Annual summary (2019)
Dear All,
In Chinese culture, an animal year (ben ming nian) is a year of fate, in which we are advised to wear red underclothes in order to keep spirits away, so to avoid bad lucks. The year of 2019 is my year of animal. When I was about to celebrate yesterday on completing year of the pig, I was reminded not yet, for it’s the lunar year, still twenty-five days ahead. Hahaha. I am not sure if red color could scare away any spirits, but sure it scares away real human beings, in particular if it’s on an old man’s.
1, Double duties (双肩挑): I have many friends in the Mainland on double duties. I often heard their complaints being too busy over the years, some at the cost of friendships. I have now understood better. Long live understanding! Basically, it’s two jobs for a single pay. I admire those so successful on multiple duties, yet still sending warm messages during the holidays.
2, Popular science (科普): There has been a trend for young people to move away from science to business. Science is to print money, while business is to count money. Counting is easier than printing. The problem is if no printing, what to be counted? I have spent great efforts over the past two years trying to reverse the trend, promoting natural sciences, in a total of over 130 high schools and universities. I know it’s more or less like Don Quixote’s attack on windmills in the stories of Miguel de Cervantes, fighting in vain. However, my observation is that idealists are happier than realists in life. I just wanted to be happy.
3, Research (科研): It’s still in my blood. There are three components in research: support, training, and publication. It’s been an excellent year of research supports, with grand opening of the lab, major team grants, industrial projects, planning of the institute and joint labs, all at a level unprecedented. Training was good too. Two PhD (Yuan Gao from MAC and Yanyu Jia from ZJU) and one Master (Lijun Liu from MAC) graduated. The current group in Shenzhen has grown to a size of twenty-six with half in the category of postdoctoral fellows. While support the strongest and group size the largest, the publication was somewhat shy. For the first time over twenty years, it’s fewer than ten. It’s because of downsizing at MAC and setting up the new lab in Shenzhen. It’s an end of the old period and a start of the new period. In the new period, the multi-disciplinary research on smart materials for book shelves and industry-oriented development on high end polyolefins for goods shelves are emphasized. I am confident that with the support and manpower, a big surge of research outcomes is anticipated in the coming years.
4, Song of chemical engineering (化工之歌): Chemical engineering is an excellent discipline. However, it suffered a poor reputation because of plant explosions and chemical leaks. Public blamed a lot and young people turned away. The question is if the human society could get rid of it. Absolutely not. No chemicals no lives. Public needs to be educated. Chemical engineers also need to be better trained. My first sole-authored paper written in Chinese, The Song, was published in 化工学报. The paper received ca 70,000 reads, most by chemical engineers, attesting the resonance of colleagues in the discipline.
5, Student affairs (学生事务): No matter if the animal year thing is about culture or about superstition, it serves good to exercise cautions. It is absolutely essential in doing student affairs. With thousands of young people (plus 2x, 4x or Nx thousands of parents and great parents behind), the responsibility and due diligence are real. Thanks to dedication and experience of colleagues, the year of 2019 was accomplished.
6, External affairs (外事): Universities are for students. There are two lifelines: admission as in and placement as out. It’s like product manufacturing: raw material selection (admission), product making (training), and sale (placement). Every step is important, but most visible is the sale. External affairs help to serve sale. Fortunately, the sale has been good, attesting the quality of product and the effort of staff colleagues. To serve the sale, I visited tens of universities in North Europe, North America, and Northeast Asia in the past three months.
In summary, the year of 2019 was good. The year of 2020 will be better. I have the confidence.
Shiping Zhu
January 2, 2020
In Chinese culture, an animal year (ben ming nian) is a year of fate, in which we are advised to wear red underclothes in order to keep spirits away, so to avoid bad lucks. The year of 2019 is my year of animal. When I was about to celebrate yesterday on completing year of the pig, I was reminded not yet, for it’s the lunar year, still twenty-five days ahead. Hahaha. I am not sure if red color could scare away any spirits, but sure it scares away real human beings, in particular if it’s on an old man’s.
1, Double duties (双肩挑): I have many friends in the Mainland on double duties. I often heard their complaints being too busy over the years, some at the cost of friendships. I have now understood better. Long live understanding! Basically, it’s two jobs for a single pay. I admire those so successful on multiple duties, yet still sending warm messages during the holidays.
2, Popular science (科普): There has been a trend for young people to move away from science to business. Science is to print money, while business is to count money. Counting is easier than printing. The problem is if no printing, what to be counted? I have spent great efforts over the past two years trying to reverse the trend, promoting natural sciences, in a total of over 130 high schools and universities. I know it’s more or less like Don Quixote’s attack on windmills in the stories of Miguel de Cervantes, fighting in vain. However, my observation is that idealists are happier than realists in life. I just wanted to be happy.
3, Research (科研): It’s still in my blood. There are three components in research: support, training, and publication. It’s been an excellent year of research supports, with grand opening of the lab, major team grants, industrial projects, planning of the institute and joint labs, all at a level unprecedented. Training was good too. Two PhD (Yuan Gao from MAC and Yanyu Jia from ZJU) and one Master (Lijun Liu from MAC) graduated. The current group in Shenzhen has grown to a size of twenty-six with half in the category of postdoctoral fellows. While support the strongest and group size the largest, the publication was somewhat shy. For the first time over twenty years, it’s fewer than ten. It’s because of downsizing at MAC and setting up the new lab in Shenzhen. It’s an end of the old period and a start of the new period. In the new period, the multi-disciplinary research on smart materials for book shelves and industry-oriented development on high end polyolefins for goods shelves are emphasized. I am confident that with the support and manpower, a big surge of research outcomes is anticipated in the coming years.
4, Song of chemical engineering (化工之歌): Chemical engineering is an excellent discipline. However, it suffered a poor reputation because of plant explosions and chemical leaks. Public blamed a lot and young people turned away. The question is if the human society could get rid of it. Absolutely not. No chemicals no lives. Public needs to be educated. Chemical engineers also need to be better trained. My first sole-authored paper written in Chinese, The Song, was published in 化工学报. The paper received ca 70,000 reads, most by chemical engineers, attesting the resonance of colleagues in the discipline.
5, Student affairs (学生事务): No matter if the animal year thing is about culture or about superstition, it serves good to exercise cautions. It is absolutely essential in doing student affairs. With thousands of young people (plus 2x, 4x or Nx thousands of parents and great parents behind), the responsibility and due diligence are real. Thanks to dedication and experience of colleagues, the year of 2019 was accomplished.
6, External affairs (外事): Universities are for students. There are two lifelines: admission as in and placement as out. It’s like product manufacturing: raw material selection (admission), product making (training), and sale (placement). Every step is important, but most visible is the sale. External affairs help to serve sale. Fortunately, the sale has been good, attesting the quality of product and the effort of staff colleagues. To serve the sale, I visited tens of universities in North Europe, North America, and Northeast Asia in the past three months.
In summary, the year of 2019 was good. The year of 2020 will be better. I have the confidence.
Shiping Zhu
January 2, 2020