Chapter 69: Individual Fates In The Era Background
“.Once the hearing passes, this will be the first time in history that a person of Chinese descent serves as a senior official position in the White House”
The news in the newspaper left Chen Jingrun with mixed feelings.
Chen Jingrun was able to come to America for study abroad smoothly, and the 300 million US dollar interest-free loan that China obtained from the Soviet Union was crucial.
It was not that his study abroad expenses had to come from that money; after all, whether it was New York City University or the scholarship from Harvey Cohen, it was enough for him to survive in New York, not to mention that with Chen Jingrun’s mathematical attainments, applying for the Fulbright Program was more than sufficient.
Rather, the 300 million US dollar interest-free loan fully proved Lin Ran’s value; Lin Ran possessed the ability to turn stone into gold.
Originally, the Chinese side only hoped to train the team and be able to develop something at about the same level as the Soviet Union’s castrated S2 missile.
The Soviet Union agreement said to transfer the S-2, but what was actually transferred was the castrated P-2; originally, the DF-1 was developed on the basis of the P-2, and there was no significant difference from the S-2 in terms of range, speed, and so on.
But because of insufficient precision of the DF-1 and other reasons, it was not put into service, and it was only with the subsequent DF-2 that it was formally put into service.
As a result, with Lin Ran’s help, the DF-1 already possessed very strong combat capability, and its precision could even directly threaten the presidential residence across the sea, where Baldy lived.
It could not only effectively reduce coastal pressure but also bring economic benefits.
Under the superposition of various factors, China naturally increased manpower investment in the entire project, not only landing the introduction of Western academic journals under the shell of a secrecy project in Yangcheng, but even the arrangements for Chen Jingrun himself became more meticulous.
His identity in Hong Kong had already been made seamless, and he smoothly applied for the opportunity to come to America.
Chen Jingrun himself had Lin Ran’s recommendation letter, so Harvey Cohen helped him solve the round-trip flight ticket and visa; after the interview, the other party was very satisfied with this person of Chinese descent student that Lin Ran found for him.
The subsequent series of visa, enrollment, and settling down issues in New York were all handled by him single-handedly.
For being able to come to New York, contact the latest number theory, and do mathematics with a large number of mathematicians, Chen Jingrun was very grateful to Lin Ran in his heart.
However, he still had not forgotten his mission; doing research was one aspect, but extracting more things of value to China from Professor Lin’s hands was the most important task.
He could not peacefully accept living a good life alone in New York while being unable to help his compatriots back home.
Therefore, after seeing the newspaper, he could not understand why Professor Lin wanted to serve America.
Although the position written in the newspaper was Assistant, there was still the qualifier Special in front of it, and plus the American media’s definition of Lin Ran’s position was also Senior, defined as senior official.
As a simple Chinese person, he was puzzled that Lin Ran was going to accept America’s senior position, or a senior position related to aerospace.
In this era, aerospace, because of its high association with missile technology, also meant high association with the military.
“This is not being a bystander either.” Chen Jingrun pondered.
Fortunately, regarding this topic, the mathematicians present were all very curious; when Lin Ran walked into the meeting room, what everyone first chatted about was not number theory, not Lin Ran’s ABC conjecture, not Fermat’s Diophantine Conjecture, not the linear form in logarithms theory he proposed, but Lin Ran’s new position.
The mathematicians were quite gossipy.
“Randolph, how did you quietly go to take a position in the White House without a word; could it be that you want to teach mathematics in the White House.” Harvey Cohen teased, “The guys in the White House wouldn’t understand what you’re saying.”
Lin Ran smiled and replied: “First of all, my appointment has not come down yet; additionally, even if my appointment comes down, my work time at Redstone Arsenal should be longer than at the White House.”
Courant said: “Randolph, I still don’t quite understand; what are you thinking going to take a position in the White House? The White House is not a good place to stay.
Compared to mathematicians, Washington’s political animals are still too complicated.”
Courant thought very highly of Lin Ran and had always wanted to poach him from Columbia University to the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University where he was, even privately telling Lin Ran that if he was willing to come, he could change the name of the Courant Institute to the Randolph Institute.
(The Courant Institute in reality was renamed in 1964; in 1961, it was still called the Institute of Applied Mathematics for Graduate Students)
Courant was already 72 years old and had only a few years left before retirement; as a top-tier expert who had co-authored “What is Mathematics” with Hilbert, he obviously hoped to find a suitable successor before retiring.
Among his students, no one was more suitable than Lin Ran.
By the way, Courant was also a German American, but besides being of German descent, he was also Jewish; he left Germany earlier than most people of Jewish descent, and the mathematician’s sense of smell was still sharp enough.
And precisely because of this, Courant did not want the junior in the mathematics community whom he favored to be involved in the political vortex.
Lin Ran explained: “I understand, Professor; I am going to do things, not to be a person.
Sir Isaac Newton still served at England’s Royal Mint, and I cannot be exempt from worldly affairs; the universe has always been my aspiration, and I hope to make a small contribution to humanity’s march toward the universe.
Is there anything more interesting than space? Maybe mathematics counts as one, but I am only in my twenties; I need to change my mood, and this will not affect my mathematical research.”
Only then did the mathematicians present wake up; the other party was too young, and youth is capital.
“Randolph, you can indeed go try it out.”
“Unlike you all, I am very optimistic about Randolph; aerospace is like mathematics—either it works or it doesn’t—and I dare to affirm that the guys at Redstone Arsenal will, like us, submit to Randolph’s ability.”
“Who submitted? I am just admiring; it’s not yet submission.” The mathematicians teased each other.
Harvey Cohen finally summed up: “Me too, Randolph; if you come to our number theory seminar a few more times, I will submit.
So Randolph, what do you plan to lecture on today?”
Lin Ran walked to the prepared blackboard and wrote with a pen:
“Λ = b1 log α1 + b2 log α2 + … + bn log αn”
“My idea is still to start lecturing from the linear form in logarithms theory; in the paper on the proof of Fermat’s Diophantine Conjecture, I mentioned this theory and proved my own proposed theory.
I believe that after knowing I was coming, you all also did some research on it and know that it can be used in Diophantine Equations and transcendental number theory.
For example, the Catalan conjecture, that is, the integer solutions to a^x – b^y = 1 are very limited, and it can be used to solve it.
Whether it is the basic concept or the scope of application, I believe everyone has done their homework and has some understanding.
Therefore, I want to lecture here on the motivation.”
