Chinanews.com Shanghai, March 6th, title: Young scientist Zhu Shujia: The motherland is very big and needs our construction
Reporter Zheng Yingying
"I'm in Beijing at the end of the year. It's lively and fresh. The motherland is very big and needs our construction. When you 'earn' enough qualifications, come back quickly!" In 2013, Zhu Shujia, who was studying in France, received a postcard from her best friend. Write such a paragraph.
This postcard is now taped to the wall of her Shanghai office.
Zhu Shujia, born in 1984, is a young scientist in Shanghai. She is doing research on molecular mechanisms related to anti-depression in the Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Excellence Innovation Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The road to growth: life is like a broken line
"Life is like a broken line, and the key lies in those turning points." A sentence from a high school math teacher became Zhu Shujia's motto when she was growing up.
Zhu Shujia was born in a small mountain village in Zhejiang. She began to walk the mountain roads with her grandmother when she was 3 years old, and lived in the countryside until she was 7 years old.
Photo courtesy of Zhu Shujia (middle) and students, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
She said she didn't have the idea of becoming a scientist as a child.
Choosing careers and further studies, she said, dreams are more of a process of gradual accumulation, "Life is also ups and downs, and I have experienced my own turning point."
When Zhu Shujia was young, her grandmother was the only rural teacher in several villages at that time, and she was responsible for teaching all courses from preschool to third grade by herself.
Zhu Shujia has been studying with her grandmother in a rural school since she was 3 years old. It takes 40 minutes to climb a mountain every day to reach the place where she is studying, and then come back after school, rain or shine.
It was this period of childhood accompanied by nature that gave Zhu Shujia a healthy body and long-lasting endurance. Until college, she was the only female athlete in the class who ran the 2,400-meter race with a perfect score.
Three Forks: I don’t want to see my life after 60 at a glance
When she graduated from Zhejiang University of Technology in 2006, Zhu Shujia faced a fork in the road of her life.
At that time, one of her uncles analyzed with her: occupations in human society are divided into three categories - administration, business and technology.
The family was in business, and she tried management at university. She wanted to do something different, and she didn't want to see life after the age of 60 at a glance, so she finally chose technology and did biotechnology.
Looking back now, she said that at the beginning of the road of scientific research, she was actually ignorant, thinking slowly, walking step by step, until now.
After finishing her master's degree in physiology from East China Normal University in 2009, she went to France to study abroad.
In the first few months after arriving in France, she only learned to do two things: do experiments and cook.
She took the time to learn how to cook, and proudly told her instructor that there are eight major cuisines in China.
So around Christmas of that year, she cooked 30 dishes in one day by herself, and called her supervisor, her family, and other teachers and students in the entire laboratory to taste them.
After returning home, the tutor wrote her an email: Shujia, I was completely shocked by both quantity and quality!
(Shu Jia, I am blown away by the quantity and quality of your meal!)
This gourmet "diplomacy" made her "famous in the first battle", and she was named "God of Cooking" among overseas students.
She later concluded that the principles, steps and results of doing experiments and cooking are the same, "Cooking means you have a 'recipe', and then mix various ingredients and oil, salt, sauce and vinegar together, try it out Is it good or not; if it doesn't work, try again. The same goes for experiments."
She said that her biggest achievement in France was meeting her mentor Pierre Paoletti (Pierre Paoletti), who is both a teacher and a friend.
After returning to China, she still maintained a very good relationship with the French mentor. They applied for the Sino-French Cooperation Fund project together to carry out project cooperation.
"From him, I really learned and accepted some concepts of modern science, including the way of getting along between tutors and students." She said.
Zhu Shujia said that French tutors treat their work with enthusiasm and vigor, train each student in a planned and staged manner, and stimulate students' interest and hobbies in scientific research.
Later, Zhu Shujia read a passage in a book by Taiwanese writer Qi Bangyuan: "Taking such a course in the growing years made me have appropriate expectations for reading and traveling in the future. , you can explore the depth of other people's culture, and you are not willing to rush blindly in the superficial way."
She was deeply moved and had more thoughts on education.
Become a teacher: I want to open up a harbor for students to explore freely
After completing postdoctoral research work in France and the United States, in August 2016, Zhu Shujia returned to China to join the Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligent Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and formed her own research team.
She often thinks of the period of schooling when "the thirst for knowledge was tapped infinitely". At that time, she enjoyed the richness and variety along the way, and also learned to enjoy the hardships and hardships along the way.
She often misses the weekends when she talked about science and life with her mentor.
"How do I treat my students like a mentor treats me?" she asked herself.
From being a student to being a teacher, her life has enlightenment from another dimension.
In young students, she can sometimes "see" herself 10 years ago.
She often tells students that at the postgraduate level, it is more important than publishing articles to cultivate the ability of scientific dialectics, logical thinking and independent thinking. These abilities can not only guide our work, but also guide us when we face important choices in life .
"We want to open up a harbor for students to explore freely and have the courage to challenge traditional concepts. When students dare to challenge you and raise different views with you, they are growing and becoming independent," she said.
She quoted Pu Muming, academic director of the Brain Science and Intelligent Technology Center of Excellence and Innovation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who said that there are three types of people who do scientific research: "explorers" who open up new fields, "tour guides" who lead everyone to a research direction, and blind "Tourists" who follow suit.
Zhu Shujia believes that one must be an "explorer" in scientific research and have a sense of crisis from time to time. "Technology is always being updated and updated. The core of cultivating students is actually to let them learn to think independently about scientific issues. This is far more important than teaching them A technology matters."
After becoming a mother, Zhu Shujia found that students and children have something in common, "Students are like a child is a 'blank slate', when he enters your laboratory, his understanding of this professional field is also a 'blank slate' Paper'; children are often destructive and make a mess of their homes, and so are students, making a mess of experiments. But you will find that their destructiveness is often mixed with unlimited creativity and innovative thinking."
Therefore, Zhu Shujia said that it is necessary to protect students' innovation, their curiosity about things, their desire to challenge traditional concepts, and let them explore in a down-to-earth manner. How to go." (End)