"Mathematics is a young man's game... I don't know if there is an example of a major mathematical theory that a person over 50 has created," British mathematician hardy said in his "the defence of a mathematician."

However, in contemporary China, there is such a mathematician. He cited Hardy's unlikely example of his own scientific career.

He was a young scholar overseas in topology research. He was elected as a member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the age of 38. In recent years, he was shocked by the development of a new field, mathematical mechanization, and twice won the highest national science and technology award

His records have not been broken in the Chinese mathematics circle today. He is wuwenjun, who is known as "people's scientist".

In many people's minds, Wu Wenjun is such a mathematical hero who has been constantly innovating and winning numerous awards. But Wu said, "the height of the group is the real progress in evaluating the scientific development of a country." He yearned for "a mathematical realm without heroes"!

In 1977, Wu Wenjun, 58, was a member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the first prize winner of the National Natural Science Award. He had a title of pride and an honor that ordinary people couldn't reach. It can be said that he has achieved fame and can fully support the year. However, he started on the scientific climb in a combat manner and started a new field, which is completely different from the research he has done in the past, the research on the mechanical proof of geometric theorem. And in the following decades, it has created a mathematical field, which has strong Chinese characteristics and strong sense of the times, mathematics mechanization.

In 1978, Wu Wenjun officially published his first paper on geometric theorem and its proof, and proposed a new method of machine proof of geometric theorem. This method is to algebra the geometric problems to be proved, and has a set of highly mechanized algebraic relations arrangement programs which can run directly on the computer. This method is the inheritance of Cartesian scheme. As the key algorithm of this method, the elimination program of multivariate nonlinear algebraic equations, it is now called Wu method in the world. Using this method, not only can most of the theorems of elementary geometry be proved effectively, but also new theorems can be found automatically, The main theorem in differential geometry can also be proved by this method.

At that time, the electronic computer was far from popular in China. Several of the theorems he tried and succeeded in at first depended on hand calculation. He humorous called his hand and pen "Wu's computer". The polynomial involved in the proof process is often hundreds of items, any step error will lead to the failure of the calculation. After calculating how much can not remember, there is a lot of waste paper. Later, there was a computer in the Institute, but the program had to come by itself.

Programming is usually done by young people. In order to ensure the accuracy of the research process, Wu Wenjun has been persisting in programming for several years. He has learned to write computer programs from scratch and get on the computer himself. In the late 1970s, when the computer was programmed, the conditions were very simple, and the storage medium was perforated paper bags and punched cards. Such cards were piled in a sack in Wu's office.

Wu Wenjun is the oldest "programmer" in the computer room, and for a long time, he is also the longest person in the Mathematics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Often before 8 a.m., you will see him waiting outside the room to open the door. He will work for nearly 10 hours in the machine room, go home in the evening and have a meal, and arrange the calculation results. But you will see him in the machine room in two hours later, sometimes even work till late night or the morning of the next day. The next morning, he appeared again in the machine room. 24 hours of continuous rotation also occurs.

At that time, Zhongguancun in Beijing built roads and dug deep ditches and buried pipelines. Wu Wenjun, who had passed the year of the year of flowers, often walked home alone in the night. The ditch ditch was Kankan, with a high foot and a low foot. Sometimes it rained, so he would wade into the rain without ankles to grope for his way.

Wu Wenjun has a very forward-looking vision for using new tools to help mathematical research. In 1977, he proposed that an immeasurable aspect of the decisive influence on the development of mathematics and the future development of mathematics is the impact of computer on mathematics. In the near future, the electronic computer to mathematicians will be as indispensable as the microscope to biologists and telescopes to astronomers, The idea that computers are now in the pockets of every mathematician by miniaturization will become a reality, and mathematicians must have enough thought preparation for these prospects.

It is these analyses and judgments that make him make breakthroughs in the process of proving theorem by computer, thus creating a new research field of mathematical mechanization.

In the 1980s, Wu Wenjun extended the method of machine proof of geometric theorem to the more general equation machine solution, and formed a systematic field - mathematical mechanization, and got a wide range of applications. The method of mathematical mechanization is penetrating into the fields of mechanics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, computer science, etc., and is also applied in the high-tech fields such as robot, link design, control technology, computer aided design, etc.

The establishment of mathematical mechanization theory is a new mathematical road that Chinese people have developed. The whole process reflects Wu Wenjun's strong spirit of independent innovation. Wu often stressed that "we should have something of our own, and we can't follow others," and "take my own way" with a firm belief“ Foreigners have reason for sure, I will follow, I do not learn foreign countries, foreign things I see, not not not not look, I absorb the part I feel right, can not say how foreigners do I have to do. "

From the mechanical proof of geometric theorem to the theory of mathematical mechanization, Wu Wenjun has made great international influence. In 1997, Wu Wenjun won the highest award of international automatic reasoning, "Herbrand Award for outstanding achievement in automatic reasoning"; In 2000, Wu Wenjun became the first winner of the national highest science and Technology Award for his basic contribution to topology and the creation of mathematical mechanization research field; In 2006, Wu won the "Oriental Nobel Prize" known as the shaoyifu prize. "Wu's approach has revolutionized the field and led to a change in research methods in this area," the shaoyifu Award Committee wrote in its comments. By introducing profound mathematical ideas, Wu has opened up a new method, which has been proved to be very effective in solving a large class of problems, not only in the primary geometry field. " His work "reveals the breadth of mathematics. It has set a new example for the mathematicians of the future.

Facing these auras, Wu never had any pride. He said: "I don't want to be a social activist. I am a mathematician and scientist. My most important job is scientific research. The "debt" I owe is a scientific "debt" and also a debt to the party and the state. "

The party and the people will not forget the heroes who have made outstanding contributions to the country. In 2019, on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the people's Republic of China, Wu Wenjun was awarded the national honorary title of "people's scientist".