Chapter 32: Hope It's a Genius

Lin Ran smiled and shook his hand, responding: "Thank you, Sir Lincoln. I have long heard of the academic vitality of Xiangjiang University, and I hope my arrival can bring new vitality here."

Lin Ran's English had long been adjusted to the most standard American English.

Mathematics Department Chair Zhang Tianze couldn't wait to take a step forward and said in Mandarin mixed with a Cantonese accent:

"Professor Lin, hello. Our Xiangjiang University mathematics department previously organized a one-month seminar to discuss your paper on the proof of the Fermat Conjecture.

There are still some doubts that I hope to get your personal answers.

And your description of birds and frogs has also been deeply recognized by everyone. We also hope to hear your views on mathematics learning, as well as your views on doing mathematical research.

In addition, our students are very much looking forward to your seminar."

His tone carried a trace of worship. Mathematics is such a discipline, and the boundary between the strong and the weak is very clear.

Another very important point is that mathematics is the discipline that looks most at inheritance.

In the stereotypes of many people, mathematics seems to rely only on paper, pens, and books to carry out academic research, but in fact, it is very, very dependent on inheritance.

The University of Minnesota has a project called Math Genealogy Project, which is a network database specifically used to collect the academic pedigree of mathematicians, initiated by Harry B. Coonce, starting in the autumn of 1997.

This project is used to collect information on all mathematicians in the world, including all those who have obtained a doctorate in mathematics.

Among them, for most famous mathematicians, you can find ancestors with master-apprentice relationships.

The University of Göttingen became a mathematical center because of Gauss, the mathematics of Soviet Russia is strong because of the great god Euler, and Paris became a mathematical center because of a group of great gods like Grothendieck.

Later, Princeton became a mathematical center because German scientists ran to Princeton from Göttingen after World War II.

With Lin Ran, who has the Randolph Program, in Zhang Tianze's view, the other party is the kind of mathematician who can take Hong Kong University to fly together.

Lin Ran turned to him and replied in standard Mandarin with a slight smile: "Professor Zhang is over-praised. I came here this time to explore mathematics with students in Hong Kong, and I hope they can also be inspired."

Then, he added a sentence in Cantonese: "Thank you for your welcome."

Although this Cantonese was not very fluent, it caused a burst of well-intentioned laughter and applause from the locals present.

A member of the Board of Directors, a wealthy businessman named Mr. Huang, stepped forward and interjected: "Professor Lin, you are the pride of the Chinese. Being able to prove a conjecture that has not been proven for hundreds of years, returning to Hong Kong this time is really raising the prestige of our Chinese people!" His voice was loud and his face was full of smiles.

Because of Lin Ran's visit, Xiangjiang people felt quite excited. On the one hand, the other party was important and was an internationally famous mathematician. On the other hand, it was because it was said that Cambridge University and Oxford University also issued requests for visiting professors to Lin Ran, and Lin Ran refused Cambridge and Oxford but agreed to Xiangjiang University.

Although there is the reason that everyone is Chinese, it also boosts the morale of Xiangjiang people.

Especially the wealthy Chinese businessmen present, they know through their connections in the Hong Kong government that Lin Ran's refusal of Cambridge and Oxford is not a rumor but a fact.

Lin Ran nodded slightly and responded modestly: "Mr. Huang is serious. I am just a person who studies mathematics. Being able to win glory for the Chinese is an unexpected joy. This time in Xiangjiang, I hope more to help the younger generation of Chinese grow together."

His tone was peaceful but firm, making Mr. Huang nod repeatedly.

At this time, the reporters around couldn't hold back.

First, the reporter from the "South China Morning Post" squeezed forward, and the pen in his hand almost poked into Lin Ran's face: "Professor Lin, what plans do you have for the seminar? What knowledge will you impart to our students?"

His tone was urgent, but his English was an unusually standard London accent.

Lin Ran chuckled and replied: "I think the most important thing is to teach them some thinking methods and some interesting mathematical problems, hoping to stimulate their curiosity."

Lin Ran's answer was watertight.

He couldn't say that I came here to teach variational methods and optimal control theory related to intercontinental ballistic missile trajectory optimization.

It is true that Qian Xuesen is engaged in cybernetics. The engineering cybernetics he wrote has application scenarios until today.

But optimal control theory did not officially appear until November 1960, at the first International Federation of Automatic Control conference held in Moscow, after the dynamic programming method proposed by Bellman, the maximum principle proposed by Pontryagin, and the LQ theory proposed by Kalman appeared.

The algorithms that Lin Ran wants to teach the students of the seminar are not this rough variational method, but algorithms that will be widely verified in the aerospace race in the future.

Furthermore, considering the current situation of Cultural Huaguo's lack of computers and reliance on manual calculations, it is an algorithm optimized specifically for this.

Taking the maximum principle proposed by Pontryagin as an example, he proposed the extreme value principle in 1956, and America's Redstone rocket and Soviet Russia's R-7 rocket design used this principle.

But why couldn't Cultural Huaguo use it? Because Cultural Huaguo didn't have an IBM computer to provide computing power.

Relying only on manual calculation, the maximum principle is too difficult.

And Lin Ran wants to teach these theories under the eyes of everyone, and cannot be seen that this has anything to do with aerospace.

How to use future mathematical language to package missile trajectories as pure academic games?

Lin Ran doesn't know who Cultural Huaguo sent yet, but he has already mentioned to Huang Yunji, the president of the "Overseas Chinese Daily News", unintentionally that he likes to deal with real geniuses.

"I hope the one sent is a real genius," Lin Ran thought to himself at the crowded scene: "Otherwise, I will redefine the target function of the optimal flight path as an extreme value problem of functionals, saying that this is studying the extreme value properties in abstract space.

Packaging air resistance and propulsion into perturbation operators, and multi-body gravity as the action of symmetry groups, if he can't understand it, it will be finished."

As the conversation unfolded, more and more students gathered around. Several young people wearing white school uniforms held self-made signs, which read "Welcome, Dr. Lin!"

Someone also used chalk to draw a big "∞" symbol on the ground, symbolizing the infinite charm of mathematics.

Many heads poked out of the windows of the teaching building, and female students were looking at this place with telescopes, and they were discussing:

"Did you see it, did you see it?"

"Is he handsome?"

"Laura, give me the telescope!"

"Really quite handsome, young, and in these two months, I don't know who can seize the opportunity."

"It is said that Professor Lin can make Einstein dizzy as soon as he opens his mouth!"

"He is a mathematician, not a physicist!"

"Can you pass his class? I didn't even dare to take the registration form!"

Laughter and conversation intertwined, and the air was filled with worship for the great mathematician.