Chapter 20: Rising Fame

"Randolph, have you ever thought about coming to Falanxi to work for a few years?

At the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Paris, I, Jean Dieudonné, René Thom, Louis Michel, David Ruelle, and some others are preparing to start some important work in the direction of algebraic geometry.

You should have seen the report I made at the mathematics congress the year before last, which talked about the work we are going to do in the next ten years.

After seeing the mathematical map you displayed, I have had many new ideas about the work we are going to do. We may be able to complete the unification of different mathematics at the level of internal logic in this century.

Different sub-directions are just different forms of expression; they all have a unified core.

I believe that with your joining, we will be able to achieve all this faster." Grothendieck did not speak Falanxi, but instead issued an invitation to Lin Ran directly in not-so-standard English.

He spoke English very slowly, even somewhat unclearly.

If Lin Ran were truly a mathematician, such an opportunity would be enough to make him too excited to sleep, working with a group of top mathematicians to do work that could have a profound impact on the future of mathematics.

With his ability, taking over the title of Pope of Mathematics was not to say a sure thing, but it was eight or nine out of ten.

It's a pity that Lin Ran has little interest in theoretical mathematics. For him, mathematics is a tool, a tool to help better achieve aerospace goals, not the goal itself.

"Professor, sorry, I don't speak Falanxi, and I don't really want to leave America. I think that in New York, we can also communicate frequently through faxes." Lin Ran looked at this still-young famous mathematician and declined politely.

Grothendieck did not invite him again, but said: "Good, communicate with me whenever you have any ideas. Fox has my fax address."

Then he grinned again: "I don't hope that the incident of me rediscovering measure theory and the Lebesgue integral in college will happen again. We shouldn't waste too much time on meaningless things."

Grothendieck attended the University of Montpellier for college. After he discovered that the teachers were all reading from textbooks, he stopped going to class. According to historical records, Montpellier at that time was one of the most backward in teaching mathematics among all Falanxi universities.

In such an environment, Grothendieck relied on his own efforts to rediscover the concepts of measure theory and the Lebesgue integral.

This has the same effect as Einstein researching statistical physics theory according to his own ideas.

"I understand, Professor, of course I understand."

After the entire academic conference ended, all the mathematicians recognized that the Fermat Conjecture had been proven by Lin Ran, changing from a conjecture to a theorem.

The paper was not published in any mathematical journal.

At this time, "New Progress in Mathematics" had not yet been founded, "Acta Mathematica" was a Swedish magazine, "Annals of Mathematics" was a journal responsible by Princeton University, and the "Journal of the American Mathematical Society" would not appear until the late 80s.

These mathematical journals all wanted to publish Lin Ran's paper on the proof of the Fermat Conjecture, to be sent out in the form of a special issue, among which some of the highest-tier second-rate academic journals offered a sky-high manuscript fee of ten thousand dollars.

You know, at that time, there was no manuscript fee for publishing papers in academic journals; instead, one had to pay the author's money back.

Taking "Annals of Mathematics" as an example, the page fee for long papers is about 200 to 500 dollars.

Only articles of the level of the Fermat Conjecture, which can improve the grade of the entire academic journal, can receive such treatment.

And Columbia University did not want to make wedding clothes for other academic journals, especially not wanting to give them to "Annals of Mathematics," plus in the environment at that time, the mathematics community itself needed new top-tier journals.

After the publisher of the future "New Progress in Mathematics," the American Academic Press, received the news, they found Columbia University, and the two sides hit it off. Under the matchmaking of both sides, they jointly issued a new top-tier journal in the field of mathematics.

The publication time of "New Progress in Mathematics" was advanced from the original 1965 to 1960, and Lin Ran's proof of the Fermat Conjecture became their inaugural work.

There was no manuscript fee, but Columbia University, on the grounds of a long-term research project, provided him with a long-term special research funding support of twenty thousand dollars per year.

After Tsung-Dao Lee won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, Columbia University gave him the same treatment.

In addition to special research funding, Columbia University also gave him the James Madison Professorship.

This type of chair belongs to a donated chair, mostly from alumni or corporate donations, and can receive additional subsidies. James Madison was the fourth American president, and his donated chair came with an additional subsidy of 10,000 dollars per year.

That is to say, compared with ordinary mathematics professors, Lin Ran's annual salary from Columbia University is 30,000 dollars more.

In addition, the implicit benefits given by Columbia University also include reducing teaching hours, equipping with full-time assistants, etc.

Of course, not only these, the real bulk of the subsidy comes from the Rockefeller Foundation.

The Rockefeller Foundation gave him a long-term grant of 50,000 dollars per year.

That is to say, in 1960, Lin Ran's total annual salary package was close to 100,000 dollars.

"Never expected that the result was to enjoy the treatment of a 100,000-dollar annual salary first in 1960. This is about the same salary as a mid-level coder in Silicon Valley in 2020, right?" Lin Ran thought.

In addition to the treatment in money, the competing reports of various media made his fame even higher.

Previously, only the New York Times reported, and it used expressions like "alleged," "seems," "possibly," but now it is proven.

On the surface, Lin Ran came from the University of Göttingen, plus his ethnic Chinese identity, so he was crowned with titles such as "Light of the Chinese" and "Chinese Gauss" by various newspapers.

Compared with the "parity non-conservation" for which Yang Chen-ning and Tsung-Dao Lee won the Nobel Prize a few years ago, Lin Ran's Fermat Conjecture is much easier to talk about.

The extended Randolph Program is even hailed by some mathematicians as pointing out the research direction for the entire 20th-century mathematics.

This is even more content that can be written.

Even in the Cultural Huaguo mainland, there are relevant reports, but in the reports in Cultural Huaguo, Lin Ran's nationality information will be hidden, emphasizing his Chinese identity.

Because Lin Ran accepted the invitation of 4v's Tsinghua University, 4v is even more blowing Lin Ran to the sky in its island newspapers, almost saying that he is the greatest mathematician of the 20th century, fortunately adding one of them.

And the Chinese-language newspaper "Overseas Chinese Daily News" founded in New York is blowing its significance to the Chinese people.

"In the witness of many mathematicians, young ethnic Chinese mathematician Randolph Lin announced the solution of the Fermat Conjecture, and the theory contained in it will change the mathematics research of the 20th century and beyond. It also indicates the powerful potential of the Chinese people in the field of science." ===== CHAPTER 21 =====