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@ your second question, the article notes that "Without communicating with the field’s experts, Zhang started thinking about the problem", so maybe he just work
by jckt 13y ago
@ your second question, the article notes that "Without communicating with the field’s experts, Zhang started thinking about the problem", so maybe he just worked on it in his free time? Not that it means he hasn't published much, but there aren't many Yitang Zhang papers on arXiv either. As far as I know he has no website, and according to UNH he is a "lecturer" rather than a professor. I'm not sure how the academic ranks work in the USA but I believe that, typically, lecturers are of lower "rank" than professors. So in that case, Zhang would have been effectively less renowned, hence "unknown", but obviously no less able.
- curveship 13y agoA lecturer is the bottom of the heap. It's the lowest title you can have and teach in a university. Tenured professor > tenure track professor > visiting assistant professor > adjunct / lecturer. It means he's paid per course and isn't guaranteed any classes beyond the current semester.
- jckt 13y agoIs there any widespread stigma surrounding the lower-ranks (academic/intellectual ability, etc), or is the system just widely acknowledged as simply some sort of salary structure?
- saraid216 13y agoBoth. If you're any good, you're supposed to magically move up the escalator. It's a career thing like any other.
- BruceIV 13y agoLecturers sometimes don't have PhD's, tend not to do research, and get stuck with all the courses that the tenured profs don't want to teach (and don't get paid much better than their TA's to teach the course).