What contribution do mathematicians make to society?

Mathematics is an ancient yet young culture. As a technology, mathematics can directly produce economic benefits.

In the late 1970s, China’s scientific spring came. Xu Chi’s The reportage "Goldbach's Conjecture" became popular all over the country, and Chen Jingrun's name spread all over the country overnight, becoming a hero of China's scientific renaissance. His achievements in "Goldbach's Conjecture" are still leading the world today. When Fermat's conjecture was After the solution was announced in 1995, among the mathematical problems of the 21st century, completely solving the "Goldbach's conjecture" has become the main issue facing mathematicians. The number theory that Chen Jingrun is engaged in is a pure science. What is the value of number theory? On the one hand, in the intellectual Olympics, The winner takes all the competition. On the other hand, the world's top number theory experts have devoted themselves to cryptographic research. Number theory research involves national security and corporate secrets. However, there is a certain gap between Chinese mathematics and the public. Despite Chen Jingrun's scientific spirit It is deeply touching, but the public generally believes that mathematical knowledge and other scientific languages ??can only be used as gymnastics to train thinking. As for the contribution of mathematics to economic construction and the promotion of society, it is indirect and cannot play the leading role. At most, it is "behind the scenes" In the 1990s, the situation gradually changed, and mathematics technology began to show its power in China. A well-known scientific achievement at home and abroad was once again associated with mathematics: Founder Group, with Wang Xuan as its president, developed the "Chinese character laser typesetting system printing technology" ". Wang Xuan graduated from the Department of Mathematics of Peking University in 1962. The printing revolution he led, which bid farewell to "lead and fire", is based on a mathematical technology - "data compression". Currently, Founder Group and its partners Occupying 99% of the domestic market for Chinese character printing and 70% of the foreign market. Wang Xuan became "one of the most profitable scientists" in China. Mathematics can directly produce economic benefits, which has once again been proven by facts. The contribution of mathematics to society It has moved from indirect service to direct intervention, that is to say, the social function of mathematics has developed from simply providing tools for other disciplines to directly creating value.

In 1940, the United Kingdom and the United States responded to the threat of German submarines. , founded operations research. Without adding equipment, relying on mathematical intelligence operations research can help improve equipment capabilities and efficiency. In 1942, Kolmogorov of the Soviet Union and Wiener of the United States studied automatic tracking of artillery respectively. Device, develop the prediction and filtering theory of random processes, and improve the efficiency of air defense. In 1948, Wiener published the famous "Cybernetics". Since 1939, the British mathematician Turing helped the British intelligence department successfully decipher the German code. The U.S. military deciphered the Japanese code. telegram, which shot down Japanese General Isoroku Yamamoto's plane. In 1944, the game theory created by von Neumann was used in tactical decision-making in the Pacific War. The "Applied Mathematics Group (AMP)" organized by the U.S. government participated in aerial rocket launches , underwater ballistics, B-52 bomber calculations, etc. Mathematicians participated in the development of the atomic bomb. The Polish mathematician S. Ulam made a key contribution to the development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1950, von Neumann and others used electronic computers to carry out "Numerical" weather forecasting. The 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Cormack of the United States and Honsfeld of the United Kingdom for their use of the mathematical Radon transformation principle to design a CT tomograph. In 1993, the digitalization of the United States After the TV solution was born, it immediately "swept the army" and turned the analog solution into a piece of waste paper. Supporting the digitization of TV is a mathematical technology - wavelet technology, which can compress huge data to the minimum. Making the digital transmission of images possible.

In 1938, the famous Soviet mathematician Kanterovich created the "linear programming" method, which can optimize linear objectives under linear constraints. In 1971, Kanterovich Rovich and Copeman of the United States both won the Nobel Prize in Economics. Western mathematical economics has a history of more than 100 years. Its basic principle is the general economic equilibrium theory. Samuelson in 1970, Samuelson in 1972 Hicks, Arrow, and Debreu in 1983. Arrow and Debreu are both mathematicians with professional backgrounds. Due to the development of Western securities markets, the research and practice of securities theory have become increasingly prominent in economics. The "Wall Street Revolution" finally happened. The 1990 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Markovich, Sharp and Miller. They studied how to invest in a variety of securities to maximize returns. They combined returns and risks, which were originally very vague. The concept became a clear mathematical concept, and important theories such as the capital asset pricing model were derived. The 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Shores and Merton for their work related to option pricing theory. In 1997, the National Natural Science Foundation of China The Science Foundation lists financial mathematics as one of its priority subjects.

First, from linear to nonlinear. Research on chaos, fractals, dynamic systems, etc. is progressing rapidly. Second, from commutative to non-commutative .Matrix and multiplication of operators are non-commutative. Third, from 1-dimensional mathematics to high-dimensional mathematics, especially 4-dimensional and infinite dimensions. Fourth, stochastic mathematics and deterministic mathematics, discreteness and connection, local properties and global properties The 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians has been held in Beijing, which is a new starting point for the progress of Chinese mathematics. I hope that Chinese mathematics will reach a higher level in the new century and realize the ideal of "a great mathematical country in the 21st century" .