At the end of the year and the beginning of the year, the Beijing Association for Science and Technology and Xinhuanet will jointly launch the New Year's Eve series of "Small Family Events - Beijing Science Model", taking us to get close to outstanding scientific and technological workers, enter the world of science, and feel the charm of science and technology. Today, we will take you to Qiu Yu, professor of the Department of Mathematics at the Center for Mathematics of Tsinghua University and winner of the 25th Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award - Beijing Youth Science and Technology Award.
Character business card: Qiu Yu.
Professor, Department of Mathematics, Center for Mathematics, Tsinghua University.
Winner of the 25th Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award - Beijing Youth Science and Technology Award.
The rational beauty of mathematics needs to be seen
Mathematics is both a science and an art. ”
Compared with art forms such as poetry and **, mathematics presents a logical beauty and rational beauty. But mathematics also needs to think visually, and it needs to be presented in a visual and perceptible way. ”
When he first met Qiu Yu, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at Tsinghua University, he described mathematics like this.
Qiu Yu said that he is very fond of Maurits Escher, who is known as the "mathematician among artists", whose works have many ingenious ideas in plane composition, geometric combinations, and shape gradients, and often have new experiences and new inspirations when appreciated from the perspective of mathematicians.
Influenced by Escher's artistic philosophy, Qiu Yu also thinks about how to better visualize mathematics in his teaching. In addition to making a picture as beautiful, as concise, harmonious and symmetrical as possible, Qiu Yu also takes into account the daily expression of mathematical culture, such as applying geometric figures to various literary and creative works, including Rubik's cubes, mouse pads, sketchbooks, etc. In the Department of Mathematics and the Center for Mathematics of Tsinghua University, he and his students have designed and produced sketches that have always been loved by everyone. The hopf fibration on the cover, the various generation methods and equivalent forms of the braid group, the ruler and gauge drawing, the regular seventeen-sided shape + circle stacking, etc., convey the diversity and subtlety of mathematics.
Qiu Yu explained the teaching aids of group in [Algebra 0]: various dodecahedral and icosahedral Rubik's cubes.
This kind of transmission is not limited to the campus of Tsinghua University. Qiu Yu also went to the primary school affiliated to Tsinghua University to introduce to the students how to use mathematical knowledge to understand the formula-free solution and structure of the third-order Rubik's cube, and told the students that mathematics is not boring in practical interaction.
Qiu Yu's mathematical exploration
Qiu Yu's exploration of the beauty of mathematics has been around for a long time.
I've always been a 'pro' in the Math Olympiad. Before third grade, my father taught me Xi math; After the third grade and until high school, I trained with my teachers in the Olympiad. Although I didn't win a gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad, I didn't get tired of learning Xi mathematics continuously. On the contrary, I found that I was very fond of math and was really good at it. ”
Because of his expertise, the mathematics major has also become Qiu Yu's major at Peking University. Big.
In his junior year, Qiu Yu's scientific research ability began to appear, and he published the relevant ** in the Journal of Differential Equations. This made Qiu Yu realize that he might be able to become a mathematician and study mathematics as a career. After graduating from university, Qiu Yu began to study mathematics in depth, and he went to the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and the University of Chinese in Hong Kong to further his Xi studies and work.
Looking back on those days when he went abroad to study, Qiu Yu said, "Studying for a postdoc is a very difficult thing. Compared with peers, the income is relatively low, and there may be a certain gap. From their own point of view, the postdoc's job is unstable and the academic pressure is high. When we were young, we did math problems and math Olympiads, knowing that there would be a result and an answer waiting for you. The road ahead is unknown, and this uncertainty is very 'torturous', but we must learn to find what we are sure of and stick to it. Over the years, I've learned that sometimes perseverance is more important than talent. ”
Mathematics exists now**
Qiu Yu looks back on his path of mathematical research, starting with interest, being good at research, and becoming persistent.
However, not everyone can choose mathematics as a career choice. Qiu Yu believes that the high abstraction of mathematics makes it difficult to present the value and significance of its Xi, so most people will think that it is "useless" to Xi study mathematics in depth. But it is undeniable that for individuals, mathematics is one of the best tools to exercise logical thinking skills. Moreover, with the rise of big data and artificial intelligence technology, the role of mathematics has been further highlighted.
Take, for example, one of my favorite branches of mathematics, topology. Topology is the study of some properties of geometry or space that remain unchanged after a continuous change of shape. As a basic discipline, it has been extended to many application fields, including DNA in biology, RNA structure analysis, molecular structure research in chemistry, or topological data analysis in big data. Qiu Yu said that mathematics is the language of nature, a universal "language subject", and it is still playing a fundamental role today.
When it comes to ChatGPT, Qiu Yu does not deny that this is a breakthrough in research and application. ChatGPT has outstanding search and answer capabilities, or become an assistant to workers in other directions, including mathematicians, to help scholars in different branches and disciplines communicate and cooperate. However, Qiu Yu also mentioned that for mathematicians, it is more important to find problems than to solve them, and it is more valuable and meaningful to ask questions, make bold guesses, and lead a new direction. At present, ChatGPT's lack of creativity is exactly where mathematicians need to work in the future.
Academics require long-term self-discipline
Qiu Yu has a wide range of hobbies, from traveling to playing Lego and collecting Rubik's cubesThis love of life goes hand in hand with his love of academic research.
In academic research, Qiu Yu specializes in algebraic representation theory and geometric topology. In 2018, Qiu Yu and his collaborators combined algebraic representation theory and geometric topology to study stable conditional spaces, and proved the single connectivity of stable conditional spaces on the corresponding Calabi-Yau categories on S by constructing a class of framed quadratic differential modulo spaces on Riemannian surfaces. In 2023, Qiu Yu won the 25th Mao Yisheng Science and Technology Award - Beijing Youth Science and Technology Award.
My efforts were still not enough. Qiu Yu said, "Although Mr. Yau Chengtong of our mathematics center is over 70 years old, his schedule is full and his work intensity is even greater than mine. My peers, such as Li Si and Yu Pin, are also constantly motivating me to maintain self-discipline and hard work. After coming to Tsinghua University, although my level of effort is not as good as theirs, it has doubled compared to my previous self. ”
Stay tuned for more.
Digital Beijing Science Center