帮湘潭大学数学学生出国深造：第一个案例

2023年6月24日星期六于湘潭 

Part 0. 地方院校的数学学生出国不易

湘潭大学的数学有许多值得自豪的地方，例如出了2个院士校友：袁亚湘和周向宇，再例如湘潭大学的计算数学与应用数学在国内很值得人打内心高度敬重。虽然有其不足，但作为一个地方院校，湘潭大学的数学毫无疑问是值得人称道的，进入国家双一流建设学科便是对湘潭大学数学的一种肯定。湘潭大学的数学学生要出国深造，尤其是去欧美数学发达国家顶尖数学水平的大学或研究机构读博很难甚至几乎不可能。

对湘潭大学的数学学生，在出国深造方面，采取曲线救国的方式是上策：即不强求师从的数学家所在的国家是国际一流数学强国、所在的大学或研究机构是国际著名或顶级的，但要求师从的数学家必须是国际上顶级的甚至最顶级的。按照此思路，湘潭大学的数学学生应能跟从很牛的国际数学家读博深造。

此博文描述的是一个出国深造案例。我的一个硕士（湘潭大学韶峰数学班学生）将于2023年8月底或9月初前往智利大学跟从Daniel Remenik读博深造。Daniel Remenik（http://www.dim.uchile.cl/~dremenik/）：1981年生，智利大学教授，2021年获Rollo Davidson Prize（in recognition of his transformative contributions to the understanding of the KPZ fixed point）、美洲数学委员会奖（Prize of the Mathematical Council of the Americas，MCA Prize）（每4年授1次，每次共授5名美洲（美国、加拿大、墨西哥、阿根廷、智利、巴西等）青年数学家），在Acta. Math.等上发表论文，ICM2022邀请报告者，亦是2024年度国际数学物理大会1小时报告者。

这个学生自3月中旬至出国前在北京大学国际数学研究中心访问，在许惟钧的资助和帮助下学SPDE（随机偏微分方程，尤其是KPZ方程）和KPZ普适性。北大以丁剑为带头人的一帮青年概率才俊很有拼劲和冲劲，期待且祝福他们在国内干出一番轰轰烈烈的事业。丁剑是一个有资格竞争Fields奖的华人概率青年（个人观点），不幸的是竞争对手是Duminil-Copin Hugo（2022年Fields奖得主），此不幸同样适用于其他的概率青年Ivan Corwin、Jason Miller、Allan Sly。

Part 1. 第一轮与国外教授通邮件（2021年12月）

2021年12月16日（星期四）凌晨1:26，我给智利大学的Daniel Remenik教授写了一封如下的邮件。

Dear Professor Daniel Remenik,

I am Kainan Xiang (Xiang is the surname), a  probability theory professor in Xiangtan University, P. R. China. I have been hesitating to write this letter to you for a long time since I am a stranger to you. My motivation is to hope to cooperate with you in encouraging and helping talented Chinese mathematics students to study further as PhD students at Universidad de Chile. The content of the letter is attached as “Letter_To_Daniel Remenik-2021.pdf”.

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon!

         Best Wishes!

         Kainan Xiang   

“Letter_To_Daniel Remenik-2021.pdf”的内容如下：

Dear Professor Daniel Remenik,

I have been hesitating to write this letter to you for a long time since I am a stranger to you. My motivation is to hope to cooperate with you in encouraging and helping talented Chinese mathematics students to study further as PhD students at Universidad de Chile.

To begin, I introduce myself as follows: I am Kainan Xiang (Xiang is the surname), a  probability theory professor in Xiangtan University. In June 1999, I obtained my PhD degree from Institute of Applied Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Advisor: Ma Zhi-Ming). In July 1999-June 2001, I was a postdoctor in Peking University. I had worked at Hunan Normal University during July 2001-December 2006, and at Nankai University during March 2007-Feburary 2019.  

For me, you are a really outstanding international probabilist (particularly of your generation) in my heart. From

 https://imstat.org/2021/05/14/daniel-remenik-awarded-rollo-davidson-prize-and-mca-prize/,

http://mcofamericas.org/latest-news/mcofamericas-2021-prizes,

you were awarded two prizes: The Rollo Davidson Prize for 2021, and 2021 MCA Prize (Prize of the Mathematical Council of the Americas). And from

https://icm2022.org/sections/section-12-probability,

you are a 45-minute speaker of ICM2022. Warmest congratulations! Without doubts, the topics of your researches have been locating at the center of probability theory and related fields.

Though the rapid development of Chinese economy and increased investment in higher education and scientific research has brought Chinese mathematics with a very good development opportunity, and the mathematics level of China has been greatly improved, it is the case that mathematics level of China is still behind those of western countries with the top mathematics level. In China, there are many talented mathematical students who devote themselves to mathematics; most of them have not been trained well due to some drawbacks of the educational system on PhD degrees. Hence it is greatly important for young Chinese mathematics students to go abroad to get their higher academy degrees. 

