Opening speech at Tsinghua University: "Three qualities" for postgraduates

Dear classmates, Good morning to you all.

I'm glad to have the opportunity to share my views on some issues with the graduate students here. The title I used today was the headline I used to share my experience with a graduate student who was enrolled in 2010 and 5 years ago-"The youth's ambition is not worrying." This is the theme song of a TV series, and it is also my favorite song to sing.

The first part I want to talk about is my way of growing up.

I used to talk about this part very long, but today there is only one slide in this section.

Some of you may not want to know what to do in the future, you will feel anxious: if you are not interested in scientific research, do not want to develop the future? In fact, I want to say that when I was at your age, that is, more than 20 years ago, I did not think well, also very confused. This confusion until 1995, after the completion of the post-doctoral only vaguely know what they want to do, just made up his mind.

The confusion came from many aspects, including college choice majors. I'm not like some of the people here who know what they want to study in college, what they want to learn, architecture, life, chemistry, engineering, and so on. I was at that time to the university, registration of Tsinghua's first professional may not be able to imagine, is the mechanical department (applause).

He also enrolled in the physics Department of Peking University before reporting to the mechanical department. Until May 85, when Tsinghua teachers came to the admissions, I said, Biochemistry is the science of the 21st Century (applause). I was the first time to connect the biology and chemistry, then suddenly feel enlightened--the original biochemistry is the science of the 21st century! So quirks the life science on the ground.

I am a math competition Henan province First, walk to Tsinghua, mathematical ability is very strong. The students who have a better mathematical ability than the student may have the same tangle, mathematical good often students, chemistry is not the spirit. I have and the biology contest classmate said, must not inferiority, the mathematics physics competition Good is has the small intelligence, the biology competition good has the big wisdom.

This argument is controversial, and much of what I have said today may be controversial. The study of Mathematical physics focuses on the rigorous thinking, the emphasis on reasoning, and the different organisms, these occur in different brain regions. When I was in Tsinghua, biology was not good, so I took a double degree in mathematics, through the strengthening of the study of mathematical physics courses to make up for the lack of biological performance, to let my grades ranked first. So, I choose professional first not by interest, the second is not by expertise, but by the teacher's sentence (laughter). Of course it's a joke.

What's the choice of a major? I tell the students, with the needs of the future world. The development of this world does not take the will of one of the people present here to transfer, also does not use the media propaganda as the transfer, not to be able to find the work after graduation to transfer. In the development of this world, more than half of the academic problems come from the attention of mankind, called Life science.

No matter how the domestic employment situation, other disciplines, but the great life discipline in the 21st century is the largest subject. You can check out what the biggest disciplines are in Massachusetts, Stanford, and Harvard. I think when you choose a professional, with interest is very good, not interested in when you can cultivate interest. Sometimes I think, people are fickle, your other aspects can change, why the profession is not change?

A hobby may be something you like, but doing it every day may make you bored. I think it's not a reliable thing for me to do something completely interesting. I really hated biology during college, because I didn't learn well. My genetics experiments, genetics classes, cytology experiments, cell classes are all in the middle of the class.

After the undergraduate lecture, I talk about overseas reading Bo. I graduated a year early in Tsinghua University, it was in 89 years. I was not interested in academics and interested in politics. Some students may know that my father's death was a great influence on me. I think that politics can change a society, can speak for the common people, do things.

I wanted to go to politics. In politics, there is no way to go to business first. So at that time, and Tsinghua University Technology Wholesale Corporation signed a representative of the company to Hong Kong business opportunities to do PR (laughter). You can't imagine it? See this teacher is quite a glib, do PR should be good. I was so much stronger when I was young that the employment contract was torn up for some reason.

July 89 24 Tangled One night later, I decided to TOEFL GRE abroad. In the young Shi heart, go abroad is not a road. Finally I decided to go abroad to read the PhD in biology. It was a tough time for Hopkins during his 5-year reading, especially in the first two years of a very unstable mood. Because my mathematical thinking is too rigorous, often around this circle, I always find it difficult to learn biology.

There is a biology exam three exams 52, 32, 22 points, only the first pass, I went to ask the teacher to let me a horse: "I am a good student, the students are still adapting to the material." If I fail, I will lose the scholarship, I will not be able to read without a scholarship, I can only drop out. He looked at me with his glasses and narrowed his eyes, as if to see if I was a good student (laughter). He finally gave me a B--and I was really grateful to him.

