 A number of mathematicians in total have posted letters expressing support for Yau on his web site.On October 17, 2006, a profile of Yau in the "New York Times" devoted about half its length to the Perelman dispute.The article said that Yau's promotion of the Cao–Zhu paper "annoyed many mathematicians, who felt that Dr. Yau had slighted Dr. Perelman", but also presented Yau's position, namely that he had never claimed there were gaps in Perelman’s proof, but merely that it was "not understood by all people", and that he "had a duty to dig out the truth of the proof".