By Li Han

Staff Writer of the Tsinghua News Center

World-famous mathematician and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Terence Tao attended the 2nd S.T. Yau High School Mathematics Awards Presentation Ceremony held on December 21 in Tsinghua's Main Building.

Currently 34 years old and known as "Mozart of Math", Tao is an idol of many middle-school students, especially those who really show their interest and talent in mathematics. He received enthusiastic applause from the audience when his name was announced at the ceremony.

Tao's genius at mathematics began early in life. He started to learn calculus when he entered high school at the age of 7. Two years later he was already very good at university-level calculus. At the age of 13, he won a gold medal in the International Mathematics Olympiad. Tao earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University when he was 20 and was appointed to a full professorship at UCLA four years later. He was awarded the Fields Medal, often described as the "Nobel Prize in mathematics," when he was 31 years old in 2006 for his contributions to partial differential equations, combinatorics, harmonic analysis and additive number theory.

"The value of a problem is not what prize it creates or how famous it is, but what you learn and what you understand about the world by solving these problems," said Professor Tao.

Talking about mathematics research, he offered the students several points of advice: "I love mathematics, and I enjoy doing it. It is important that you enjoy what you do. You have to be prepared to be very patient. Do not try to solve, to do everything, at once. Becoming a mathematician is a long process. You have to keep learning even after you finish your schooling. It is a lot of fun. If people enjoy mathematics, they should continue with it as long as they can."

(Photo by Guo Haijun)