Enigma of Chinese professor aged 22
Source: Xinhua |
March 24, 2012, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AT the tender age of 22, Liu Lu has become China's youngest full university professor, an honor usually bestowed upon acclaimed academics 20 years his senior.
But the baby-faced, bespectacled Liu is not a nobody. In 2010, as a junior university student, he grabbed the academic world's attention by solving the "Seetapun Enigma" - a mathematics conjecture first put forward by British logician David Seetapun in the 1990s.
However, eyebrows were raised when he was promoted to full professor status as a graduate school student at Central South University in the central Chinese city of Changsha earlier this week.
The university also gave Liu a grant of 1 million yuan (US$158,570).
The news has been a hot topic on Weibo over the past three days. And an online opinion poll showed that, by yesterday afternoon, 74.7 percent of 8,481 respondents supported the rare promotion, agreeing with the notion that age is not a problem when it comes to honoring talent.
However, 1,274 considered the decision a bit reckless, and said it was like a "show" put on by the university.
In China, usually a doctoral degree and at least 15 years' teaching experience at a university is needed to be considered eligible for full professor status.
Liu has largely kept silent about the honor other than briefly telling Xinhua news agency that he felt "pressured but would continue to follow his interest in mathematics."
CSU President Zhang Yaoxue, who announced the professorship, said university authorities hoped the honor would give Liu greater access to research resources and exchanges with experts worldwide.
"It is not a hasty decision," Zhang said. "It is a credit to a student who managed to solve world-class academic problems."
Liu's promotion was also controversial in the way that it contradicted Chinese education's traditional obsession with test results.
The president said Liu was not a good student in the traditional sense in that his exam scores were mediocre or even below average. Liu simply spent a lot of time developing his interests.
Liu did not have good scores in high school and never attended any advanced math class, an extracurricular activity commonly taken by Chinese students showing early achievement. "If I could give only one piece of advice to high school students in China, it is to focus on your interests but never exam scores," Liu was quoted as saying.
But the baby-faced, bespectacled Liu is not a nobody. In 2010, as a junior university student, he grabbed the academic world's attention by solving the "Seetapun Enigma" - a mathematics conjecture first put forward by British logician David Seetapun in the 1990s.
However, eyebrows were raised when he was promoted to full professor status as a graduate school student at Central South University in the central Chinese city of Changsha earlier this week.
The university also gave Liu a grant of 1 million yuan (US$158,570).
The news has been a hot topic on Weibo over the past three days. And an online opinion poll showed that, by yesterday afternoon, 74.7 percent of 8,481 respondents supported the rare promotion, agreeing with the notion that age is not a problem when it comes to honoring talent.
However, 1,274 considered the decision a bit reckless, and said it was like a "show" put on by the university.
In China, usually a doctoral degree and at least 15 years' teaching experience at a university is needed to be considered eligible for full professor status.
Liu has largely kept silent about the honor other than briefly telling Xinhua news agency that he felt "pressured but would continue to follow his interest in mathematics."
CSU President Zhang Yaoxue, who announced the professorship, said university authorities hoped the honor would give Liu greater access to research resources and exchanges with experts worldwide.
"It is not a hasty decision," Zhang said. "It is a credit to a student who managed to solve world-class academic problems."
Liu's promotion was also controversial in the way that it contradicted Chinese education's traditional obsession with test results.
The president said Liu was not a good student in the traditional sense in that his exam scores were mediocre or even below average. Liu simply spent a lot of time developing his interests.
Liu did not have good scores in high school and never attended any advanced math class, an extracurricular activity commonly taken by Chinese students showing early achievement. "If I could give only one piece of advice to high school students in China, it is to focus on your interests but never exam scores," Liu was quoted as saying.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
