Chapter 1004 What Should Come Always Comes

What should come always comes.

The last day of July.

Even though there were 10,000 reluctances in his heart, Lu Zhou finally stopped his unfinished research and began to pack his luggage, preparing to go to St. Petersburg to attend the upcoming International Congress of Mathematicians in early August.

As for the 60-minute report meeting, after some inner struggles, Lu Zhou finally chose to be on the safe side, and made a summary of the work he had done in the field of Riemann zeta function in the past few years. After a brief summary, the paper was uploaded to the website of the International Congress of Mathematicians.

In fact, this is actually the correct posture to give a report at the International Congress of Mathematicians.

Regardless of whether it is a 45-minute or 60-minute report meeting, it is not prepared for the release of a major research result. It is just a platform for those scholars who have made outstanding achievements in various fields. A summary report will be made on the research results of the year.

After all, for many significant topics, especially in the field of number theory, it is too difficult to make some achievements within a few years.

Even, it is a naive thing to think that if you put in time and energy, you will be rewarded.

"Xiao Ai, do you think I should bring a coat?"

It was still summer in Jinling in August, and Lu Zhou felt too hot to go out in a short-sleeved shirt, but I heard that the weather in St. Petersburg had started to turn cold, so I don't know if it will be cold after going there.

Floating unsteadily next to Lu Zhou, a string of text scrolled and flashed at a uniform speed on the drone with a small TV hanging on it.

Xiao Ai: 【... St. Petersburg is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea in the northwest of Russia, with a latitude of 59-60 degrees north. It belongs to a temperate continental climate. The temperature range in August is between 13 degrees and 20 degrees. Although the temperature is not high, it is recommended that the owner wear a A windbreaker or leather jacket, pay attention to prevent colds. ()]

"That's it...then it's better to wear this windbreaker."

Looking away from the small TV, Lu Zhou saw that the suitcase was already full. After thinking about it for a while, he pulled out a few short sleeves and threw them back into the closet. Instead, he stuffed a black trench coat into it.

He still remembers this dress, he wore it when he went to Berlin to accept the award last time.

It's been so many years in a blink of an eye, I didn't expect that it still fits so well.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou kept sighing in his heart.

It seems that the legend about "whoever proves the Riemann conjecture will be immortal" is really not groundless.

He also proved that a weak form of Riemann's conjecture - quasi-Riemann's conjecture, has already achieved initial results in terms of eternal youth.

Just when Lu Zhou was proud of himself, the screen of the small TV floating next to him suddenly flickered slightly.

Xiao Ai: [Master, there is a video call request, the IP is calling from North America~()]

Xiaotong?

Or Vera?

Without asking who it was, Lu Zhou said directly, "Help me pick it up."

Xiao Ai: 【Received! ()]

The picture on the screen flashed, and it quickly switched to the video call interface.

Looking back at the person who appeared on the screen, a hint of surprise appeared in Lu Zhou's eyes, but he did not expect that the call was from him.

"Wei Wen?"

"……professor."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Why did you suddenly think of calling me?"

"Because of something..." He opened his mouth with a bit of embarrassment, but at this moment Wei Wen suddenly noticed Lu Zhou was packing his luggage, so he asked curiously, "Are you planning to go to St. Petersburg to attend the IMU conference?" ?”

"Well, there is a 60-minute report waiting for me over there... Speaking of which, how are you doing recently? I heard from Qin Yue that you seem to have obtained the lecturer qualification of computational materials at MIT Are you still used to the life there?"

Just when he said these words, for some reason, Wei Wen's expression on the other end of the video suddenly became a little bitter.

He shook his head, sighed and said.

"It's not good, don't mention it, I... I'm about to lose my job."

unemployment?

The hands that were packing the suitcase stopped, and Lu Zhou, who was squatting next to the suitcase, stood up, turned his unexpected gaze to Wei Wen on the small TV, and asked with a frown.

"Unemployed? What's the situation? Are you... in trouble?"

In Lu Zhou's impression, Wei Wen's academic ability is good, especially in mathematical modeling. Since he turned to the research of computational materials under his own opinion, he has fully utilized his talents in this area, and it is said that he has published three articles in the four top journals.

Lu Zhou really couldn't think of any reason for MIT to reject such an excellent scholar.

What's more, he is his apprentice...

