Chapter 349: One Year Plan

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

The next morning, Lu Zhou went to his office.

He looked at his five students and walked to the front of the blackboard. He then cleared his throat and said, “Today, I have something to announce.”

Everyone stopped working and looked at the professor standing in front of the blackboard.

Lu Zhou changed his tone to be less formal as he continued, “Yesterday, I received an invitation letter from the IMU. They invited me to participate in the 2018 International Conference of Mathematicians and do a 60-minute report at the conference.”

Clap clap clap…

The office was filled with applause.

Especially Hardy, his applause was the most enthusiastic. He even added a congratulatory speech.

“Congratulations, professor! I think in order to celebrate…”

Lu Zhou waved his hand and interrupted him.

“We’ve already had enough parties.”

Hardy sighed and said, “This isn’t enough, the Princeton football club has parties every week.”

Lu Zhou ignored him and continued to speak, “For the subject of this hour-long report, I will use the Collatz conjecture. Our research results will be shown to the mathematics community.

“No one believes that this conjecture can be solved. We will tell those pessimists that they are wrong.”

Qin Yue looked hesitant when he said, “But professor, according to your framework, our research on the Collatz conjecture is only at around 30% or so. This is far from being able to present a report…”

“That’s why you guys have to work harder,” Lu Zhou said as he looked at Qin Yue. He then turned to look at Vera and said, “I will help you guys when necessary, but I hope you can finish this research project on your own. Best case scenario, this thesis can become a master’s thesis for all three of you.”

Even the risk-averse Qin Yue was relieved.

If the professor helped on the research, there was nothing to worry about.

The only thing was that Professor Lu had been studying chemistry problems recently, so he might not have the free time for mathematics conjectures.

“This is the basic plan for the next year. I hope your research project can go smoothly.” Lu Zhou looked at Wei Wen and said, ‘Wei Wen, come outside with me for a second, I have something for you to do.”

Wei Wen smirked and immediately left the office with Lu Zhou.

It looked like his supervisor was about to arrange a research project for him.

He had been waiting for this for a long time.

…

Lu Zhou came up with an idea for the system mission.

On one hand, he would ask Vera to continue her research on the Collatz conjecture. Due to the academic value of the Collatz conjecture, this was Lu Zhou’s first choice.

On the other hand, Wei Wen and Jerick were also arranged to do research projects.

However, their project difficulty would be much lower.

This way, if the research on the Collatz conjecture stagnated, Lu Zhou would still have a backup.

However, even if the system did not give Lu Zhou this mission, Lu Zhou himself would have arranged something for Wei Wen to do.

After all, there was a limited amount of knowledge one could learn from textbooks. Precious scientific research knowledge couldn’t be learned in the library.

“… Your research direction is the Hilbert space area of functional analysis. I remember that I suggested for you to do research on mathematical physics when you first came here. Unfortunately, I have not studied that area recently.”

Wei Wen stood on the corridor outside of the office. Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, “However, although I don’t have a suitable project for you, I can recommend a person to you.”

Wei Wen asked, “Who?”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “He’s my friend, come with me.”

Although Luo Wenxuan’s lifestyle was pretty relaxing, he still had the talent and ability. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten the offer from Edward Witten.

After all, Witten had strict requirements for his students.

The reason why Lu Zhou recommended Wei Wen to Luo Wenxuan was that Luo Wenxuan’s research was related to Hilbert space.

Also, because Luo Wenxuan’s master’s degree was in the field of functional analysis and he was well versed in mathematical physics, he could teach Wei Wen many things.

Lu Zhou took Wei Wen to Witten’s office.

Luo Wenxuan was reading documents when Lu Zhou arrived.

When Luo Wenxuan saw Lu Zhou standing at the door, he smiled.

“Morning, what brings you all the way here?”

“Nothing, just visiting.” Lu Zhou smiled and looked at the computer screen as he said, “Reading theses?”

“That’s right, it’s my daily routine to log onto arXiv and check theses.” Luo Wenxuan said, “That’s how the field of theoretical physics is, there hasn’t been new physics research in a long time. I’m not afraid to come up with a new idea, I’m afraid someone else already has.”

Lu Zhou asked, “Have you still not finished your thesis?”

Luo Wenxuan sighed and said, “Nope, Witten’s requirements are way too high, my thesis hasn’t been satisfactory.”

Lu Zhou asked, “So your thesis is still the same one?”

“I changed it.” Luo Wenxuan smiled and said, “Now, it’s about the research on the even coherent state of the q-distorted harmonic oscillator in the finite-dimensional Hilbert space.”

Lu Zhou: “…”

He didn’t know why this was worth bragging.

Suddenly, Lu Zhou had second thoughts on lending his student to Luo Wenxuan.

Luo Wenxuan noticed Wei Wen who was standing behind Lu Zhou, and he asked, “Who’s this?”

“My student, Yan University applied mathematics graduate…”

Lu Zhou hesitated for a few seconds before he decided to give it a shot.

Although Luo Wenxuan had his shortcomings, he had been Witten’s student for a long time. Wei Wen had almost zero research experience, so he could learn a lot from Luo Wenxuan.

Also, Lu Zhou felt like he should help Luo Wenxuan. Luo Wenxuan was almost thirty years old and still didn’t complete his thesis.

Therefore, Lu Zhou patted Wei Wen’s back and said, “Didn’t you tell me last time you required a mathematical genius in Hilbert space to help with your research project? This is it.”

Luo Wenxuan was overjoyed. “Thank you so much! My research has entered a bottleneck, you are my savior!”

He looked at Wei Wen and said, “Wei Wen, right? I’ll have to thank you in advance.”

Wei Wen obviously noticed that this guy seemed unreliable, so he was a bit hesitant.

Will I be okay doing a research project with this guy?

However, Wei Wen trusted Lu Zhou’s decision.

Wei Wen said with an uncertain tone, “I’ll… try my best.”

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