Many Chinese (even Asian) students are more inclined to make North America (the USA or Canada) and the Europe as their first choice to take up advanced studies. Many of them do not think about clearly what they want to learn, and their goal is only studying abroad itself; and they choose to do so just due to various reasons such as parents’ demands, following big trends or even just the thought of migrating to The West.

For me, I do think that it is a very good choice to study further as a PhD student at Universidad de Chile under your guidance. Therefore, I will try my best to encourage and help talented Chinese mathematics students to be your students.

Recall that I helped and sent many talents mathematics students to study further in USA (Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, Brown University, UCSD), Canada (University of Toronto), France (Paris VI University, Paris XI University, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon), Switzerland (ETH, Université de Genève), Brazil (IMPA) and so on. I do believe that we can have a successful cooperation in encouraging and helping talented Chinese mathematics students to study further as PhD students at Universidad de Chile.

  In conclusion, the aim of the letter is twofold: the first is to express my great respect for your great mathematics achievements on the KPZ universality class and the KPZ fixed point;  and the second is to hope to cooperate with you in encouraging and helping talented Chinese mathematics students to study further as PhD students at Universidad de Chile.

         Best Wishes!                                                                 

                 Kainan Xiang（向开南）

           Kainan Xiang

2021年12月18日（星期六）凌晨0:30，我收到了Daniel Remenik教授的回信：

Dear Professor Xiang,

First of all, thanks for your message and letter, and for your kind words. Many thanks also for your interest in encouraging Chinese students to pursue PhD studies in Chile; we would certainly be delighted to receive good Chinese students in our program. I do believe our department, and Chile in general, is a very good place for students interested in probability in particular, so I'm glad to learn of your interest. In our department there are several professors with specific interests in probability (J. Fontbona, R. Gouet, S. Martínez, J. San Martín, A. Sepúlveda and myself) and very active research programs on several different themes; there are also probabilists in other institutions in Santiago and we usually hold joint activities, like seminars and workshops (I should mention that the research interests of some of my colleagues in Santiago appear to intersect pretty closely with the subjects of the nice papers which you sent me in your other message). I think we have received a couple of Chinese students in our program in the past, and probably some others from other Asian countries, but I don't think any of them have worked in probability, and this would definitely be of interest to us.

The website of our PhD program is https://doctorado.dim.uchile.cl/en, it contains in particular information about the admission process (I believe the deadline for next year is about to close). Besides applying to our program, most of our students apply for funding from the Chilean research agency (ANID), which is our source of funding for PhD scholarships. This funding is open to foreign nationals (just in case, I think the deadline for that funding just passed for this year). Of course, if any students came with their own source of funding, that would not be necessary.

If there's any more precise information which could be of use to you and which is not on the website please feel free to let me know, if I don't know the answer I could ask or put you in contact with our PhD program coordinator.

Thanks again for your interest.

                Best,

                Daniel Remenik

   2021年12月19日（星期日）上午10:21，我回了如下的邮件：

Dear Daniel,

I am very happy to receive your email. Your information on PhD program of your university is very useful and important. In China, there is a PhD joint training Scholarship from China Scholarship Council (https://www.csc.edu.cn/chuguo)（the webpage is in Chinese）, the Scholarship supports that a Chinese PhD student visits a foreign professor for 6-24 months. To apply such Scholarship, the foreign cooperation professor needs to write an invitation letter and a joint research program to the student. Then the student can apply it in China. When I know more Channels of studying further abroad for Chinese students, I will write to you in time.

  Hope we have a successful cooperation in near future!

            Best Wishes!

                   Kainan

Part 2. 第二轮与国外教授通邮件（2022年10月）

 2022年10月1日（星期六）凌晨0:02，我给Daniel Remenik教授写了如下邮件（含7个附件：学生的材料+我的推荐信）。

Dear Daniel,

Recall in the middle of last December, I wrote to you in order to cooperate with you in encouraging and helping talented Chinese mathematics students to study further as PhD students at Universidad de Chile.

In this email, I strongly recommend Mr. Zhu Chunhui, my Master student, to study probability further under the guidance of you as a PhD student. My recommendation letter is attached behind as  "RecommendationLetter-XKN-2022.pdf".  Mr. Zhu will complete his application for the PhD program (https://doctorado.dim.uchile.cl/en/admission/) of your university in 2-3 weeks due to that he has no passport and it will take two weeks to apply for a passport in China.

Mr. Zhu's CV is attached as "ZhuChunhui-CV.pdf". His master academic transcript and undergraduate academic transcript are attached respectively as "Master Academic Transcripts.pdf" and "Undergraduate Academic Transcript.pdf".  And "Common Neighbor Sequence-LLN-CLT.pdf" is a paper written by Mr. Zhu and my another student.  "Motivation Letter.pdf" is his motivation letter, while "Personal Statement.pdf" is his personal statement.