Even with this halo, he wouldn't be so miserable as to be unemployed, right?

Seeing that Lu Zhou didn't seem to know the situation at all, Wei Wen, who probably guessed why, smiled bitterly and said, "Have you been in retreat recently?"

Lu Zhou frowned and asked, "I guess...does it matter?"

"It doesn't matter, it's just that you haven't heard of it... It's a little surprising," Wei Wen continued with a sigh, "It's not just me who is in trouble, most of the Chinese scholars in MIT now, I haven't had a good time lately..."

After spending five minutes, Wei Wen briefly explained the whole story to Lu Zhou.

It turned out that at the beginning of July, the White House suddenly issued a special decree signed by the president, requiring the embassy to tighten the issuance of student visas.

On the surface, this might seem to have little to do with mathematicians who lecture at MIT.

But in fact, almost immediately after the signing of this decree, the attitudes of MIT, Stanford and other major science and engineering universities towards Chinese lecturers and professors suddenly changed overnight. The behavior of teaching has adopted restrictive means.

Not only those faculty members who have only worked for a few years, but even some scholars who have worked in the United States for more than ten years but have not obtained American citizenship have been seriously affected.

According to gossip, the reason for this situation is that people from the FBI interviewed the boards of directors of major polytechnic universities. Although it has not affected work for the time being, such news still makes many postdocs, lecturers, and professors working at MIT feel shuddering...

"...Actually, as early as two years ago, I saw some signs, but I didn't expect it to develop to this point now."

Lu Zhou was silent for a while and said, "How?"

Sighing, Wei Wen continued: "Nominally, MIT's global admissions standards are based on the three aspects of 'academic ability, personality traits, and global vision' to select talents, but in the past two years, an international student from mainland China has No, in fact, since then, the attitude of such strong polytechnic schools to us has been unfriendly.”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "This is indeed a bit unusual."

Although there are no express regulations, on the admission lists announced by MIT and Stanford in the past two years, there is indeed no student from mainland China, and the only few Chinese students are also from high schools in the United States.

The current situation faced by Chinese scholars at MIT is obviously further exacerbated on this basis.

"... Now the academic environment is becoming less and less friendly, and it is completely different from ten years ago. I talked about this issue with a Chinese professor of materials science at MIT some time ago. , Moon Palace and a series of achievements in cutting-edge scientific fields have stimulated the most sensitive nerves in the United States."

"Especially last year when the Ares project failed and you saw it, there was booing all over North America, and the pessimism was leading to the resurgence of McCarthyism. You even felt it clearly in class, The hostility of some white students towards you is no longer just a matter of racism."

Speaking of this, Wei Wen's tone was also somewhat unpleasant.

"Now the entire academic circle is rumored that Congress will soon introduce a more stringent restriction bill, which makes people panic. I don't know how long I can keep this job. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow, maybe one day I will suddenly lose my job. "

Lu Zhou: "You study mathematics, do you also have this influence?"

"After all, my research is not pure mathematics, and I also cooperate with MIT's materials science laboratory. Then some people suspected that I was a spy, and people from the FBI came to look for me." Speaking of this, Wei Wen felt that He shook his head amusedly, "The spy who helped them process the experimental data, the spy who helped them do scientific research... Tsk tsk, if the paper hadn't been published, I would have applied to withdraw from the group."

Lu Zhou was silent for a while, and said: "...If you can't get along, come to Jinling. The academic atmosphere here is already very good. What is your annual salary at MIT? I will give you the same at the current exchange rate. of."

Although before making this call, Wei Wen was indeed ready to return to China.

But for some reason, when he heard Lu Zhou's invitation and began to seriously think about this question, he finally hesitated.

After being silent for about a minute, he gritted his teeth and said.

"thanks……"

"But I still want to make some results first, at least gather a thousand people before coming back."

Even though he knew that in the current environment, it would be difficult for him to achieve something if he was stared at like a thief by others, but he was still unwilling to give up so simply.

After all, he ran away without any grades...

He always felt a little reconciled.

Although he was a little worried that his students would encounter any trouble, Lu Zhou still understood his thoughts and nodded.

"Then you have to be careful outside, across the Pacific Ocean, even if you are in trouble, it will be difficult for me to help you."

Wei Wen nodded and thanked: "Well, thank you for your concern, I will pay attention!"