After an hour of interview, after examining Ai Ai's professional skills, Pang Xuelin smiled and said, "Ai Ai, the last question, can you tell me why you chose mathematics?" ”

Ai Ai pondered for a moment and said, "As far as I know shallowly, there is no subject that has changed the way I look at things as profoundly as mathematics. I was slow to learn math because I had a hard time accepting some of the mathematical ideas, or the philosophical ideas behind them, but once I did, it felt completely new. Especially when it comes to understanding a proposition or concept, I am often amazed by mathematics. ”

"When I was studying abstract algebra two years ago, I was not amazed by the abstract definitions. But I was really surprised by the correspondence of Galois theory and its subsequent application to the formulas of ruler drawing and root finding. From the solvability of the herd to the ability to find the root, the things that are not related to the wind and horses and cows are connected, and I feel that the truth of the world has been discovered! ”

"Learning commutative algebra, I was amazed at how many structures and theories people can study in one small ring. When we discover the ideal, we have a quotient; But after discovering the ideal of primitive, we have localization, and all of a sudden the world becomes incomparably wonderful. In particular, the Krull ring has exhausted eighteen kinds of martial arts, which is breathtaking. ”

"I've been studying category theory for a long time, and when I first started, I really didn't know what it was about, a new name? But when you accept the setting, the more you learn, the more interesting it becomes. At the beginning, the teacher once said that category theory is an abstraction one dimension higher than mathematics. This sentence was completely incomprehensible to me, who only knew the basic definition at the time. In retrospect, that's really how it feels. ”

"Algebraic topology is also a very interesting subject. When I first learned it, the teacher went all the way from the basic definition of cohomology to K-theory, with a complete theory of bundle classification, and finally wrote 700 pages of notes, which made me learn at that time......"

"The combination is even more interesting. Combinations are often counting, but how you count is important. Looking at it from a different point of view, it directly affects whether you can 'count' a number or not. In different ways, the same number can be associated with different things. Can you imagine that the number of elements in a symmetrical group has anything to do with a coin toss? There is an intrinsic relationship between these phenomena, but there is an intrinsic relationship between them......"

……

"So personally, the mystery of mathematics is greater, and it makes me want to explore it. Of course, Professor Pang, you are also an important reason? ”

"Me?"

Pang Xuelin pointed at himself, a little surprised.

Ai Ai grinned, "I'm a big fan of yours, and I couldn't be happier to be able to study under you." And I also believe that with you, I can go further on my academic path in the future. ”

Pang Xuelin smiled: "Are you so confident that you can pass the interview? Know that you have a lot of competitors. ”

Ai Ai shrugged his shoulders and said, "I have done my best, whether I can go to graduate school under your hand or not, I feel that I have no regrets." Of course, even if I end up missing out, I will continue on my academic path......"

Pang Xuelin nodded and said, "Very good, let's go here for today's interview first, there will be results in a week, you just go back and wait for the notice." ”

Ai Ai blinked and said, "Professor Pang, can I ask, is my hope great?" ”

Pang Xuelin said with a smile: "You are the first to come for an interview, whether you can pass or not depends on the situation of those competitors behind you, of course, your performance today is very good, so the hope of staying is still not small......

Ai Ai laughed and said, "Professor Pang, then I'm sorry for you today, if there's nothing to do, I'll go first!" ”

With that, Ai Ai got up directly and picked up the backpack she was carrying.

Pang Xuelin smiled: "Okay, then goodbye!" ”

"Professor Pang, I'm looking forward to seeing you again!"

Ai Ai smiled and turned to leave Pang Xuelin's office.

Pang Xuelin shook his head with a smile.

He is actually quite satisfied with this girl, although her personality is a little out-of-the-box, but she has her own set of ideas about mathematics and is very spiritual.

In the following week, Pang Xuelin spent the non-stop interview.

The excellence of these shortlisted students is somewhat beyond Pang Xuelin's expectations, and almost every student has the potential to show their strength in the fields of mathematics, materials science, and electrochemistry.

In the end, Pang Xuelin determined the list of five finalists.

There are three graduate students in mathematics, namely Sophie Heyman, David Halker and Ai Ai.

Sophie Heyman is a freckled German girl who is only 18 years old this year, but has already completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Bonn.

She has a somewhat silent personality, but is amazingly gifted in the field of mathematics.

Originally, Schultz took a fancy to her and was ready to focus on her, but she told Schultz that she wanted to learn Ponzi geometry.

After graduating from the bachelor's degree, Schultz recommended her to Pang Xuelin.

When she came to the interview, she did not talk like Ai Ai, but directly asked Pang Xuelin for a blackboard, and spent half an hour using a very ingenious method to approximate symmetrical classification of the perturbation generalized Kadtsev-Petviashvili equation containing two arbitrary functions f and g, and constructed invariant solutions for several of them.

So Pang Xuelin directly made a decision to leave her behind.

As for David Halke, this guy showed Pang Xuelin some notes from his research on far-flake geometry during the interview, and some of the ideas and concepts coincided with Ponzi geometry.

You know, this guy is only 20 years old this year.

When Pang Xuelin was in the Martian world, he thought about Mars for three years before he figured out some of the joints, and he actually completed such a job independently at this age.

If you talk about the talent in mathematics, Pang Xuelin before the transformation of genetic medicine is far inferior to the other party.

Except for these two who stand out, the others are excellent, but the overall performance is similar.

In the end, Pang Xuelin chose Ai Ai, who graduated from Jiang University.

After all, I recruit graduate students by myself, and I don't accept any Jiang University students, which is a bit unreasonable.

As for the two graduate places in the field of carbon nanomaterials and electrochemistry, Pang Xuelin gave Meng Yao and Zhizi respectively.

Meng Yao, who graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Peking University, Pang Xuelin only learned during the interview that he had minored in materials science at Peking University, and his interest in computational materials science was not much less than that of mathematics, so Pang Xuelin accepted him cleanly.

Needless to say, the last Zhizi needs her to be at the helm of the lithium-air battery in the future, and letting her come over to study electrochemistry is also paving the way for the future.