Chapter 1039 Even More than the Fields Medal?

At 9 o'clock in the morning, as the music sounded, the host came on stage, and the 9-day 24th International Congress of Mathematicians kicked off.

There is actually no difference in the process between international conferences and domestic conferences.

The first process after the opening was that Wu Wenjun, chairman of the conference organizing committee, and Jacob Paris, president of the International Mathematical Union, took the stage to give speeches.

Moreover, this section took a lot longer than before -

You know, the reason why there are as many as 4,000 people attending the conference this time is not just because the host China sent a large delegation.

Third world countries with certain mathematical research capabilities such as India, Brazil, and Turkey also sent more scholars than before.

In particular, Jacob Paris himself is from Brazil, and he wrote a lot about the special nature of this conference.

After all, although Rio de Janeiro failed to win this competition and even failed to enter the final round of voting, as long as there is a start, sooner or later the International Congress of Mathematicians will be held south of the equator.

Since his rebirth, Chang Haonan has been dealing with foreigners a lot, so his English level has improved by leaps and bounds compared to before.

But despite this, he still felt a little sleepy after listening to long passages of content that had nothing to do with technology.

He forced himself to suppress the desire to yawn and looked to the left and right.

He found that the others seemed to be in the same situation.

Perelman, who was sitting on the other side, had already taken out a notebook and was writing something with his head down.

"Chang."

Charles Fefferman, who was sitting next to Chang Haonan, suddenly came over.

"Huh?"

Chang Haonan was a little surprised.

After all, the two were not familiar with each other.

But he still turned his head slightly to look at each other.

"Do you know that the odds for the Fields Medal winner at this conference are 1:1.01 for you and Professor Perelman."

1:1.01 is already the lowest value among the normal odds.

It basically means that the bookmaker thinks this is a done deal.

But Chang Haonan really had no interest in the gambling industry. After hesitating for a moment, he touched his chin:

"I don't know."

"..."

These three words made Fefferman, who was originally trying to bring up other topics, silent.

A few seconds later, he finally recovered:

"Don't you want to know who is on the nomination list? I have a friend..."

He was only halfway through his words when he saw Chang Haonan shaking his head:

"No."

This time, he only used one word.

Seeing this scene, Pierre Deligne, who was sitting a little further away, immediately covered his mouth and his shoulders kept shaking.

Obviously, Fefferman used similar topics to seduce these potential winners of the Fields Award to play pranks again more than once or twice.

But this time, he met Chang Haonan, who was stubborn, and he was defeated before he even had time to sing.

Fortunately, at this time, Professor Paris on the stage entered the closing link in time, which alleviated the embarrassment here.

The atmosphere of the entire venue was pushed to its climax.

Because after the opening speech, the exciting award ceremony began.

According to convention, the Nevanlinna Prize should be awarded first.

However, this time, because of the intervention of the Clay Mathematics Institute, the Millennium Prize in Mathematics was the first to be awarded.

In fact, it is reasonable to say that the awards that are not selected by the International Mathematical Union (IMU) should not be awarded at such an important time as the opening ceremony.

But there is no way, the influence of the Millennium Prize in Mathematics is too great.

If it is placed at the end, even at the closing ceremony, it will give people a feeling that it is the finale.

It is better to put it at the front to show that its status is not as good as the subsequent ones.

Anyway, this is not a permanent award, so this time it will be treated as a special event.

It is impossible to award it again in four years, right?

In short, Chang Haonan and Perelman became the first to go on stage to receive the award.

500,000 US dollars each.

For people who do mathematics, it is definitely a huge sum of money.

However, because the winner of this award had been determined more than a year ago, there was no surprise.

The most excited person in the audience was Landon Clay, the award presenter and sponsor.

After all, although it feels a bit too dog-licking to give money and beg others to accept it, it is precisely because of Chang Haonan's willfulness that the award he established was able to jump to the same level as the Fields Prize.

It was for this reason that at the end of his speech, Clay made a joke and expressed his hope that he could stand on the podium of ICM for the second time in his lifetime.

A good-natured laugh was triggered in the entire venue-

There are only seven Millennium Mathematical Problems.

Now there are only six left.

It's not cabbage. It's normal that no one has received the second one for thirty or forty years...

...

After the Millennium Mathematical Prize, it was finally the official award of IMU.

Following closely was the Nevanlinna Prize.

The winning conditions are the same as the Fields Prize, and the age cannot be higher than 40.

The only difference is that the award is limited to the mathematical field related to computer science.

In the end, Indian mathematician Madhu Sultan from MIT won this year's Nevanlinna Prize for his contributions in many areas, including probabilistic verifiability, the inapproximation of optimal problems, and optimal error-correcting codes.

After the Sultan received the award, the applause did not last too long.

It was not because the Nevanlinna Prize was not important.

It was not because everyone had any opinions about the winner.

But...

The highlight was coming.

Because in 2002, there were no other awards such as the Chen Shengshen Prize and the Lilavati Prize, so the Fields Medal came directly after the Nevanlinna Prize -

Jacob Paris personally read out the list and the important figures of the host country personally awarded it.

Although many awards claim to be the "Nobel Prize in Mathematics".

But if you have to choose the one with the highest recognition and popularity.

It must be the Fields Prize.

Scholars who can receive this honor have all played a huge role in promoting the development of mathematics, and even become the mainstay of the mathematics community.

It also means that the entire mathematics community recognizes their contributions.

Therefore, the moment Jacob Paris took the stage, the main conference hall that can accommodate thousands of people was as quiet as death.

Many people, especially the hot candidates for the Fields Prize, even held their breath.

And perhaps as a response to the enthusiasm of the audience, Paris raised his head and showed a kind smile.

But for some reason, Chang Haonan saw a subtle hint of...

naughtiness in that smile?

As if a prank had succeeded.

It is normal for mathematicians to be naughty.

But in this occasion, you can't play too much.

So Chang Haonan couldn't think of any other possibilities for a while, so he had to wait and see.

"Ladies and gentlemen, after discussions and consultations with the International Mathematical Union and the members of the German Mathematical Association, we finally decided to set up and award the Gauss Prize starting from this conference to commemorate Carl Friedrich Gauss, who played an outstanding role in promoting the field of mathematics!"

For a while, the whole room was in uproar.

In fact, the decision to establish the Gauss Prize was passed at the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians held in Berlin four years ago.

But the establishment was established, but the specific year for the selection and awarding was not determined at that time.

And before this conference, there was not much news about this matter.

So everyone basically thought that this award would probably be selected in 2006.

As a result, no one expected that Paris would make a surprise attack.

It was not until a few minutes later that the boiling discussion finally subsided and everyone's attention returned to the podium at the front.

Everyone wanted to know who would be the first winner of the Gauss Award.

And Paris also raised the envelope in his hand to his chest at this time.

"According to the nomination and voting of the award committee, the winner of the 2002 Gauss Award is..."

At this point, he deliberately paused, and then under the gaze of thousands of eyes, he took out a card from the envelope:

"Chang Haonan from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Gregory Perelman from the Steklov Institute of Mathematics!"