Chapter 221 An Extremely Important Conversation

As the group of people left in a grand manner, other tourists in the reception hall also came to their senses.

The melon-eating people who witnessed the whole process of picking up the plane started talking about it.

"With so many people picking up the plane, who is this young man? What is his background?"

"What the hell? You don't even know Kawakami?"

"Sichuan God? Which celebrity is the star?"

"Celebrity? Little hottie? Don't make trouble. You're not doing well in school. Those little hotties are not worthy of carrying his shoes. This one just won the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics. Here, No Chinese has ever gotten it before.”

"Do you know the other seven Millennium Problems? The prize for each problem is one million gold. Kawakami has solved one and is currently solving another."

"What the fuck? One million meters of gold for one question? Seven million rmb?"

"This is only from the Clay Institute. There are other awards, such as national awards and so on. There are tens of millions of bonuses at least."

"Tsk, tsk, if I had studied hard when I was a kid, I would have been able to get a bonus of tens of millions for solving a problem. That would be great."

"Oh, is it easy to get it? There are 7 billion in the world, and there are only two people who can get this bonus. You should just work hard and move bricks, and don't dream about the blue sky."

Some people may not be very clear about the Fields Medal and the seven millennium problems, but in terms of money, everyone will know the importance of this issue.

Of course, problems like the seven millennium problems cannot be described in terms of money, nor can they be solved with money.

If it could be solved by spending money, let alone 10 million, it would be 100 million or 1 billion, and countries would be rushing to pay for it.

Every millennium problem that is solved brings scientific progress and the hope and future of civilization.

After getting in the car, Qin Anguo and Xu Chuan chatted.

"Professor Xu, when you come back this time, is there anywhere you want to go? How about coming to our science and technology bu?"

Qin Anguo pulled him over with a smile, while Xu Chuan smiled and shook his head, saying: "I won't bother you, Mr. Qin. I have already agreed to my alma mater and plan to return to Nanjing University to be a professor."

"Teaching and educating people is good." Qin Anguo didn't care too much. Science and technology are actually not very suitable for young people like Xu Chuan. The Chinese Academy of Sciences or top universities are more suitable.

After all, he is only twenty years old and has just entered the golden stage of his academic career. If he really pulls people from science and technology into politics, everyone above him will have to look for him.

China has never lacked officials, but what it lacks are top talents in the field of science.

"What are you going to study next? Should we continue to study NS equations?" Academician Pan Deming asked with a smile.

Xu Chuan nodded and said: "The NS equation is one of the next research goals. In addition, I plan to try the water in materials."

Pan Deming raised his eyebrows and asked in surprise: "Materials? This is quite a span."

Xu Chuan smiled and said, "Actually, it's okay. When I was studying at NTU, my instructor taught me some knowledge about physical materials. I was quite interested in this."

On the side, Qin Anguo explained with a smile: "It doesn't matter if the span is large, only young people can be aggressive. The tungsten diselenide material synthesis method studied by Academician Chen Zhengping in the past two years has helped the country save billions of meters of gold every year."

"At that time, Professor Xu helped Academician Chen build a mathematical model, analyze the shortcomings of the synthesis method, and also provide solutions, which played a very important role."

He is the head of the Science and Technology Department, and he has some understanding of some of the top scientific research progress and figures in the country. What's more, before this, he also deliberately learned some information related to Xu Chuan.

Hearing this, Pan Deming glanced at Xu Chuan in surprise.

He knew Chen Zhengping and tungsten diselenide, but he didn't know Xu Chuan's role in it.

Will this follow Qin Anguo's wishes? Is Xu Chuan still the hero in the tungsten diselenide material project?

I have never heard of him being interested in materials in recent years, and there has never been any relevant news from Princeton.

Chatting all the way, the group soon arrived at the hotel where they were staying.

The hotel is not very big, but the location is excellent, right next to the Forbidden City, and you can see Beihai Park and Jingshan Park when you open the window.

A place like this would probably not be provided even for important foreign leaders to entertain people.

In the hotel, the general manager in charge of the hotel personally carried Xu Chuan's luggage and led him to the room.

"Professor Xu, how is it here? Are you satisfied with the room environment and so on?"

Putting the luggage in the corner, hotel manager Xia Huarong asked with a smile while opening the curtains, and bright sunlight suddenly filled the entire room.

Xu Chuan smiled and said politely: "I am very satisfied. You are too polite."

Xia Huarong smiled and said: "Where. If there is anything else you need, just call the waiters and they will tell me. Don't worry about trouble. Serving the pillars of the motherland is what you should do."

For today's China, ordinary talents cannot enjoy such treatment, let alone be personally picked up and received by the head of the Science and Technology Department.

But Xu Chuan is different. He is the first Chinese scholar to win the Fields Medal. He is also a top talent in today's young mathematics community, and can even be said to be the first person in the mathematics community.

It is not an exaggeration to say that such a talent should be received by a top leader or even a more important person in person.

In fact, Xu Chuan came back this time and landed in Beijing instead of Shanghai, and other people also wanted to meet him.

After having lunch in the hotel and welcoming Xu Chuan, Qin Anguo from the Science and Technology Information Department asked with a smile: "Professor Xu, is the food delicious?"

Xu Chuan smiled and nodded, saying: "It's delicious."

"That's good, that's good." Qin Anguo smiled and said: "Then I won't bother you here for the time being. You can take a rest first to relieve the fatigue of the long-distance travel. I will come again tomorrow morning."

Xu Chuan nodded. He knew what was going to happen tomorrow morning and was ready.

In the afternoon, Xu Chuan left the hotel and walked to the Forbidden City to relax, thinking about something.

