His advisor, T.T. Moh, would not write letters of recommendation. This confirms my low opinion of T.T. Moh. I had him as an instructor at Purdue during graduate school. The worst teacher I ever had.

As per Moh, Zhang never asked Moh for letters of recommendation (I find that hard to believe. Zhang would not mention it if he had not asked Moh for help). http://www.math.purdue.edu/~ttm/ZhangYt.pdf

Yeah, that's simply not believable.

And he just won a MacArthur: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8328587. Hard not to feel great about this.

Maybe it's just me, but his answers are hilariously terse.

> Are you interested in cryptography?

>> Not so much.

> Would you describe yourself as famous now?

>> Yes.

> Would you accept a medal?

>> Yes.