Talk:Yitang Zhang

Strange

Just at the time time Yitang Zhang becomes famous, his PhD advisor creates a document to express his regrets (eg, "Sometimes I regreted not fixing him a job", "He never came back to me requesting recommendation letters"). Is his PhD advisor's self-serving damage control worthy of inclusion in this article on Zhang? Angry bee (talk) 17:00, 24 May 2013 (UTC)

Career

I have not been able to find out when Dr. Zhang joined the faculty at the University of New Hampshire. That seems like a basic fact that needs to be included. LineChaser (talk) 14:29, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

I suspect that there would have been no announcement. Most departments appoint adjuncts on an as-needed basis, often at the last minute. Going through archive.org, it appears Dr. Zhang first showed up on the department webpage in the fall of 2002, but that's not something reliable enough to put into the article. Personally, I would wait until somebody interviews him for the information or he puts a CV online. Ray^Talk 16:57, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

A User from Purdue Removed Some Content

A user with an ip 98.222.194.101 possibly from Purdue undid many lines including Professor Moh's recall. I've recover the well-sourced, reliable content from this vandalism. SummerRat (talk) 04:06, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Biased Entries

An IP 207.38.164.93 (Astoria, New York) edited the article and changed it to contain a biased line. The line goes as follows: "since his proof was based on a lemma by Zhang's thesis advisor, Professor Tzuong-Tsieng Moh which was later found to be incorrect." This line is an accusation and is not fact-based. Please don't make the same mistake twice. Integrity2013 (talk) 00:07, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Move. Jafeluv (talk) 11:09, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

---

Zhang Yitang → Yitang Zhang – Google search results for "Yitang Zhang"=~52,000 [1]. Search results for "Zhang Yitang"=~6,500 [2]. The former ordering clearly predominates. More importantly, this is the ordering used in Bounded gaps between primes [3], which is the work he's actually known for. We should match that name ordering. 168.12.253.66 (talk) 21:14, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

• Comment as a professor, he seems to be known by "Tom", whereas with research he uses "Yitang" -- 65.94.79.6 (talk) 01:21, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

• Support. He is published and referenced as Yitang Zhang and is notable for work in the U.S. where this is the normal name ordering. —  AjaxSmack  03:44, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

BLP1E

Does this article possibly have a BLP1E issue? FrankDev (talk) 14:18, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Cole Prize

Can anyone suggest how to cite the Cole Prize award? The prize booklet ([4] p. 7). says:

Citation

Yitang Zhang, and Daniel Goldston, János Pintz, and Cem Y. Yıldırım

The 2014 Frank Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory is awarded to Yitang Zhang for his work on bounded gaps between primes, and to Daniel Goldston, János Pintz, and Cem Y. Yıldırım for their work on small gaps between primes. This work appeared in two papers: Yitang Zhang, “Bounded gaps between primes,” Ann. of Math. (2) (to appear); and Daniel Goldston, János Pintz, and Cem Y. Yıldırım, “Primes in tuples. I.” Ann. of Math. (2) 170 (2009), no. 2, 819–862.

suggesting there was one prize shared between 4 people. But there were two separate press releases, one for Zhang and one for GPY, suggesting two separate prizes. Either way, saying just "Z. won the 2014 Cole Prize" doesn't seem accurate.

50.0.121.102 (talk) 04:33, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Also, Zhang's response says "I am humbled and honored to have been selected as the corecipient of the Frank

Nelson Cole Prize in Number Theory", corroborating one award. Ljosil, do you have some info saying otherwise? I'm going to mention GPY as co-recipients based on the above. Re-revert if you really have to (or find some better phrasing) but I'd appreciate knowing what's going on. 50.0.121.102 (talk) 21:22, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

The citation sounds to me to be saying that there are two separate results being recognized. AMS prizes have been divided between two or more, even unrelated, results in the past, and I think they were not described as shared then. But the difference in wording is minor, so I'll leave it alone. LJosil (talk) 04:22, 20 January 2014 (UTC)

