“Usually, an active leader of a students’ association can’t maintain good grades. I am lucky to be the exception,” says WANG Leda.

Photo of WANG (Image by USTC)

WANG is a senior from the School of Mathematical Sciences with the second highest Grade Point Average (GPA) of 4.07. He is also president of the USTC Student Orchestra. On May 16, 2024, Wang was awarded the Guo Moruo Scholarship, the highest honour for undergraduates in USTC.

WANG receiving the award from President BAO Xinhe (Image by USTC)

WANG’s personal homepage: futwangalerda.github.io

Maths: bright future, winding road

WANG picked Maths as his major without much hesitation, though in the beginning he encountered many challenges. In high school he studied hard for the Math Olympics, only to suffer a serious setback in the final competition. In more complex and demanding than the Maths he learned in high school. He hadn’t yet found a field of particular interest, and the maths books he read didn’t appeal to him.

But a course he took in his sophomore year changed everything and opened up a new world for him. “I took Prof.LIU DangZheng’s class on Probability Theory, and I was mesmerized by the random matrix theory and its broad applications.” WANG’s enthusiasm for Maths was ignited ever since, and he dove into the study and research in theoretical statistics and (applied) mathematics. For his Ph.D period, he will further his studies on random matrix theory.

“Random matrix theory has a lot of theoretical work to do and it also has a wide range of applications in, for example economics and statistics. So there will be a world of possibilities I can explore.”

Music: salvation for the heart

“Music is such an insparable part of my life. It is salvation for my heart.”

WANG appreciates all genres of music, but his favourite is classical music.

His personal favourites are Beethoven, Bruckner, Shostakovich, etc.

In his darkest moments, it is always classical music that pulls him together. “When I failed in the Maths Olympics in high school, I was crestfallen and desparate. I listened to Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos again and again, and I was lost in the beauty and sacredness of the melodies. Music helps me see that it’s a bliss to live in this world, and gradually my problems no longer seem to matter.” When he didn’t do well in exams, when he lost love, WANG would always turn to music for shelter. He uses the beginning of the fourth movement of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony as his alarm clock and says it makes him feel more refreshed.

WANG says listening to music is also a help while solving maths problems. It sometimes inspires him with new ideas, and calms his nerves when he is frustrated.

“Good music and good maths are similar in some ways. Both are abstract, both may have many possible interpretations, and both possess structral beauty. This might be the reason why many mathematicians are fans of music as well.”

Orchestra: development and devotion

“I can’t imagine my four undergraduate years without the orchestra.”

WANG in USTC Student Orchestra (Image by USTC)

WANG has spent most of his spare time in the USTC Student Orchestra. At first, he was on piano, which he has been practicing since his childhood. After one semester of practice with the orchestra, he developed a deeper and more comprehensive knowlegde of intrumental music, and took the role of conductor.

In his final year, the orchestra recommended him to be the president. Many of his close friends and teachers advised him to decline the position, as he already had PH.D. application and a lot more on his plate. But WANG did not follow their advice. He felt obliged to take the position. “I have already devoted so much to the orchestra and I have witnessed its growth. How can I refuse to help when it needs me?”

WANG has written a concise tutorial on the development of amateur conductor, which can be found on his personal homepage. When he started as an amateur conductor, there were no tutorials he could refer to, all he had was the experience of his predecessors in USTC Student Orchestra. After he became a proficient conductor himself, he summarized his experience and wrote this tutorial in both Chinese and English, hoping to provide some guide to other amateur conductors all over the world.

WANG also endeavored to let music lovers in USTC come together. He was once in charge of the first ACG (Anime, Comics and Games) concert in USTC, where the three biggest musical student associations: the student orchestra, the nationalities music orchestra of USTC and the student chorus, all played an active part. Thanks to this concert, these three musical student associations has become a big family, and students from different associations have more communication.

Each laucreate of the Guo Moruo Scholarship will be awarded a scholarship of 30,000 yuan, which is not a small number. WANG says he plans to donate part of his scholarship to his orchestra, to cover the fee of purchasing better muscial instruments.

WANG with friends from the orchestra (Image by USTC)

“I wish our orchestra can get more people to appreciate the beauty of classical music,” says WANG, his eyes shining.

Next stop in Yale

WANG is an incoming Ph.D. student in the Department of Statistics and Data Science, Yale University. “Yale has good Maths and good music,” he says. So no doubt that WANG looks forward to his next stop in Yale.

(Written by LIU Qinyan, edited by Huang Rui, USTC News Center)