What kind of "new stars" are shining in the firmament of science
【Taking Path to a New Era Talent Strategy to Strengthen the Country·Three Questions about Young Scientific and Technological Talents①】
Editor's note
In the field of scientific research, the youth stage is a precious "golden period". At this time, the source of innovation is surging, the light of thought is leaping, and he is full of ambition to explore the unknown. If the field of scientific research is a sky, then young scientific and technological talents are the stars shining in it. At the Central Talent Work Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that it is necessary to cultivate a large-scale young science and technology talent team, focus on the policy of cultivating national strategic talents on young science and technology talents, and support young talents to take the lead and play the leading role.
What kind of group are young scientific and technological talents? What are the bottlenecks in its growth, and what are its inner demands? How to help young scientific and technological talents grow steadily and release their potential? In this regard, we will push the "Three Questions" to better explore the path for it to "pick the lead and be the protagonist".
【In-depth investigation】
It was another cold night.
Yang Chao was still thinking about an unbreakable algorithmic problem in front of his desk.
Suddenly, a spark ignited his thoughts, everything suddenly became clear, and the long-term loneliness turned into a great sense of satisfaction.
Yang Chao, 42, is already a professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Peking University, and he has made great achievements in the field of massively parallel computing.
Today, many young people like Yang Chao have come to the fore on the scientific track of the new era, taking on important responsibilities and becoming the mainstay for the realization of the century-long leap forward from "parallel running" to "leading" in my country's science and technology.
What kind of group is this?
How do they light up the sky of science with fierce enthusiasm?
Let's approach these rising "science stars" together.
1. Who are they
A few years ago, Yang Chao led the team responsible for the optimization of the HPCG benchmark test program on the Tianhe-2 supercomputer.
At first, problems such as lack of funds followed one after another, but he still looked for it: technological innovation is of great importance and is worth doing.
As a result, the team was built and construction started as scheduled.
In the meantime, new algorithms continued to emerge, and new breakthroughs followed one after another.
In the end, the HPCG benchmark test of the Tianhe-2 supercomputer ranked first in the world, and its performance exceeded the technical solutions provided by foreign companies.
When he climbed the top of the mountain and looked back, he understood the importance of making a decision.
That year, Yang Chao was 35 years old.
Hoes, shovel, sealed bags... These are the "standard equipment" for scientific research conducted by Huang Huichuan, associate professor of the School of Plant Protection of Yunnan Agricultural University.
Since following his tutor, Professor Zhu Youyong, started the under-forest Chinese medicinal planting project in Lancang County, Yunnan, he has become accustomed to "looking for forests all over the mountains and plains, squatting on the slopes to look at the soil, and sitting on the head of a fellow villager to talk about techniques."
A few years later, a research result using biodiversity to control the incidence of diseases and insect pests of Chinese medicinal materials was successfully transformed and became a standard for promotion in practice.
"Thesis written on the ground" enriched the people's pockets and was full of enthusiasm on the road to rural revitalization.
That year, Huang Huichuan was 34 years old.
The study of differential geometry is often "a solo dance of a person's thinking".
Numbers, symbols, and formulas are like jumping notes, combined into tunes that are sometimes high and sometimes low.
"Most of the time I spend my time at the desk, thinking hard, and only a few moments can the inspiration flash." But Yan Wenjiao, a professor at the School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University, was immersed in it, letting the talented "buds" bloom one by one. : She cooperated with her tutor Tang Zizhou to overcome the problem of Qiu Chengtong's first eigenvalue conjecture in the isoparametric situation. The paper was published in the top international geometry journal.
So far, this is still the latest research progress in this field.
That year, Yan Wenjiao was 28 years old.
"The age of 25 to 45 is a golden period for the growth of scientific and technological talents. This period is rich in knowledge reserves, creativity is at its peak, and it is most likely to achieve high-level academic results." said Minglei Ding, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science and Technology Development.
Taking a closer look at my country’s major technological innovation achievements, there are almost a group of young people behind them: the average age of the "Chang'e Team" and the "Shenzhou Team" is 33 years old, and the average age of the "Beidou Team" is 35 years old...The winner of the 2019 National Natural Science Award winners The average age of the team is 44.6 years old, and the average age of the youngest team is only 35 years old.
The "Fourth National Investigation Report on the Status of Scientific and Technological Workers" shows that the average age of my country's scientific and technological workers is 35.9 years old, and young people have become the main body of the scientific research team.
