Would mathematician Terence Tao consider leaving the United States for Hong Kong or mainland China in light of funding cuts under the Trump administration?
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When the South China Morning Post put the question to the Fields medallist and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor, his response was measured but telling.
“The situation is very fluid and unstable right now – far more than it has been at any previous point in the last 30 years,” Tao wrote in an email on August 21.
“What happens next depends largely on whether the administration continues its current trajectory, or whether it significantly changes course.
“At this time I cannot make any predictions about the future.”
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Now 50, the mathematician – hailed as the “Mozart of maths” – finds himself at a crossroads of geopolitics and scientific freedom.
Born in Australia to Chinese parents from Shanghai and Hong Kong, Tao has spent most of his life in America, where he became a tenured professor at UCLA at 24 and won the Fields Medal at 31.