When I first went back to Hopkins when I was an assistant professor at Princeton, I called on the professor. I asked him, do you remember when I begged you to let me pass me a horse? He said, how can I forget it! (laughter) In fact, because I did not think about the professional, in the first two years of reading Bo has been very tangled. Usually energy is very good, a look at the article fell asleep; listen to the lecture is also, listened to 10 minutes to sleep over, everyone clap I woke up, just a walk together. (laughter) A lot of people here might as well.

I didn't feel a thing until I was a third grade, and I found myself able to do something; I got a big increase in my grade four, because the results came out, and by the end of the year, when I was a graduate, I felt that I could have "mixed" work in academia.

After the doctor read, I do not know what I can do, I do not know what I will do, in the most struggling to think of Physico: transferred to the Department of Mathematics, Computer science, transferred to the Department of Management, to any of the department I feel easy, because these are able to play the mathematical strengths of the place, but I did not turn. Because I'm convincing myself that maybe status quo is the best. If the rush physico, perhaps after going to find mathematics, physics, management may be more boring, so I am convincing myself, perhaps life science is really the science of the 21st century.

is a contradiction in the move forward. I still don't know what I'm going to do after my doctorate's defense on April 12, 1995. I have never forgotten that I was in Tsinghua, was an active member of the Tsinghua University, the deputy President of the Association of Small inventions, also participated in a lot of extracurricular activities, PR, so I think maybe I can from the business. So I also interviewed the chief representative of Metropolis China, sold insurance, and got an offer. I almost became the first person to sell insurance in China, with a six-digit salary.

After I graduated from my ph. D., I also set up my own company, with two buddies to do trade exchanges between China and the United States, this experience is also very interesting. November 1995 I made up my mind to take the academic path, and it is less than 20 years. December 95 I wrote a diary, I said, the opportunity to go to explore, you have explore, now it is your turn to calm down, from then on second thoughts, do a good academic. That's how I do it.

So from November 95 until now, all the major focus on doing academic, I also told myself that this (kind of interest) must be cultivated. If you have classmates who feel no interest in the field of study, I think you are better than me. I was in the doctorate after six months to cultivate interest, and now I have a very strong interest, to now can not sleep, can work night and night, feel fun. I think interest can be cultivated, not that you are born with, not that you listen to a lecture suddenly brainwave on a matter of interest, I think it is not so.

Post-doctoral researchers in the past few years in the eyes of the extremely bitter, in fact, in which they do not feel bitter, I often feel that they do not do so the loss of the words. I do think so. From November 95 to April 97, my postdoctoral fellow was 1.5, got my first job and was an assistant professor at Princeton. It was a lucky time.

Princeton does not have many colleges like Harvard, like Medical School, Law school, and so on, but only one university headquarters plus an international relations college, very small. I think Princeton is an academic mecca. That's why Einstein chose Princeton at a time when he faced invitations from universities such as MIT and Caltech, and people who might have felt the same way. I think I was lucky to start an independent research career in Princeton in April 97.

In fact, I have a professional, research has been very confused, but also took a lot of detours, but I think I still came. I also advised the students here, when you have lost time, I suggest you, do not feel that only the confusion, your all the problems to solve the next step, I do not agree.

I recognize one thing: don't give yourself a reason--when you feel less interested, have no firm confidence, have something at home, need to overcome the psychological shadow, face the pain and go forward, regardless of family, personal life, hobbies and other aspects of what happens, you should go all out, should deal with their own life, move forward. Don't give yourself a reason. Because once you left behind, your mentality will change, it is difficult to correct the mentality.

Let me tell you the second part about yourself.

Students may think that teachers are very confident, I would like to tell you that my inferiority in school now has no, but occasionally have insecurity feeling. But in the course of my schooling, I have been a very low-self-abased person since I was a student from elementary school to university to doctoral stage.

It may be hard for everyone to imagine. For example, when high school chemistry teacher explained "Le chatelier principle", I was deserted at that time, did not understand. Later I read a book I can not understand, feel collapsed. I always feel that the other classmates in the class are smarter than me, really feel inferior. Look around you, when others are almost as smart as you, you will feel smarter than you. So when you think others are smarter than you, he's not necessarily smarter than you, not too humble.

At the same time, I have a personality trait is competitive. The students here may be a lot like me, if not good, not self-improvement is difficult to come to today, but particularly competitive, especially self-improvement of people are more vulnerable to the blow, but also more prone to inferiority. Since high school, I always feel that I am not clever, so I always work hard, always think I am clumsy birds have.

