Top Student at Their Peak

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In every aspect, Princeton is a very livable city.

It has a temperate continental climate, with distinct seasons. The average temperature is around 12 degrees, and rainfall is evenly distributed. There are more than two hundred sunny days a year with plenty of sunshine.

Spring is warm, summer is not particularly hot, autumn is picturesque with comfortable temperatures, and winter has snow, but it's not much, rarely a blizzard.

Coupled with beautiful surroundings and abundant educational resources, the city, though small, lacks the hustle and bustle of metropolises, fostering a welcoming community and high quality of life.

Except for the somewhat expensive cost of living, this is definitely a dream city for the middle class.

This is one of the reasons Princeton attracts many outstanding scholars, not just because it has Princeton University and the Princeton Research Institute. (Note 1)

At least, Lott Degen is quite satisfied with life here. Of course, it would be better if the person in the White House were smarter.

Few people know that last year, Lott Degen mailed his vote to that old man he didn't like.

It's not for much reason; although that old man seems not very smart to him, at least he's not particularly bad.

Of course, the reasons are numerous and complicated. What really made him decide was some recent happenings on campus that made him wary.

Simply put, a student demanded a better grade to graduate smoothly, claiming advantages that professors saw as frivolous.

Yes, this student with some cognitive disabilities blamed his failing grades on professor discrimination. Honestly, this shocked Lott Degen.

What shocked him more was that the student almost succeeded. At the time, someone on the board decided to compromise to avoid causing trouble for the school.

If not for nearly all the professors in the college standing firmly against it, this story that seemed like a joke to Lott Degen would have happened at Princeton.

At that time, Lott Degen was one of the most vehement opponents. Jokingly, if School of Mathematics students started this trend, who would spend time on serious learning?

If this escalated to graduation, the number of diplomas issued by the School of Mathematics each year might break records, making Princeton not much different from Harvard.

Maybe some of these thoughts are selfish, but Lott Degen always felt that some things can be stirred outside the campus, but the campus should maintain its purity because it concerns academic purity.

Luckily, many people shared his view. Lott Degen attributed it to the fact that when people realized they had to contribute their own assets, they easily tired of grand narratives.

Reaching this point is easy; it only takes someone asking, "Why?"

Even if the person in the White House is foolish, preserving the school's internal purity is enough.

This shows that Lott Degen is quite old-fashioned and stubborn, not liking to accept new ideas. (Note 2)

But anyway, today Lott Degen is in a good mood. After all, it's sunny today, with a breeze softly blowing.

As he sat in his office, the coffee his secretary brought was perfectly mixed with sugar and cream, sweet and delicious.

This all suggested it would be a good day.

Indeed, it was. As soon as he opened the first page of his personal email, he saw an email from Qiao Yu.

This young prodigy, whom he once considered bringing to Princeton, finally emailed him.

This world is so ironic. Many people knew Lott Degen's work email and eagerly tried to contact him, but most emails received a template reply.

Some even had his personal email but rarely sent a message.

Apparently, Qiao Yu belonged to the latter group.

After opening and reading the email content from Qiao Yu, Lott Degen paused for a moment.

Generalized Modular Number Theory System? Geometrization of Number Theory?

Truly, some topics don't require understanding details; knowing the researcher's goals is enough to see how ambitious the topic is.

However, if it weren't for Qiao Yu or if he hadn't received such an email in his private email, he would probably have ignored it.

Anyone can think of grand propositions. But not everyone can accomplish them.

Yet, a young mathematician with unique insights into the Geometric Langlands Conjecture having this thought does have a high probability of success.

And if successful, it would break the barrier between geometry and number theory.

This means that mathematicians researching number theory and geometry would communicate more closely, and many currently challenging number theory problems might explosively be solved over time.

Of course, these are just some predictions from Lott Degen. Whether it can genuinely have such effects would depend on the details of the research.

But regardless, Lott Degen believed this concept, once introduced to the mathematics community, would garner immense attention and even cause a sensation.

Because from the email content described by Qiao Yu, this axiom system he proposed doesn't seem as profound and complicated as the Langlands Program, which requires time for the mathematics community to understand its potential.