Doctoral auditor overcomes cerebral palsy to excel

Xie's research mainly focuses on discrete mathematics, group theory and applied mathematics. In particular, his work revolves around hypercubes in Cayley graphs. In January, Xie published a paper in Discrete Mathematic related to the subject.

Xu Shoujun is a professor at Lanzhou University and Xie's teacher in analytical geometry. He quickly noticed this special student and paid extra attention to Xie. When a question the professor casually mentioned in class caught Xie's attention, Xu encouraged him to expand the question into a topic for a paper.

This experience opened the door for Xie's research endeavors.

"Professor Xu previously traveled with Xie to academic conferences abroad and paid for our airfare and lodging out of his own pocket. He also paid for Xie's printer and laptop. We owe Mr. Xu a great debt of gratitude because my son would not be where he is today without him," Liu Xiaofeng, Xie's mother, said in an interview with China Youth Daily.

This year, Xie's doctoral journey is coming to an end, and as an audit student he will not receive his degree.

As for his future plans, Xie's mother said he wants to stay on as a postdoctoral auditor and join a university as a researcher. Xie himself also said he hopes to continue on the path to academia.

"I hope whenever people think of me, they can think of my achievements in graph theory and math but not even know I am disabled," he said. "That's my ideal."