Let me give you an example. I have all the competitive, in the Tsinghua examination, I am not tall, and can not on tiptoe tip; So when I sat high, I tried to arch the arch, the result I was not taller than the class five, sitting high class first. (laughter) I had no idea at the time that I was still complacent and finally had a first. Until a classmate reminds me, I suddenly feel inferior to each other spontaneously. I asked my coach: "Miss Sun, is my leg short?" "(laughter)" teacher Sun's answer is very artistic, said: "A public, you train very hard (laughter), your physical condition can achieve today's results very difficult. (laughter) "

Our family has never been an athlete, just me. My brother and sister, my parents are not athletes, I am a level two athlete. Actually also quite interesting, May and my character is related, is inferiority and self-confidence, the competitive with together. When I was in third day, my class teacher encouraged me to quote 1500 meters. I wrote the application for the league, the teacher said, the time for performance. (laughter) The organization is testing you. I'm going to report 1500. Sports meet four days before the registration, the night of an excited thigh cramps, legs can not move, the day of the game to return to normal. The starting gun rang I was 100 meters ahead of me, and ended up 300 meters from the bottom of the second place. Laughter

I ran through the end of the school, in the encouragement of our class. Third day of a public what do not love saving, at that time in puberty development, the most saving time in front of the classmate disgraced, self-esteem was hit. But I was very competitive then. I started jogging the next day of the sports meeting. A year later my 800 meters ran 2 points 17,3000 meters ran 10 points 35. Coach Sun let me in the school team, become a first-team member, on behalf of Tsinghua to participate in the competition. In fact, I think, in many cases, your personality determines your future. I feel inferior, but I am very competitive.

Below I think graduate students should have the quality.

It doesn't matter what I say first: the least important quality is your IQ. No matter what the subject, physics, engineering, biology, liberal arts, I think the least important is IQ. I believe so.

first, the time of the pay. do not think you can be clever, there is no free dinner in the world, this is the eternal truth. So sometimes I resent some people who say that my success is entirely an opportunity, it must be nonsense. Of course, this is now generally said to be modest, but this modesty will miss a lot of students. I do not believe that any successful scientist does not give a great deal. Lao Pu, director of the Department of Biology, Tsinghua University for 84-86 years, has been a renowned tenured professor in the United States.

He teaches students during a group meeting in the United States: My biggest trick in my academic career is working hard and working more than 60 hours a week. I know you can't work as hard as I do, but I ask you to do more than 50 hours a week, which means you have to work more than 6 days if it's 8 hours a day. You do not think you go to 8 in the morning, shaking leisurely do some experiments, 8 o'clock in the evening to leave. He only calculates the time of your specific experiment, and the time when you really go through the simple and experimental literature. Even if your meal time, the reading literature after the relaxation of an hour, will be removed.

Working 50 hours a week is a very large amount of work. If you can do it, you meet my requirements, you can stay in the lab, and if you can't, leave the lab. In fact, Lao Pu said is Truth, is a true conscience of the scientists say the words. I would like to tell you through this example that no one will succeed without giving the time.

The second is a change in methodology. My postdoctoral mentor is a unique scientist who is only a year and a half older than me and very young. In the ten years since the early 90, he has made 30 articles of nature and science in the laboratory as a communications author, and is one of the world's top masters.

After I entered his laboratory, I was hopeful to learn from him, to learn methodology, to learn ways of thinking and to learn critical thinking. But what happened behind me was so tangled up that I realized how real critical thinking and real methodology should be formed. My examples are very extreme, I hope you are not simply accepted, but to think about, because your profession does not necessarily apply.

I would like to give an example: The science teacher will say, to widely read the literature, knowledge should be broad, to know the progress of modern science to where, to extensive reading, and so on. In fact, when I was a PhD student in Hopkins, the teacher also said that, to read "Nature", read "science", read some publications, I also do so. When I got to his lab, I thought I was going to be strong and I wanted my mentor to know that I wanted to be a professor.

How can I let my mentor know that I am capable and insightful? The next article "Nature" came out when I read carefully, and so I have deep insight, to find a tutor to discuss the discussion, it can appear that I am very insightful. So there was a "Nature" sent a frontier in the field of the article, I went to find a mentor, but the tutor said: "This article I have not read it, read it later." "I think the tutor may have been busy recently and had not had time to read. I was a little utilitarian at the time, thinking I was not reading so carefully? Laugh

After one months I read an article that has been published for almost one months and is an extremely important article in our field. I want to discuss with him again, the tutor face Red said, this article I have not read yet. (laughter) I was beginning to wonder, did he not read? (laughter) I dare not ask.

By the second half of 96, a famous Nobel laureate visited and invited my mentor to a 1-hour academic exchange. My tutor asked the Secretary to reply that he happened to be away on business that day. But on the day of the lecture, the tutor came early, locked himself in the office, solving the structure, looking at the structure, analyzing the structure, writing articles.

