Chapter 291 - Pleasures Of Being A Professor

Translator:

Henyee Translations

Editor:

Henyee Translations

This does sound like a good idea...

But there’s no way I will do it!

“No no no, this is still your work from blood sweat and tears. Let’s just call it the Sarrot’s Research Institute.”

Lu Zhou refused Professor Sarrot’s offer and walked away without giving Sarrot a chance to reply.

What a joke, do you really think I will attach my name to this research institute? What if you defraud investors again?

Also, Lu Zhou felt it would be weird to have his name on the research institute.

It would be as if the research was not about the materials but about himself.

Therefore, he decided not to go through with the name change.

The next day, the first American Mathematics Society conference of the year kicked off at Berkeley.

The university students from California even postponed their protest to a week later, to accommodate this conference.

Although Princeton professors did not care much about politics, not all professors were like that.

For example, Professor Tao.

Although his students describe Tao as a tolerant, awkward, and humble person, he was a completely different person online. His online persona was completely different than what he was like in real life; Tao loved to discuss world politics.

Not long ago, he used logic to prove that Trump could not be a good president. Many media outlets reported on this piece of news. Trump’s reply on Twitter was interesting, “Tao Zhexuan claims that I’m not a suitable president, but the liar Hillary is. The truth is that Tao Zhexuan is targeting me because he’s a failed analyst. He can’t even prove the Kakeya needle problem, sad!”

Of course, that was what it was.

Tao Zhexuan had not posted on his blog recently. It seemed that he was not in a good mood.

Of course, although the students and professors in California did not like this president, that did not affect the atmosphere of the academic conference. After all, academia was pure, it did not involve politics.

Lu Zhou received a pen and other small souvenirs from the entrance and walked past the poster display area. He went directly to a lecture hall on the second floor. When he found a seat on the back row, he then sat down.

He discovered that Professor Tao was sitting next to him.

Lu Zhou looked at him in surprise and asked, “You’re here as well?”

Professor Tao smiled and said, “This is a good chance to look at your progress. Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “It’d be best if you can help us solve it.”

The report began.

The audience in the lecture hall stopped talking and turned their attention to the speaker on the podium.

Vera had a blonde ponytail and wore a student-looking outfit. She stood nervously on stage as she squeezed her tiny hands.

With the help from the staff, she opened the PowerPoint presentation and the thesis problem appeared in the center of the projector screen.

[Complex analysis study on the angular valley conjecture equivalence equation h(z^3)=h(z^6)+{h(z^2)+λh(λz^2)+λ^2h(λ^2z^2)}/3z]

“Come on Vera, you can do this...”

Vera thought about her supervisor’s expectations of herself and took a deep breath. She cheered herself on in her mind.

Then, she spoke.

“The analytic function solution in the unit disc {z:|z|<1} takes the form h(z)=h0+h1z/(1−z), where h0 and h1 are complex constants...”

Although Vera was very nervous in the beginning, as the report continued, she found out that the pressure was starting to lesser.

She felt surprised.

The ideas and thoughts were flowing out of her brain, conveying them was as easy as breathing.

She did not need to worry if the audience understood her as she could it to the Q&A session.

Right now, what she had to do, was to portray her viewpoint to the audience in the lecture hall...

Lu Zhou sat in the last row of the lecture hall, and like the audience, he was also listening intently to the report. Gradually, a smile appeared on his face.

He could see that Vera spent a lot of effort to overcome the fear in her heart and stand on stage.

The results were quite satisfactory. She was totally in the zone.

It seemed that his worries were redundant.

Tao Zhexuan sat next to Lu Zhou and looked at Vera; his face was full of surprise.

“Are you sure this was your student’s work?”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Of course, I have been busy with computational chemistry recently. At most, I gave them a direction to work toward.”

Lu Zhou had no reason to lie, and Tao Zhexuan believed him.

However, Tao Zhexuan still could not help but feel astonished. This thesis really did not look like work from a master’s student. Even though Tao Zhexuan knew Vera, he was the one that wrote her Princeton recommendation letter.

Her rate of improvement was too amazing.

Tao Zhexuan said emotionally, “Yesterday, you said that you planned on making your students solve Collatz conjecture, I thought it was a joke. But now it seems that you are serious.”

Lu Zhou smiled as he said arrogantly, “She is my student after all.”

For this kind of young scholar reports, most of the big names were more tolerant. They would not point out anything unless it was an obvious mistake.

Mathematics conferences and MRS materials science conferences were completely different in this regard.

After answering a few questions, the report was successfully concluded and the audience broke into applause.

Vera sighed in relief and smiled at the audience to show her gratitude.

Perhaps it was because of her dazzling smile, the applause started to get even more thunderous.

Some young guys even whistled.

Lu Zhou looked at Vera on stage and smiled with satisfaction.

It was like Vera was his small sapling – one that he carefully cultivated to grow stronger and stronger.

Maybe this is one of the joys of being a professor?

Tao Zhexuan looked at Lu Zhou weirdly, and he felt something was off.

Lu Zhou noticed his friend’s expression and asked, “What?”

“Nothing,” Tao Zhexuan shook his head. He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Although it’s none of my business... I announced my relationship with Laura after she graduated.”

Lu Zhou:...?

What the hell?!

...

After the report, Lu Zhou stood outside the lecture hall and saw Vera.

The little girl’s face was blushing and her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Lu Zhou knew exactly how she felt. That kind of excitement could not be contained no matter how many deep breaths she took.

He walked over and greeted her.

When Vera heard the familiar voice, she turned around and saw Lu Zhou. Her eyes suddenly widened and she looked at Lu Zhou with a surprised expression.

She originally planned to call Lu Zhou and tell him the good news. She did not expect him to be watching her in the lecture hall!

She did not know what to say.

“Professor?! You, you are here?!”

“Of course,” Lu Zhou smiled. He then added, “My cute student finally took the courage and did a report on stage. How can I ever miss this moment?”

The little girl’s cheeks were fiery red, and she seemed to have a lot to say.

However, she could only mutter out one sentence.

“I did it, I really did it!”

“You did. Nicely done,” said Lu Zhou. He gave her an encouraging look and said, “Keep up the good work. Maybe one day you’ll be on the stage of the International Congress of Mathematicians conference!”

Vera’s golden ponytail swayed back and forth like a squirrel.

She looked at Lu Zhou with a grateful expression as she nodded: “...”