NOVPUBFormer winners of the Crafoord Prize, Qiu and Edward Whitten, understandably conveyed an attitude that lessons must be learned to avoid greater mistakes in the future. After all, if one scandal could bring down a dean, the position of the dean at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences would be too risky.
And not every dean would have such a spirit of sacrifice.
For the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Nobel Prize remained of paramount importance.
Although the Crafoord Prize is also one of the internationally renowned science awards, people generally describe it as almost synonymous with the Nobel Prize. However, the Crafoord Prize has four categories, and its influence in mathematics is still less than that of the Fields Medal and the Wolff Prize.
In other words, there was still a chance for correction. If foolishness began to occur with the Nobel Prize, then there would likely be no salvation.
Roth Dugan, a professor at Princeton, initially wanted to say something, but he remembered he had never received the Crafoord Prize, so he decided to keep silent, even feeling a bit fearful in hindsight.
He once received a call from Langley; fortunately, he hung up directly.
Surely, getting involved with those people never led to anything good.
Yet this time, it was too tragic.
The most embarrassed was the French Juxier Mathematics Research Institute.
Normally, it would be a joyous occasion for colleagues from the same institute to win the Crafoord Prize, but with the way things unfolded, they did not know whether to congratulate Camille Dubois when they saw her.
Through the meddling of so many hands, this global award had turned into a farce for the year.
Who could have thought that it was possible to add a person to the list of prize recipients after the announcement?!
And frankly, sharing the award with Qiao Ze came with considerable pressure.
In fact, as a female mathematician, Camille Dubois's contributions in mathematics were outstanding. Even on a global level, she ranked at the forefront in PDE research, and her work on the N-S equation had greatly advanced the field, making her the leading researcher on NS equations at the Juxier Mathematics Research Institute.
But then again, her achievements would have been very convincing in past years, but if the co-recipient in the same year were Qiao Ze, it would be a different story.
The N-S equation and the Yang-Mills problem are both among the seven Millennium Prize Problems and are included in Hilbert's twenty-three problems. It's difficult to say which is harder. One individual merely pushed the problem forward a step, while the other solved the problem outright, and they were to receive the award in the same year...
It would be embarrassing to take up too much time giving a speech at the award ceremony if they both went to receive the prize.
If Qiao Ze decided not to accept the prize, that would seem even more awkward. If someone with far greater achievements didn't bother to accept the award, would you have the face to stand on the podium? n𝚘𝚟𝚙𝚞𝚋.𝚌o𝚖
There were whispers within the academic community.
Intellectuals from every country have their pride.
Many things can be done behind closed doors, but cannot be discussed openly.
That's why, even when exposed, falsifiers often don't readily admit to fabrication, instead using improper citation of images or data as a fig leaf. Even if someone has accepted money to use their influence in a field to hype a product, they cover it up by claiming the money was for research sponsorship.
Once everything is laid out in the open, stripped of those halos, revealing a mundane humanity no different from ordinary people, it tears apart that sense of superiority.
There's no escaping the constraints of human nature. The difference between scholars and ordinary people is merely that they possess more knowledge and information in a certain area.
There could have been silence, but when the two former heavyweight winners of the Crafoord Prize officially announced their intent to return their medals and prize money, it became more than just an embarrassing matter.
...
"Camille, do you plan to accept the Crafoord Prize? Of course, whatever choice you make, I and all the colleagues will fully support you," said the director, or rather, the person in charge of the Juxier Research Institute, Pierre, who had specifically invited Camille Dubois to his office at the Paris Left Bank Campus to ask this question.
For this person in charge, the situation was also quite troublesome.
A senior researcher from the institute winning an award was normally a cause for celebration.
He could have simply organized some champagne toasts and been done with it.
But in the present circumstances, uncorking champagne didn't seem appropriate; yet, it wasn't right to have no acknowledgement at all.
All he could do was call her in and offer consolation.
Pierre regretted recommending Camille Dubois to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences that year; had he not done so, he could have avoided this awkward situation.
"No, I plan to decline," replied Camille Dubois without any hesitation.
Pierre sighed inwardly.
Her choice was not unexpected. If it were him, he probably would have refused as well.
It was too insulting.
What a pity, after all, such prestigious global awards were few and far between. And the competition for each was fierce.
Moreover, Camille Dubois was already over forty and no longer eligible to compete for the Fields Medal.
"Alright, Camille, I respect your decision. And honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would make no different choice. Now, relax a bit; this is not your fault. We should never punish ourselves for someone else's mistakes at any time," he assured her.