I was very puzzled at the time. According to the Chinese habit, such a person came, why don't you go to "magnetic"? You're not going to show up yet? So I asked the tutor, why did you not communicate with someone like this? The tutor's answer was very simple, and he said I had no time. Anything can be regenerated, and time cannot be regenerated. I was daring to ask him: Do you have time to read the article? (laughter) He said I didn't read the article. I would like to tell you that when you read a PhD, you should read the article, but now I have not read so many articles, but also rely on meetings, telephone, face-to-head and other live exchanges.

At that time, I asked: How to develop scientific literacy without reading articles? He says the cultivation of science literacy has nothing to do with reading the latest articles. The development of scientific methodology is related to the history of science and is related to the data sources of major discoveries, and has nothing to do with the scientific progress to the forefront of knowledge. The forefront of scientific knowledge is only when you are doing research to let you know what position you are in in the field, whether you are at the forefront of science, whether you are doing what others have already done, and that's all. So a good graduate program isn't necessarily about telling you the most cutting-edge stuff in science.

During my time at Princeton, Princeton's most interesting lesson was "people and genetics," and the last article in the 90 's was an article about the history, process, and key discoveries of the whole human and genetics world. The latest discoveries are just a matter of direct relevance to your field when you do research, and it does not have anything to do with how you develop your methodology. I asked the tutor, how do you write the article when you write it?

He said I would read some articles when I was writing an article. He spoke very honestly. I hope you can ask why, instead of simply accepting something that's taken for granted, you need to challenge the past and have critical thinking. I learned a lot in my two years as a postdoctoral fellow, and I learnt how to really be tough in the lab.

Thirdly, building critical thinking. In addition to the methodological changes, it also includes challenging academic authority. My doctoral tutor is a professor and dean at the age of 33. When he was driving, he imagined the structure of the zinc finger, the first structure in our human history to be imagined by the brain. He was thinking at night when he was dreaming, and every day he was thinking, when I was in the third grade, I was afraid of him. He has 1.93-meter, 100 kilograms, the force is infinite. Once again the lid of our speeding centrifuge was not open, and he went straight to wring the hinge. He often says, "Suspicion is the driving force of scientific discovery." ”

One day we open a group meeting, he looks particularly excited, said today I give you a demonstration of my idea, I hope you can help me see, what problems raised. He began to draw a rectangle. The middle plus a partition, the left is oxygen, the right is nitrogen, see he drew out the diagram and the formula listed, I think he is to prove the second law of thermodynamics, the process of entropy increase. He began to write the formula, full of a blackboard after the deduction, step by step to prove that the second law of thermodynamics is wrong. We were all shocked at the time.

However, when I was in college, I thought my best course was physical chemistry, Zhu Wentao teacher. Mr. Zhu's theoretical foundation was very solid, when he taught us very seriously. So I found three mistakes in the formula he wrote. I didn't dare to mention it at the time, but then I thought, it was a mistake, I trembling up my hand and said, I want to say there was a first mistake. This is, my brother across from me said, "What's wrong?" Ah! What's wrong! "I trembling said, all the classmates said I was wrong, but our lab's little boss said, I think a public speaking good."

In fact, I found Jeremy M. Berg, and his face was red when I said my first words. At this time our lab is arguing, the boss said today's group will end. People think I contradict the teacher, no one to talk to me, noon I will eat alone. One o'clock in the afternoon, the boss found me and said, your bachelor is at which university, I said Tsinghua University, is the best university in our country. He said that I do not care about you from which university, my concern is that you learn very well, the teacher must be a everyone.

My undergraduate teacher's theoretical foundation is very deep, so speak very thoroughly. After that, the colleagues of our Institute met me and then offered to greet me, which made me feel confident. When I found the job, they all said to me, "congratulations! "This is a blatant courage to use their own learning to correct the dean and Laboratory tutor of the academic mistakes of the experience, in my research on the road to give me unlimited confidence, still has a great influence on me."

I want our students to be ambitious and down-to-earth. I wrote some blog posts on how to improve my writing and reading skills for graduate students on the science web Weibo. You must always remember that you think you can, and you will. At the same time also remember, not to be contented!

I think scientific research is a way of life. It allows me to think and solve some scientific problems with no worries. However, we also have to undertake a certain social responsibility, our research is to be able to repay the community, to contribute to human beings.

Finally, I wish you all the best to persevere in the course of scientific research.

Opening speech at Tsinghua University: "Three qualities" for postgraduates