Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Two weeks after the interview, Times Magazine published its weekly international issue.
The person interviewed in this issue was quite special.
This person wasn’t a politician, a movie star, or a CEO.
He was a scholar.
The public definitely didn’t pay attention to academia figures. Interviews about science or scholars were often labeled with boring titles.
However, surprisingly, after Julia Drake’s interview came out, the article attracted widespread attention.
Lu Zhou was about to go on a flight from New York to Berlin. He had been busy working on the report and almost forgot about his interview.
He then suddenly saw the magazine at the airport while waiting for the plane to depart.
Although he didn’t really care about the public’s opinion on him, he was still curious about what the world-class magazine said.
Lu Zhou flipped through the pages and read the text.
[… Three years ago, he didn’t have any research results, nor did he have a single medal, nor were there people visiting the Jin Ling University library like a shrine, sitting in his old seat while hoping to gain inspiration.
[But three years later, not only did he have all of this, but he also used mathematics to create a different world for everyone.
[When he stood on the stage of the Stockholm Concert Hall and received the Crafoord Prize, not only did he receive recognition from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences but also from the entire world. The Goldbach’s conjecture was finally solved.
[Today, his new achievements in the field of lithium-sulfur batteries have changed the energy industry. Any consumer that uses electronic devices is directly affected by his research.
[Very few scholars are able to achieve this much at such a young age, and even fewer are able to avoid the obsession with money and fame while maintaining their excellence in climbing the mountain of science.
[After all, going into unknown territory required more than just courage.
[Recently, he was invited by the Max Planck Institute to travel to Europe to attend a conference. He will present his latest research findings to the academic community on the theoretical model of the electrochemical interface structure.
[As he promised, he would redefine science with mathematics. He will attempt to fulfill his original promise.
[He isn’t just a person but a symbol.
[The symbol of the new generation of scholars.
[This new generation of scholars will shape our future.
[Times Magazine 21/8/2018.
-Julia Drake]
Lu Zhou looked at the international issue of Times Magazine in his hand and smirked.
Times didn’t evaluate every interviewee positively, and they often published satirical and criticizing content. However, there was no doubt that this article about him was positive.
And obviously, Lu Zhou was most satisfied at the photo of himself on the cover.
The series of spell-like formulas and letters on the blackboard, and the books and documents that piled up at the corner of the table; they all portrayed his identity as a mathematician. He wasn’t portrayed as a nerd at all.
He was wearing his favorite plaid T-shirt, and he looked like an ordinary college student instead of a professor.
He was holding a piece of chalk in his right hand and “Little Guy” from the Princeton Drone Club on his left arm.
Yes, the name of the four-rotor drone was “Little Guy”.
Perhaps the Times Magazine wanted to use the four rotors to symbolize his never-ending thinking process.
Of course, Lu Zhou felt like all of this could be symbolized into one word.
Anyone that looked at this photo would know the word.
Handsome.
…
After a few hours of flying, a bright silver airplane landed at the Tegal Airport in Berlin.
Soon after Lu Zhou got off the plane, he received a warm welcome.
He saw a gray-haired old man extending his right hand and walking toward him with a smile.
“Hello, Mr. Lu Zhou, welcome to Berlin.”
Lu Zhou let go of his suitcase and shook hands with the old man.
“Hello!”
Even though Lu Zhou didn’t speak German, they could still communicate in English.
After some small talk, the old man introduced Lu Zhou to several scholars standing behind him.
“Please allow me to introduce myself, I am the president of the Max Planck Institute, Martin Stratmann.” Stratmann then looked at the person next to him and said, “This is Professor Klaus von Klitzing…”
Although this was their first time meeting, Lu Zhou knew who Stratmann was.
He served as the president of the Max Planck Institute and the director of the famous Max Planck Institute of Steel Research; he was an expert in surface chemistry.
The Kelvin scanning probe he invented was widely used to study the hidden secrets in corrosion science such as revealing the stability mechanism of the metal-polymer interface.
Lu Zhou had read his thesis when he was studying computational materials science in the library.
As for Professor Klitzing, he had countless achievements. Whether it was in theoretical physics or condensed matter physics, his name was everywhere.
His most famous research result was the quantum Hall effect which won him the 1985 Nobel Prize.
In addition to Klitzing, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Physical Chemistry and Professor Faltings were also there.
Faltings hadn’t changed since Lu Zhou met him last year. The old German man still had a temper.
“Hello.”
“Hello.”
“We meet again.”
“… Yeah, we do.”
Lu Zhou thought that Faltings would be more welcoming to him since they had met before.
Since the old man came all the way to pick up him, this had to be Falting’s unique way of expressing recognition.
After all, there weren’t many people that were worthy of Falting’s recognition.
The old man respected less than a handful of mathematicians in the world.
Lu Zhou thought that his theory was quite reasonable.