[Anatoly] Vershik and [Jim] Carlson were having tea. Yau’s name came up; he was apparently holding a conference to celebrate his fifty-ninth birthday. „I don’t understand it,” Vershik grumbled. „I know Gian-Carlo Rota held a conference to celebrate his sixty-fourth birthday, but sixty-four is two to the sixth power — and what is fifty nine? A prime number!”
— Perfect Rigor, Masha Gessen
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