On the other side, in the physics branch of the distant Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, located in a corner of the institute building, several members of the selection committee were sitting in an office to discuss this year's Nobel Prize in Physics winner.

"Everyone, we need to start discussing this year's physics prize winner. The list of nominees that has been screened once has been sent to everyone present. Let's take a look first."

In the office, the selection committee chairman of the Physics Division of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences sent the information in his hand to the other four Nobel Prize in Physics selection committee members.

It is now mid-August. According to usual practice, the Nobel Prize in Physics is about to start the first round of final selection.

The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to a maximum of three people and two different scientific studies each year. Compared with other Nobel Prizes, the recommendation and selection process of the Physics Prize is longer and more meticulous.

Other disciplines may not start until September, but the Physics Prize basically starts the first round of final selection in August.

Of course, the selection of the Nobel Prize is far more than that simple.

Starting from February 1st of each year, the various Nobel Prize committees screen and review the recommended candidates, and the work is strictly confidential.

The list of nominees is never released to the public, and the nominees themselves will not know that they have been nominated. The nomination record is sealed for fifty years.

It will be August or September before the jury will start the final selection of candidates, which will take one or two months, and the Nobel Prize winner in Physics will be selected from the final candidates before October.

The Swedish and Norwegian governments have no right to interfere in the selection of the Nobel Prize and cannot express support or opposition to the recommended candidates.

In the office, the five selection committee members browsed the materials in their hands and communicated with each other.

"For this year's Physics Prize, I recommend Professor Arthur Ashkin's breakthrough invention in the field of laser physics. His work in this field is excellent."

"Using optical trapping and optical gradient force to manipulate tiny dielectric particles. Extending these studies to bacteria, viruses and cells is a great achievement."

Wolfgang Kettler, a selection committee member with curly white short hair, suggested.

On the side, another selection committee member nodded and said, "The breakthrough in the field of laser physics is indeed an excellent achievement that is worthy of selection, but if you recommend him, Professor Gerhard Moreau and Professor Donna Strickland should also be brought along."

"The contributions of these two professors in the field of laser physics are equally great, and their achievements in laser chirped pulse amplification are also outstanding and worthy of selection."

On the other side, a middle-aged man rubbed his temple with a headache, and then said, "I think we should consider the 'extended application of the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem', which is a greater achievement."

"Especially in the past two days, the Swedish Academy of Sciences has received countless Several letters recommended the "Extended Application of Xu-Weyl-Berry Theorem", including Nobel Prize winners such as Professor Sal Perlmutter and Professor Brian Schmidt. "

Hearing this, Wolfgang Kettler frowned and said, "We have discussed him two years ago. Do we need to discuss it again this year? Although this achievement is great enough, it has only appeared for more than three years. It is too young and has not experienced enough time to settle."

"And he is too young. He is only 20 years old this year, and it will take several months to reach 21 years old."

The rules of the Nobel Prize in Physics stipulate that the contribution of the winner must "have been tested by time." This means that the Nobel Committee often awards the award decades after the scientific discovery.

For example, half of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Subramanian Chandrasekhar for his research on stellar structure and evolution as early as the 1930s.

The disadvantage of this approach is that many scientists who have made important scientific contributions have died before they have the opportunity to be recognized by the Nobel Prize.

Therefore, if you want to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, you need not only to have significant achievements, but also to live a long life.

Hearing this, the old man, Professor George Smoot, who had just spoken, retorted: "But it has already achieved enough results and has been tested, right?"

"Using it, we have successfully found an exoplanet with a similarity of more than 99% to the Earth, and also confirmed that Betelgeuse is not a single star system, but a binary or multi-star system."

"Each of these achievements is worthy of the Physics Prize, but we have ignored it for two consecutive years, and the outside world is very dissatisfied with us."

Wolfgang Kettler frowned and said: "But he is really too young, he is only 20 years old now, and he can wait a few more years."

"He has been nominated since he was 18 years old, and it has only been three years. If he is awarded the Nobel Prize this year, he will undoubtedly break the world record and become the youngest winner in history."

Although Nobel's will did not stipulate that the age of the winner must be above a certain age, not everyone is willing to break the rules and refresh the historical record.

Professor George Smoot immediately retorted: "Mr. Nobel never stipulated that the Nobel Prize must be awarded to an old man over 80 or 90 years old."

"Science has always been young, and most of the great achievements were made by young scholars, from Newton to Einstein, to William Lawrence Bragg and Peter Higgs."

"No genius has ever made great achievements after the age of 50 or 60."

"We should not be so prejudiced against young geniuses."

Historically, the youngest Nobel Prize winner in physics was 25-year-old William Lawrence Bragg.

For using X-rays to analyze the structure of protein molecules, he determined the extremely complex molecular structure of living matter for the first time, and he and his father Henry Bragg won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Coincidentally, the father and son won the award exactly three years after their results were published.

And it has been three years since Xu Chuan's "Extended Application of Xu-Weyl-Berry Theorem" was published.

This is also one of the reasons why Professor George Smoot argued for his point.

The three-year period has come.

And as an astrophysicist, Professor George Smoot is very clear about the value of "Extended Application of Xu-Weyl-Berry Theorem".

Maybe it is not reflected much now.

But if humans enter the era of interstellar migration, this achievement will directly lead humans to move forward in the vast universe.

While the selection committee of the Nobel Prize in Physics was still arguing fiercely about whether Xu Chuan should win the award.

Xu Chuan, who was far away in China, had spent a quiet night.

The next morning, it was dawn, Xu Chuan got up from bed, washed his face and had breakfast, and carefully tidied his appearance.

This morning, he was going to meet a very important person.

This meeting and conversation may determine the fate of him, the entire science, and even other futures.

He could not ignore it.