"The increasing degree of internationalization is a distinctive feature of this group." Ding Minglei introduced that the returnees from studying abroad have become an important part of my country's young scientific and technological talents.
At present, my country is promoting the construction of various international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation platforms, and has gradually become an extremely attractive fertile ground for global innovation and entrepreneurship, and more international intellectual resources will be enriched in this team.
In addition, most young scientific and technological talents have strong informatization capabilities.
Ding Minglei believes: "Affected by the new round of scientific and technological revolution, the scientific research paradigm is undergoing profound changes. Big data and artificial intelligence provide new directions and application scenarios for scientific discovery and technological innovation. In the open sharing of knowledge, R&D activities tend to be networked. In today’s ecological environment, informatization has become a necessary tool for scientific research."
What are the main fields of young scientific and technological talents?
The reporter's survey found that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, a young scientist project was set up in the national key research and development plan, covering nanotechnology, synthetic biology, quantum control and quantum information, digital diagnosis and treatment equipment and other basic frontier key special projects; leading in technological innovation Among the talents, about 90% are between the ages of 40 and 45, covering fields such as information, agriculture, advanced manufacturing, population and health, resources and environment.
"In the construction of the world's important talent centers and innovation highlands, young scientists have attracted much attention. When some world talent centers are in the'catch-up stage', their main scientific and technological talents are not too old, such as: Italy, 35 to 45 years old; Britain, 36 to 45 years old; Germany, 41 to 45 years old..." Wang Communication, former president of the Chinese Academy of Personnel Sciences, pointed out that young and middle-aged scientists account for a certain proportion, and the "stay force" for scientific and technological innovation is sufficient. This is a country with talents. The key to sustainable development.
2. How can they
"Mathematics is a very pure subject. If you are sleepy, just do the questions and immediately refresh yourself." Yan Wenjiao loves the profession straightforwardly, and it is this pureness that gives her the courage to break the ice.
In the past two years, her new goal is to generalize the results of "Singshen Chen conjecture" to any number of dimensions.
How difficult is it?
The predecessors extended the result calculation to four-dimensional and six-dimensional at most.
But she is not in a hurry, let alone giving up, because the secrets under the "iceberg" are really fascinating.
"If there is a blockage, let it go temporarily, often turn it out to'chew', and make progress bit by bit." She hits steadily, the problem is solved gradually, and her academic path has opened up a lot.
"Love allows you to overcome many difficulties." Chen Yan, a professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering of Tianjin University, devoted himself to institutional research and once sat on a "cold bench."
"I worked in Singapore many years ago. As the institutional studies are based on theoretical research, the project funding is not much, so it is very difficult to stick to it." However, she did not expect that due to in-depth research in this field, she would go to the international market a few years later. stand out.
When she first returned to China, many people came to Chen Yan with engineering projects, but she said: “Without a basic theory, there is no source of innovation. Rather than being similar to others, it is better to continue to cultivate and maintain characteristics.” In 2015, Chen Yan introduced a brand new one. The theoretical model solved the problem of thick plate origami, and the results were published in the journal Science.
Today, she often "persuades" the best students to study the basic theory, and strives to attract more "live water" for source innovation.
Recalling the scene where the Yuanyuan Wuyuan superconducting 6-bit quantum computer was officially released, Guo Guoping, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China, was very excited.
In 4 months, 50 people, using the "7×12" (7 working days a week, 12 hours a day) working method, he and his colleagues completed the construction of the operating system, application software, and cloud platform.
For the common goal, a group of people from different disciplines such as physics, computers, microelectronics, and network security collaborated with each other and twisted together like a rope to promote the successful launch of the first domestically-made superconducting quantum computer cloud platform system.
At the busiest time, "Everyone sits in front of the computer and doesn't move. "Seeing the sun" has become an extravagant hope."
There is a long way to research, and there are often frustrations.
How to go against the trend?
Professor Zhang Xian of the School of Electrical Engineering of Hebei University of Technology has his own experience-"It is normal to encounter upsets. After a breakthrough, there may be unexpected gains."
According to published academic papers, the longest transmission distance of mid-range wireless charging can reach 2 meters, and his goal is to break through 5 meters and reach 10 meters.
But after a while, the experiment ran into a "blocking tiger", which seemed to have reached the limit of transmission distance.