     Usually Chinese students are only interested in North America (USA, Canada) and Europe (UK, France, Germany etc.) when choosing a Country to study abroad further. But I do think that Universidad de Chile is one of the best universities for study probability further around the world, and you are a perfect advisor. Therefore, I strongly recommend Mr. Zhu Chunhui to study probability further under the guidance of you as a PhD student. In China, it will take 3 years for a student to obtain a master degree. Mr. Zhu is just in the second year (September, 2022-June, 2023) of his master study. I strongly recommend that he goes abroad for further study as soon as possible, because he needs to enter a probability circle of very high level, which is conducive to his growth as early.   

    I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

                Best Wishes,

                    Kainan Xiang

   2022年10月5日（星期三）凌晨2:29，我收到了Daniel Remenik的回信：

Dear Kainan,

Thanks for sending me the information about your student, and recommending him in his application to our PhD program. Just in case, though I assume it is clear, all this information and documents should also be included in his official application. The decisions on the applications to our program are made by a special committee which reviews all applications, but I will let them know that I have been in contact with you and that I received these documents, in case that will help with evaluating his application. I am not exactly sure when decisions are made, my guess is that it should be towards the end of the year.

Best,

Daniel Remenik

    2022年10月21日（星期五）中午12:17，我写邮件告知Daniel Remenik，我的学生已完成智利大学PhD Program的申请。

Part 3. 第三轮与国外教授通邮件（2023年2月中旬后）

2023年2月14日（星期二）晚上10:53，我给Daniel Remenik教授写道：

Dear Daniel,

Zhu Chunhui was accepted by the PhD program of your university（实际上智利时间2022年11月28日就被接收了）.  See the attached PDF file. He decided to begin his PhD study at Universidad de Chile from August, 2023. He also applied for Beca de Doctorado Nacional, Año Académico 2023 (ANID) , and now is waiting for the final result.

   Before going to Chile, he will study KPZ equation and KPZ universality under the guidance of Professor Xu Weijun (a former PhD student of Terry J. Lyons, and a former Postdoctor of Martin Hairer) in Peking (Beijing) University during Feburary-July, 2023.

   For the academic exchanges and cooperation between China and Chile, and to pave the way for Chunhui's doctoral study, if possible, can a joint academic conference between the University of Chile and Xiangtan University be held this year? The theme of the conference is KPZ universality, integrable probability and random matrix. China has some experts in KPZ equation and SPDE, and random matrix.

   Chunhui will write to you soon. It will be very nice if you can give some academic suggestions to him.

   I am looking forward to hearing from you soon!

         Best Wishes! Kainan

2023年2月17日（星期五）凌晨2:50，Daniel Remenik回复我：

Dear Kainan,

That's very good news, I'm happy Chunhui was accepted. I hope his application to the ANID fellowship is successful (I'm not sure when the results will be out). He wrote to me today, I'll respond later with some suggestions. Regarding a possible joint conference, that could be an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how it would work out (in particular with funding and timing, with our countries being so far away; also, even though we have several researchers in probability at U. de Chile, we don't have too many experts in these subjects, it's really only myself working on these topics). In any case, considering something like that for this year would be difficult for me, as I'm currently involved in the organization of a couple of other events for this year and the next one, but perhaps it could be a possibility in the future.

                 Best,  Daniel

     之后，此学生出国的相关事情就由他自己直接与Daniel Remenik联系，我不再参与。不幸的是他没申请上智利国家博士奖学金（此奖学金是所有学科一起申请、全球竞争，给数学的名额不多）。但幸运的是Daniel Remenik的实验室给他提供了博士奖学金。希望这个年轻人全力拼搏，为自己特有的人生！

Part 4. 结束语

你 的 微 笑

                           （智利）巴勃罗·聂鲁达

你需要的话，可以拿走我的面包，

可以拿走我的空气，可是

别把你的微笑拿掉。

这朵玫瑰你别动它，

这是你的喷泉，

甘霖从你的欢乐当中

一下就会喷发，

你的欢愉会冒出

突如其来的银色浪花。

我从事的斗争是多么的艰苦，

每当我用疲惫的眼睛回顾，

常常会看到，

世界并没有天翻地覆，

可是，一望到你那微笑

冉冉地飞升起来寻找我，

生活的大门

一下子就都为我打开。

我的爱情啊，

在最黑暗的今朝

也会脱颖出你的微笑，

如果你突然望见

我的血洒在街头的石块上面，

你笑吧，因为你的微笑

在我的手中

将变作一把锋利的宝刀。

秋日的海滨，

你的微笑

掀起飞花四溅的瀑布，

在春天，爱情的季节，

我更需要你的微笑，

它像期待着我的花朵，

蓝色的、玫瑰色的，

都开在我这回声四起的祖国。

微笑，它向黑夜挑战，

向白天，向月亮挑战，

向盘绕在岛上的

大街小巷挑战，

向爱着你的

笨小伙挑战，

不管是睁开还是闭上

我的双眼，

当我迈开步子

无论是后退还是向前，

你可以不给我面包、空气、

光亮和春天，

但是，你必须给我微笑，

不然，我只能立即长眠。