Yes that's why I originally wrote "co-awarded" rather than "shared". Co-awarded isn't a standard English word as far as I can tell, but it seemed to make the distinction a little bit more finely, so I went with it. The press releases said Zhang's and GPY's results were separate but related, which looks straightforward and accurate to me. 50.0.121.102 (talk) 02:31, 22 January 2014 (UTC)

I decided to change the wording because the way it s phrased in a list of awards seems to put some odd emphasis on "shared". I think it better to say that it is a prize he got, with details reserved for elsewhere. It seems reasonable that everybody who gets a prize, shared or not, can be said to be "awarded" it. LJosil (talk) 23:16, 14 February 2014 (UTC)

professor

His promotion seems to have come through (redacted) though the math dept faculty page[5] still says lecturer. The Cole Prize citation mentions the promotion. Update the article, or wait? 50.0.121.102 (talk) 05:19, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

I added the info to the article. I self-redacted a link above that confirms the promotion, but you can find it in the talkpage history. It looks like I'll also have to straighten out the citations and I'll try to do it today. 50.0.121.102 (talk) 21:39, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

The New Yorker

The latest issue of The New Yorker (2/2/15) has an article on Zhang. Choor monster (talk) 19:25, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. Yes, this is an excellent feature article and has been used. Regards,--Soulparadox (talk) 15:57, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Recent changes

Frontier2015 made a number of edits to the article. One of them mentions the quote about Yitang Zhang's advisor not finding him jobs was translated incorrectly, but I don't see any source or reason to believe that. I reverted that change. I also reverted some of the wording about Yiteng being unknown to the mathematical community, because that is a highly relevant part of his biography, and mentioned in several of the sources. 71.255.245.25 (talk) 01:57, 3 February 2015 (UTC)

Frontier2015 made these changes again without any discussion. I reverted them, and I will continue to do so. The quote is directly from the article. Unless the article publishes a revision, we should include the statement that the advisor did not help Yitang write letters of recommendation. Also, Yitang Zhang being unknown to the mathematical community is well sourced from several of the articles on him. I've gone ahead and added a source. Yitang being unknown is extremely relevant to his fame and is the primary subject of several of these articles. 71.255.245.25 (talk) 07:05, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

I should also note it's suspect that this page had been vandalized in the past by an IP Address from Purdue, removing well-sourced information about Yitang's personal disagreements and lack of support from his advisor. This was followed by similar edits from users Integrity2013, BlueFire2014, and now Frontier2015. If this is in fact the same user with personal ties to the advisor, you should review WP:PLAINANDSIMPLECOI. Thanks. 71.255.245.25 (talk) 07:28, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

I have added this page to my Watchlist and will also monitor its progress, in addition to copyediting the content. Regards,--Soulparadox (talk) 15:58, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Recent changes

This is a small response in reply to the previous guy. it's likely to be a fanatic of one of the sides. I have followed the media since Zhang's reputation took flight. there are some worshippers on Zhang's side of the isle who aren't really nice at all. I'm putting this out there because it's probably one of his fans trying to cause problems.

After reading edits, it seemed there was some weird wording that wasn't important with his reputation. Some hyperbolic things that seem more praising than relevant to his life. check the edits again if you want, but i think these previous guys have had reason to do this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Heysoulsist3r4636XD (talk • contribs) 01:51, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

I'll add this to my watch list and look at future changes. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Yorkenshire1987 (talk • contribs) 01:35, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Both these accounts were obviously just created and are the same person (neither correctly signed their messages, and the diction suggests they are not native English speakers). Please stop vandalizing this page. The statement in question is well-sourced. Unless you find another reliable source contradicting it, stop removing it. Iggy402 (talk) 01:15, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Also, I reverted some changes the vandal made to this talk page. He attempted to change the words of the previous commentator who called out Frontier2015, to make him less credible. You do realize everyone can see the changes you make right? This page is under serious attack by this vandal (presumably from Purdue). If you are Yitang's advisor, shame on you. Iggy402 (talk) 01:19, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Thank you for monitoring this @Iggy402: Regards,--Soulparadox (talk) 01:20, 6 February 2015 (UTC)