He and the team did a lot of analysis and comparison from the perspectives of circuits, magnetic fields, energy, and materials, but they couldn't find the reason.
A few days later, another experiment.
The transmitter coil of the wireless charging system suddenly ignited, and a 5 cm high ion flame emerged.
They hurriedly checked and found that the measuring range had been increased.
This seemingly mistaken operation allowed Zhang Xian to find that the power transmitted by the wireless power was increased and it was completely loaded on the coil.
After solving the sparking problem, the test was repeated, and the result proved that the transmission effect was two steps higher than before.
The unresolved problem was finally solved.
"Academy is really an'addiction' thing" "Scientific research is like'mining', as long as the direction is correct and the method is appropriate, even if the cycle is longer, sooner or later, there will be results." ... More heartfelt voices converge into a song of youth, Fly towards the light.
3. How to cultivate more "them"
It was the first time that Professor Zhu Youyong went to the deep mountains of Lancang County to do research. Huang Huichuan found that he had brought a hoe. He couldn't help but feel a little curious. Would the academician go to the ground himself?
Unexpectedly, when I got out of the car, the instructor picked up the hoe, squatted the ground, squatted down, picked up a bit of soil and smelled it, and put it in a bag and returned to the laboratory like a treasure.
This scene impressed Huang Huichuan very deeply.
In future scientific research, he inherited this habit.
Zhang Xian once had trouble with a set of data: three identical experiments, three different results.
After the tutor Professor Yang Qingxin learned, he asked the students to work together in the laboratory until the early morning, "the next day he still has a lot of school affairs and meetings to deal with."
The mentor's guidance made Zhang Xianmao stop, and after improving the data, a new conclusion was confirmed.
"Personality and knowledge are equally important. People with good moral character do not care about immediate benefits, and more people are often willing to cooperate. This is a higher level of'gain'." Yan Wenjiao realized from his tutor Professor Tang Zizhou that "gains and losses" Outlook": Don't fall into square inches, take a long-term view.
Mentors or scientific research guides are vital to the growth of young talents in terms of academic attainments, teacher ethics, and educational thoughts.
Wang Communication believes that the "tutorial system" is one of the important models for the cultivation of scientific and technological innovation talents, and "can promote the overall development of students' academic and personal development in academic inheritance."
Chen Jin, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, believes: “If young people can get the guidance of the older generation of experts within 10 to 20 years after graduation, the significance will be very far-reaching.” He cited two examples: One is Zhejiang The School of Energy Engineering of the University pays attention to the integration of old, Chinese and young people, encourages transmission and leadership, strengthens interdisciplinary integration, school-enterprise integration, and Sino-foreign cooperation, and enhances the ability of talent echelon building; first, Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear Energy and New Energy Technology concentrates advantages and team research , Bring out teams in larger projects, let young people board the broad platform, take the lead and play the leading role.
The funding and support of the unit to the youth is also very important.
At the beginning of returning to China, Chen Yan’s college gave her a "reassurance": without a ready-made laboratory, the college took the initiative to coordinate; personal research funds were temporarily unable to be available, the college temporarily loaned her to meet the need for "starting work immediately" , "Do not let people, money, and material become constraints."
Years of scientific research experience also makes Chen Yan often think: an excellent academic group should be good at tapping the expertise of different talents, removing bad habits such as seniority, eagerness for quick success, etc., gradually weakening the personal identity label, and focusing on stimulating the creative enthusiasm of most people.
Policy support is keeping up.
In recent years, my country has set up special projects such as the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Talents and the "Young Talents Support Project". The policy orientation of supporting young talents has also been highlighted in many project applications and awards and evaluations.
According to the information on the official website of the Ministry of Science and Technology, among the first batch of key special projects launched in the "14th Five-Year Plan" in 2021, 43 special projects have established young scientist projects, accounting for about 80% of the first batch of key special projects initiated in the "14th Five-Year Plan". It is planned to support more than 230 teams of young scientists.
In this regard, Chen Jin believes that it is necessary to set up cross-disciplinary and cross-field research teams to meet the major needs of the country, fully release the creative enthusiasm of young people, make breakthroughs in the discovery of scientific principles or the development of multi-technology aggregation, and promote original theories and technologies. Keep producing.
(Reporter Li Xiao)
(Project team: reporters Li Xiao, Yang Xuedan, Jin Xiaoyan, Chang He, Chen Jianqiang, Jin Haotian)