor Muller's scientific research projects, so let's treat it as US public money.

The money of the US government is not spent in vain. As long as everyone contributes a little love, the world will become a better world.

Shen Qi decided to participate in the competition for the Ford Prize, not only for mathematics, but also for world peace.

So an old German man and a young Chinese man spent 20,000 U.S. dollars from the U.S. government.

The 20,000 US dollars was sent to the American Mathematical Association in the form of a check as the award fund for the Princeton research team, in compliance with the regulations of the US government, relevant academic institutions and Princeton University.

At the end of this year, Shen Qi was also shortlisted for the Chern Mathematics Award and the Ford Award, and he entered an "award season".

...

China, capital, Chinese Mathematical Society.

The selection of this year's Chern Mathematics Prize has entered the final stage.

The Chern Prize in Mathematics was established in 1986 and is held every two years.

Every year, two young mathematics researchers will receive this honor, and their nationality must be Chinese.

The Chern Mathematics Prize is donated by Hong Kong entrepreneurs and organized by the Chinese Mathematical Society.

This is a big event. The president of the Chinese Mathematical Society personally participated in the selection of candidates.

After two rounds of fair, rigorous and conscientious screening, the review panel handed over a list to the president of the Chinese Mathematical Society.

There are four names on the list, and now it has entered the stage of selecting two out of four, and two of them will win this year's Chern Mathematics Prize.

Staring at the list of four candidates and the detailed information of the candidates, the chairman fell into deep thought and hesitated.

"Huang Weifeng, full professor of Mathematics Department of Fudan University, 39 years old, PhD in Mathematics from MIT."

"He Lin, researcher at the Institute of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 36 years old, Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yanda University."

"Yu Xiaolei, associate professor of the Department of Mathematics of Zhejiang University, 32 years old, Ph.D. in Mathematics of Yanda University."

"Shen Qi, a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics of Princeton, 21 years old, studying in the Department of Mathematics of Yanda University as an undergraduate."

"The Yanda Gang is really powerful, and three of the four candidates have Yanda background." The president graduated from the Mathematics Department of Wuhan University, and completed his postgraduate and doctoral studies at Shuimu University.

"President, our selection criteria don't look at the background, but only at the level and contribution." The expert team leader said.

"Of course, I believe in the professional vision and academic fairness of the expert group. This Shen Qi is a bit interesting. He is so young, only 21 years old." This kid! The double gold medal of CMO and IMO, I remember him, the CMO was organized by us, and the Olympiad national team was also led by us. Shen Qi, Shen Qi, you actually went to Princeton."

The expert team leader said: "According to the selection rules of the Chern Mathematics Award, there is only an upper age limit for candidates and no lower limit. It is indeed very young to participate in the award at the age of 21. The Chern Mathematics Award has been held for more than ten times. It is the youngest winner in history. He was only 28 years old when he won the award. However, Shen Qi has performed outstandingly in the past two years. He published a paper in the Journal of the American Mathematical Society not long ago, proving the Walsh conjecture, which is his strongest competition. arms."

"Moreover, within two years of his undergraduate studies at Yanda University, Shen Qi published ten mathematical papers in succession, most of which were papers in SCI and national core journals. Some achievements have been made in the field and useful contributions have been made.” The expert team leader made an objective assessment that all his undergraduates, postgraduates, and doctoral students are studying at Dalian University of Technology, and have no relationship with Yan University School or Fudan School.

The chairman carefully reviewed all the detailed information of the four candidates, and then gave instructions: "Then, experts, start voting by secret ballot. One person can select up to three candidates, and tick the names of the candidates. The two candidates with the most votes will receive the Chern Prize in Mathematics."