On July 25, the 29th International Congress of Mathematicians officially opened in St. Petersburg.

The soft sunlight that fills the complex reflects the magnificence of the Baroque style.

For this city with a relatively long history, it is also quite attractive to add some academic flair to the atmosphere full of humanistic atmosphere.

The Imperial Hotel in Tarun is full of people.

Although the hall where the conference was held could accommodate more than 3,000 people at the same time, it was still packed at the moment.

Although the organizers and hotels have taken into account the large number of participants in this conference and temporarily added more than 500 stools and chairs, it is still not enough to meet everyone's needs.

Many of the scholars who came to the conference could not find a seat and chose to stand or sit in the aisles.

No way, this time the International Congress of Mathematicians, because of the Yang-Mills report on the mass gap problem, welcomed not only mathematicians, but also many physicists who are interested in it.

For the International Mathematical Union (IMU), this is a joyful event.

It's definitely a pleasure to see mathematics expand into other fields, and its influence expands step by step.

At half past eight in the morning, the lecture hall was already full.

Having learned the lesson of being entangled by the crowd last time, Xu Chuan deliberately sat down in advance this time.

Although many people still noticed him after arriving at the scene and took the initiative to come forward to communicate, they finally didn't get surrounded and couldn't even get past their own position.

"Wow, what a coincidence, I didn't expect our seats to be together."

In the front row of the venue, Schultz glanced at the invitation letter in his hand and greeted Xu Chuan, who had already sat down, with a smile.

Although most of the mathematicians who came to the conference did so by themselves, the organizers would have chosen to reserve the seats in the front row.

Xu Chuan responded with a smile, and his eyes fell on Professor G Faltins, who came with Schultz.

"Professor Faltins, long time no see."

Faltins said lightly: "Two or three months is only a long time. ”

Hearing this, Xu Chuan was slightly stunned for a moment, and reacted that he was talking about the last report meeting on the solution of the Yang-Mills equation.

Indeed, it has only been two months since the report meeting held at the end of May was fully completed today.

Smiling, Xu Chuan said: "In my motherland, there is a saying that if you don't see each other for a day, it's like every three autumns, and two or three months is quite a long time. ”

Faltins didn't care, said hello and walked towards his seat.

Over there, there are also mathematicians of the older generation, such as Deligne, Feverman, and Morishigefumi.

Although mathematicians and scholars often don't care about age or anything, there is still a generation gap when the age difference is too large.

Just like Xu Chuan himself, compared with communicating with older generation mathematicians such as Feverman and Qiu Chengtong, it is always more relaxed to be with younger scholars such as Tao Zhexuan and Schultz.

"Speaking of which, Xu, who do you think will be the candidates for this year's Fields Medal?"

Beside him, Schultz was an idle man, and after Faltins left, he quickly pulled him to discuss.

Hearing this question, Xu Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Professor Xu Jun, who introduced the ideas of Hodge Theory into combinatorics and proved the Strong Mason conjecture and the Heron-Rota-Welsh conjecture, should be able to hold one steadily. ”

"Professor Marina Vyazovska, who solved the problem of the densest packing of the same sphere in 8 dimensions in the E8 grid, should also be able to do the same."

"As for the rest, it's up to the council to decide."

In fact, for him, he knows exactly who the winners of this year's Fields Medal are.

However, the reason why I only said two was that I hoped to leave some opportunities for my two students.

Although Gu Bing is unlikely, Amelia, as the main force in solving Bloch's conjecture, still has some opportunities.

However, in terms of age, her chances may be greater in the next class.

After all, Amelia was about the same age as him, but he remembered that Amelia was a few months older than him, and had already celebrated her twenty-sixth birthday in February of this year.

Wait another four years, and you'll be almost thirty years old.

Thirty years old is more in line with the choice of the IMU Council.

But no matter what, Xu Chuan still hopes that Amelia can win the Fields Medal at this conference, after all, she is his student and his friend.

The time soon came to nine o'clock, and the conference kicked off with warm applause.

As in previous conferences, the head of the organizing committee of the conference, Professor Marcelo Viaana, delivered the opening speech.

He also thanked the local organizations and sponsors of the conference, and thanked the new and old friends who came to participate in the conference, and announced the official opening of the 29th International Congress of Mathematics.

Subsequently, the current president of the International Mathematical Union, Xi Kenniger, delivered a speech and reviewed the development of the mathematical community in the past four years.

After the two hosts finished their speeches, the opening ceremony of this year's Mathematics Conference entered the most exciting part - the announcement and awarding of the major awards of the International Mathematical Union!

Compared to the 28th Congress held in Brazil four years ago, the 'Riravati Prize' and the 'Radzhinskaya Prize' were added

The former is not strictly new, it exists in South Asia itself, and this year, funded by Infosys, a well-known Indian IT company, has added the Lilavati Award as a permanent award for the IMU.

The source of the award is based on a mathematical paper called 'Leelavati', which rewards the general popularization of mathematics and the scholars who have contributed to the field.

The latter is a new prize in mathematical physics, which was established to commemorate the outstanding contribution of the greatest female mathematical physicist of Tsarist Russia (former Red Soviet Union) to the important field of partial differential equations, Professor Radzhenskaya.

In addition to the Fields Medal, the Gauss Medal, the Chern Prize, and the Abacus Award, there are a total of six awards at this year's International Congress of Mathematicians.

These awards mark the highest honor in mathematics, and it can be said that if you can win any of them, the winner will have a smooth start in mathematics for the rest of his life.

Especially the most important Fields Medal!

After all, compared with the Gauss Prize, the Chern Prize, or the Wolf Prize, which was not included in the conference, and other lifelong achievement awards, the Fields Medal, which can only be judged under the age of 40, can be said to be the most desired award for countless talented mathematicians.

Because it is not only an award, but also represents the great achievements made by the winners before the age of forty and have made great contributions to the mathematical community.

While the awards are impressive, the achievements are undoubtedly more appealing.

Especially for gifted mathematicians under the age of 40, winning the Fields Medal is not the end of their academic careers, but a fresh beginning.

Of course, this kind of highlight, for the International Mathematical Union, is naturally to be left last.

Standing on the lecture platform, Professor Xi Kenniger, the current president of the International Mathematical Union, pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said with a smile: "I know that you have been looking forward to it for a long time, so I will not waste time." ”

"Next, the awards of this International Congress of Mathematicians will be awarded!"

After a pause, he glanced at the speech in his hand, met the eyes of all the scholars, and continued: "The first award is the Gauss Prize!" ”

The moment the words fell, the lecture hall of thousands of people suddenly fell silent, and the pins could be heard, and everyone couldn't help but hold their breath.

After looking around the room, Professor Kenniger's gaze fell on a figure in the front row for a second, and then he spoke slowly in a steady and solemn tone.

PS: There is one more chapter later, ask for a monthly pass!

(End of chapter)