What is the Chinese Mathematics Professor who refused to return home to work as a waiter in the US doing now?

Mr. Truong Ich Duong (born in 1955) comes from an intellectual family in Shanghai (China). His father was a professor of Electrical Engineering at Tsinghua University, and his mother was a civil servant.

Math Genius

At the age of 4, Truong Ich Duong could remember the capitals of 100 countries and the names of emperors of different dynasties. At the age of 5, he showed interest in studying Mathematics and at the age of 9, he proved the Pythagorean theorem. At the age of 12, Mr. Duong studied calculus.

With an outstanding talent for mathematics, Mr. Duong was a student at Tsinghua High School (affiliated with Tsinghua University). However, because he was caught up in the "going up the mountain to the village" movement in 1968 (young intellectuals from the city returned to their hometowns to immerse themselves in rural life), he only finished secondary school.

Mathematics Professor Zhang Yitang. (Photo: Baidu)

In 1977, China resumed the college entrance examination, and Mr. Tang borrowed high school textbooks to study by himself. Thanks to his diligence, intelligence, and good self-study ability, after a few months he mastered general knowledge, especially mathematics. In the 1978 college entrance examination, Mr. Tang scored high and was admitted to the Mathematics Department of Peking University.

In college, his grades were excellent. Therefore, Professor Phan Thua Dong of Mathematics was very impressed with Mr. Duong. The professor not only guided his scientific research, but also helped Mr. Duong consolidate his lacking knowledge. In addition, the then principal of Peking University, Professor Dinh Thach Ton, also highly appreciated Mr. Duong.

Refused to return home, stayed in the US as a waiter for 7 years

In 1985, after receiving his master's degree, thanks to the help of Mathematician Mac Ton Kien, Mr. Duong was able to study for a doctorate at Purdue University (USA) at public expense.

After researching, Mr. Duong chose "Jacobi's Conjecture" as the topic of his doctoral thesis. It took Mr. Duong 2 years to complete the thesis, the proof process will be based on the research results of mathematician Mac Ton Kien.

While conducting research, Mr. Duong found that the conclusion in Professor Mac Ton Kien's "Jacobi Conjecture" was wrong. This made the professor angry and he refused to send a letter of recommendation for employment to prevent people with positions in the academic community and research organizations from accepting Mr. Duong.

Knowing the situation, Peking University at that time proposed that Mr. Duong return to the school to become a professor. But he refused, determined to stay in the US to work as a waiter for 7 years to earn money to complete his doctorate program. He had to do everything from washing dishes, serving food to delivering express delivery. Unable to pay for living expenses, Mr. Duong borrowed a friend's basement to sleep overnight.

Although life was difficult, he did not give up, determined to prove that what he did was right. At that time, he thought about returning to China, but quickly gave up the idea because he had not achieved anything in the US. Finally, in 1992, he completed his doctoral thesis at the age of 37.

Success in old age

After receiving his doctorate, Mr. Duong always looked for opportunities to teach at universities to prove his ability. In 1999, thanks to the introduction of friends, Mr. Duong was invited to be a guest lecturer at the University of New Hampshire (USA). Although his income was low, he had a stable job without manual labor. Here, he became famous for his excellent teaching talent.

Having encountered many difficulties in the process of defending his doctoral thesis, Professor Truong Ich Duong only achieved success in his old age. (Photo: Baidu)

Thanks to his tireless efforts, at the age of 50, Mr. Duong became an official lecturer at the University of New Hampshire (USA). In 2008, Mr. Duong began researching the number theory "Double Prime Conjecture". The research lasted for 5 years, and in 2013, he successfully came to a conclusion and wrote an article published in a scientific journal.

At the age of 58, his name officially entered the academic world and became a famous mathematician. In addition, he also published a paper on "The distance between prime numbers", proving the existence of countless pairs of primes with a distance of less than 70 million.

The above series of successes gave him the opportunity to stand in the lecture hall of the Mathematics Department of Harvard University to proudly introduce his research results and win many awards such as: Outstanding Scientist, Shaw Prize, Morning Star Prize for outstanding researchers...

At the age of 60, Mr. Duong was invited by the University of California (Santa Barbara, USA) to become a professor of Mathematics. At the peak of his career, in 2018, he decided to return home to devote the rest of his life to his homeland.

Currently, Professor Duong holds the position of Director of the Phan Thua Dong Institute of Mathematics of Shandong University. Returning to his country to contribute in his old age, Mathematician Truong Ich Duong pledged to break the traditional thinking to develop Chinese Mathematics on par with other countries in the world .

(Source: Vietnamnet)

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