After receiving Lu Zhou's reply, Carlson basically didn't have any hope. The Millennium Prize Problem ceremony was put to a hold.
However, someone might have leaked the news of the Clay Institute's original award ceremony plans.
Then the rumors ended up being that Lu Zhou had rejected the award.
Ever since the Navier–Stokes equation was solved, the media had been paying attention to the million-dollar Millennium Prize Problem award. After all, for people that didn't study mathematics, a million-dollar award was much more shocking than the solution to the Navier–Stokes equation…
The New York Times reporter's comments.
[… After Perelman, a Russian mathematician, refused the million-dollar award, Chinese mathematician Lu Zhou also refused the award. There seems to be a magical curse attached to the Millennium Prize Problems as everyone that solves the problems seems to lose interest in money?]
