Japan is in the limelight again as a Japanese scholar has done a phonomenal work is unwinding a 30-year-long numerical riddle to astound the world of mathematics.

In the limelight is a Kyoto University professor Shin-ichi Mochizuki, 51, who has solved a notorious mathematic puzzle known as the abc conjecture first conceived by two European scholars 30 years ago in 1985.

Prof. Mochizuki published his 600-page thesis in the PRIMS, the organ of the university’s Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences 8 years ago for worldwide scrutiny ever since. He expounded in the thesis his own view of “Inter-universal Teichmuller Theory”, which chanced to uncover the abc conjecture, he recalls.

The abc conjecture is a super nerve-wracking problem which, once resolved, is thought to lead to settling a chain of mathematical conjectures and theorems. It has something to do in essense with an equation of three integers a, b, and c composed of different prime numbers, where a + b = c, and describing the relationship between the product of the prime numbers and c.

A total layman in mathematics, I can say no more about his theory and its impact but can say a lot on Prof. Mochizuki’s astounding profile:

Born in Tokyo in 1969, he moved to the US at age 5 and was accepted at Princeton University in New Jersey at age 16 and graduated three years later.

Thereafter, at age 23, he accepted an assistant teaching post at Kyoto University in 1992, and became a full professor at age 32.

In 2005, he was among the first recipients of the Japan Academy’s medal honoring “young” scholars up to 45 years old. So, you see, here is a true genius alive. His achievement this time is said to be worth two Nobel prizes.

Japan has hitherto produced many a brain to contribute to the world’s academic advancement, and here is yet another, probably the rarest ever for Japan to offer for the betterment of scholarly environment the world over.

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