Orion Crest, Series_1

Chapter 87: Try a challenge?

　　Surprisingly, it's the Cole Prize!

　　Orion was amazed.

　　Soon after, he realised the problem.

　　"Wait, don't I remember that the Cole Prize is only awarded to members of the Federal Mathematical Society?"

　　Mr. Yau smiled and explained, "The best young presenter selected by the Federal Mathematical Society at its academic conference held in Princeton, in addition to a prize of $10,000 and a certificate, also comes with the status of an honorary member, with a status roughly in between that of a member and a Fellow. In fact, many national societies have similar rules for awarding honorary membership, so you are fully compliant with the rules for the award."

　　Although Orion had never applied for membership of any society, generally receiving an award given by a society would by default grant the status of Member or Honorary Member of that society, and this was considered to be the usual practice.

　　After a moment's pause, Mr. Yau smiled and continued.

　　"...... The nominations for this award were completed in September, and the selection was made in October, and the official paperwork will come down in early December, when it will be sent to your school. The award is presented at the end-of-year academic conference roughly two days after Christmas, at the University of California if I remember correctly. Of course, whether the awards will be presented at the opening or closing ceremonies depends on the specific notification, which the organisers of the academy will send to your email address, so just remember to check your email regularly. As for this period of time, just prepare your acceptance speech!"

　　Hearing what Mr. Yau said, Orion smiled in embarrassment.

　　It was indeed quite embarrassing. In fact, he wanted to ask how much was the prize money for this Cole Prize? But on second thought, we are all scholars, so it's better to be a little more reserved.

　　So, he held back from asking, and instead said. "I will prepare well!"

　　"Just pay more attention to this yourself, just remember not to miss the awards," Mr. Yau nodded approvingly and changed the topic, continuing in a casual tone, "Speaking of that year-end academic conference, it's actually still quite high-level, and if you put your paper on the group construction method over there as a presentation, more people would be able to learn about your research results."

　　"There's going to be an academic conference after the awards?" Orion asked unexpectedly.

　　"Of course, that's the usual practice, rather it's the awarding of the prize that comes along with it. Presenting at that kind of conference would still be very helpful to you," Mr. Yau said with a smile, "but with only two months left, and with all the ink you just poured out, I don't think you'll probably have much to publish, so take a break in the meantime, and think of it as a trip to California in December. Also, take this gap, you can also think about which direction to go next ...... By the way, do you have a rough idea?"

　　Orion thought for a moment and said, "I'm planning to go further on the prime number problem, but I haven't found a suitable target yet. Do you have any good suggestions?"

　　The study of the twin prime number conjecture and the Polignac conjecture had occupied him for almost a whole year, and now that this work was completely over, his mind had not yet been detached from it.

　　Out of the many hypotheses about prime numbers, he had not yet figured out exactly which one to start with in order to choose a suitable one to fill that gap.