Chapter 20: Rising Fame

Randolph, have you ever considered working in France for a few years?

At the French Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in Paris, I, Jean Dieudonné, René Thom, Louis Michel, and David Ruelle are preparing to undertake important work in algebraic geometry.

You should have read my report at the mathematics conference two years ago, where I outlined the work we plan to do over the next decade.

After seeing your mathematical map, I’ve gained many new ideas about our work—we may unify different branches of mathematics at their core logical level this century.

Different subfields are merely different expressions; they all share a unified core.

I believe with your participation, we can achieve this much faster.

Grothendieck did not speak French but directly invited Lin Ran in imperfect English.

If Lin Ran were truly a mathematician, this opportunity would be enough to excite him to the point of sleeplessness—to work alongside a group of top mathematicians on research that could profoundly shape the future of mathematics.

If Lin Ran were truly a mathematician, this opportunity would have left him too excited to sleep—working alongside top mathematicians on work that could profoundly shape mathematics’ future.

With his ability, taking up the title of Pope of Mathematics would not be certain, but highly likely.

Unfortunately, Lin Ran had little interest in theoretical mathematics; for him, mathematics was a tool—a means to better achieve aerospace goals, not an end in itself.

“Professor, I’m sorry, I don’t speak French and don’t wish to leave America. I believe we can stay in frequent contact via fax from New York,” Lin Ran replied politely to the young, renowned mathematician.

Grothendieck did not press further but said: “Fine, feel free to share any ideas with me anytime. Fox has my fax address.”

He added with a grin: “I hope we don’t repeat the scene from my university days when I rediscovered measure theory and Lebesgue integration—we shouldn’t waste time on meaningless things.”

Grothendieck studied at the University of Montpellier, where he stopped attending lectures after discovering all professors merely recited textbooks; according to historical records, Montpellier was among the most backward in mathematics teaching in all of France.

Under such conditions, Grothendieck independently rediscovered the concepts of measure theory and Lebesgue integration through his own efforts.

This was akin in spirit to Einstein developing statistical physics theories based solely on his own insights.

“I understand, Professor. Of course I understand.”

After the entire academic conference ended, all mathematicians acknowledged that Fermat’s Conjecture had been proven by Lin Ran and thus became a theorem.

The paper was not published in any mathematics journal.

At the time, “New Advances in Mathematics” had not yet been launched; “Acta Mathematica” was a Swedish journal; “Annals of Mathematics” was run by Princeton University; “Journal of the American Mathematical Society” would not appear until the late 1980s.

These journals all wanted to publish Lin Ran’s proof of Fermat’s Conjecture as a special issue, with some of the higher-tier second-rate journals offering a staggering fee of ten thousand dollars.

At the time, academic journals did not pay authors for papers—in fact, authors often had to pay fees.

For example, the “Annals of Mathematics” charged between two hundred and five hundred dollars for the page space of a long paper.

Only papers of Fermat’s Conjecture’s caliber—those capable of elevating an entire journal’s status—could receive such treatment.

Columbia University did not wish to serve as a stepping stone for other journals, especially not the “Annals of Mathematics,” and given the current environment, the mathematics community itself needed a new top-tier journal.

After learning of this, the American Academic Press, future publisher of “New Advances in Mathematics,” approached Columbia University; both sides quickly agreed and jointly launched a new top-tier mathematics journal.

The launch of “New Advances in Mathematics” was moved forward from its original 1965 date to 1960, and Lin Ran’s proof of Fermat’s Conjecture became its inaugural paper.

There was no payment for the paper, but Columbia University, citing long-term research projects, granted him an annual special research fund of twenty thousand dollars.

Lee Chengdao received the same treatment from Columbia University after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957.

In addition to the research fund, Columbia University awarded him the James Madison Professorship.

Such professorships were endowed, typically funded by alumni or corporations, and came with additional stipends. James Madison was the fourth President of America; his endowed chair carried an annual additional stipend of ten thousand dollars.

In other words, compared to ordinary mathematics professors, Lin Ran received an additional thirty thousand dollars annually from Columbia University.

Columbia also provided implicit benefits such as reduced teaching hours and a dedicated assistant.

Of course, the real financial support came from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Rockefeller Foundation granted him an annual long-term subsidy of fifty thousand dollars.

In 1960, Lin Ran’s total annual compensation approached one hundred thousand dollars.

“I never imagined I’d be enjoying a hundred-thousand-dollar salary in 1960—this is roughly equivalent to the pay of a mid-level Silicon Valley programmer in 2020,” Lin Ran thought.

Beyond financial benefits, widespread media coverage further elevated his fame.

Previously, only the New York Times had reported on it, using tentative phrases like “alleged,” “seemed,” or “possibly”; now it was confirmed.

Publicly, Lin Ran was said to have graduated from Göttingen University, and as a Chinese descendant, newspapers dubbed him “Pride of the Chinese People” and “Chinese Gauss.”

Compared to Yang Zhenning and Lee Chengdao’s Nobel-winning “parity non-conservation” a few years earlier, Lin Ran’s proof of Fermat’s Conjecture was far easier to explain.

The Randolph Program, derived from it, was hailed by some mathematicians as having charted the research direction for all of twentieth-century mathematics.

This provided even more material to write about.

Even in mainland China, there were reports, though Chinese media omitted Lin Ran’s nationality and emphasized only his Chinese identity.

In Taiwan, because Lin Ran had accepted a professorship at Tsinghua University, local newspapers lavished praise on him, nearly calling him the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century—though they added “one of.”

The Chinese-language newspaper “Overseas Chinese Daily” in New York enthusiastically promoted his significance to the Chinese people.

[48] “In the presence of numerous mathematicians, the young Chinese-American mathematician Randolph Lin announced the solution to Fermat’s Conjecture; the theory it contains will transform mathematical research in the twentieth century and beyond, and simultaneously demonstrates the immense potential of the Chinese people in science.”