中国人第一次拿到“数学界的诺贝尔奖”：王虹、邓煜与菲尔兹奖

今年，这个问题有了答案，来自两个中国人。

This year, that question got an answer, from two Chinese people.

一个叫王虹，一个叫邓煜。

One is named Wang Hong, the other Deng Yu.

这个星期，他们俩一起拿到了数学里最大的奖——菲尔兹奖。

This week, the two of them together won the biggest prize in math — the Fields Medal.

你可以把菲尔兹奖，想成“数学里的诺贝尔奖”。

You can think of the Fields Medal as "the Nobel Prize of math."

不过，它比诺贝尔奖还要难拿。

But it's even harder to win than the Nobel Prize.

为什么这么说？

Why do I say that?

第一，它四年才给一次。

First, it's given only once every four years.

第二，只给还年轻的、四十岁以前的人。

Second, only to people who are still young, under forty.

第三，一次也就给两到四个人。

Third, each time it goes to just two to four people.

所以，全世界有这个奖的人，非常非常少。

So worldwide, very, very few people hold this prize.

更少见的是，这一次的四个人里，有两个中国人，而且还是老同学。

What's rarer still: among this year's four, two are Chinese — and old classmates at that.

我们先说王虹。

Let's start with Wang Hong.

她想明白了一个一百多年的老问题。

She figured out an old problem more than a hundred years old.

你可以这样想：

You can picture it like this:

你手里有一根很细的针。

In your hand is a very thin needle.

你把它转一圈，让针指过每一个方向。

You turn it in a full circle, pointing it in every direction.

针转过的地方，会占一块地方。

The area the needle sweeps takes up some space.

这块地方，最小能有多小？

How small can that space possibly be?

听起来好像很简单，可是这个问题，数学家想了一百多年，都没想明白。

It sounds simple, but this problem stumped mathematicians for over a hundred years.

王虹，把它想明白了。

Wang Hong figured it out.

邓煜的问题，是另一种难。

Deng Yu's problem was a different kind of hard.

你想想，空气里有很多很多小小的东西，我们叫它们分子。

Think about it: the air is full of tiny, tiny things we call molecules.

这些分子一直在动，一个撞一个，撞来撞去。

These molecules are always moving, bumping into one another, colliding back and forth.

可是我们人看到的，是风，是热，是天气。

Yet what we humans see is wind, heat, weather.

从“分子撞来撞去”，到“我们看到的风和热”，中间这条路，一直没有人能完全走通。

From "molecules colliding" to "the wind and heat we feel," no one had ever fully connected the path.

邓煜和他的两个同事，把这条路走通了。

Deng Yu and two colleagues connected that path.

现在说说，为什么中国人这么高兴。

Now let's talk about why Chinese people are so happy.

以前，也有华人拿过菲尔兹奖，比如丘成桐、陶哲轩。

In the past, ethnic Chinese did win the Fields Medal — Shing-Tung Yau and Terence Tao, for example.

但他们拿奖的时候，已经是美国人了。

But by the time they won, they were already American citizens.

王虹和邓煜不一样——他们拿奖的时候，还是中国人。

Wang Hong and Deng Yu are different — when they won, they were still Chinese nationals.

所以大家说，他们是头两个“中国人”拿到菲尔兹奖的。

So people say they are the first two "Chinese nationals" to win the Fields Medal.

他们俩的故事，还有一个特别有意思的地方。

Their story has one more especially interesting side.

邓煜从小就是“别人家的孩子”，很小就在国际比赛上拿了金牌。

Deng Yu was the classic "gifted kid" — as a teenager he won a gold medal at an international competition.

王虹的路，就不一样了。

Wang Hong's road was different.

她一开始分数不够，没能进北大的数学系。

At first her exam score wasn't high enough to get into Peking University's math department.

她先去了别的系，一边自己学，一边考，最后才转进了数学系。

She went into another department, studying on her own and testing until she finally transferred into math.

两个人在北大成了同学，后来又一起去美国读书。

The two became classmates at Peking University, then later went to America to study together.

今年，两个人又一起，站上了这个世界最高的地方。

This year, the two of them again stood together at the highest place in the mathematical world.

还有一点，特别要说。

There's one more point especially worth making.

王虹是菲尔兹奖到现在，第三个拿奖的女性。

Wang Hong is only the third woman ever to win the Fields Medal.

数学这个地方，女生一直很少。

In math, women have always been few.

所以王虹这件事，让很多人特别高兴。

So Wang Hong's achievement made a lot of people especially happy.

你想想：

Think about it:

一件很难的事，很多人做了一百年都没做成。

A hard task that many worked on for a hundred years without finishing.

是什么，能让一个人，一直做下去？

What kind of person is willing to keep at it?