Chapter 473: Two Major Directions
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“That’s everyone?”
Lu Zhou looked at the empty conference room; he wasn’t used to something like this.
When he did his report at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the venue was so crowded that people couldn’t get into the lecture hall; they had to sit in the hallways.
But now, when he looked around, he only saw around 20 people in the conference room.
He even knew some of them.
Like Brother Qian, Liu Bo, etc…
“There aren’t many formal researchers in our inst.i.tute. I thought you might want to say some confidential stuff, so I didn’t invite the temporary researchers and research a.s.sistants,” Yang Xu said while he looked at Lu Zhou awkwardly. He then immediately added, “How about I notify them now?”
Lu Zhou was stunned. He then smiled and said, “No need, it’s fine. Everyone sitting here is the backbone of the research inst.i.tute, and I only have a few things to say.”
He plugged in the USB into the projector and turned it on.
Once the projector screen behind him was pulled down, he cleared his throat and adjusted his demeanor.
“You guys might have already heard that the controllable nuclear fusion project is set in Jinling.”
When Lu Zhou said this, there was a commotion in the conference room. The researchers all looked at each other in surprise and shock.
Even though they had heard some rumors before, that type of hearsay was obviously less shocking than Lu Zhou’s in-person confirmation.
If anyone else said they wanted to research some state of the art technology like controllable nuclear fusion, they would be laughed at.
However, it was different for Lu Zhou.
Not only did he solve the world-cla.s.s Navier–Stokes equation problem, but he also established a mathematical model for the plasma turbulence phenomenon using the L Manifold.
When their G.o.d-like boss said he wanted to engage in nuclear fusion, even though the researchers sitting here had never even seen a stellarator, they still naturally believed in their boss.
However, what confused them was why did Lu Zhou have to talk about this here?
After all, the Inst.i.tute of Computational Materials wasn’t a plasma physics laboratory; their research was focused on materials science and had nothing to do with controllable nuclear fusion.
However, Lu Zhou’s following words answered the question that was on everyone’s mind.
“… Some people might ask, ‘what does this have to do with us?’. After all, you guys have a chemical engineering background and chose materials as your development direction. And even though some of you studied condensed matter physics before, it has nothing to do with plasma and nuclear engineering.
“However, breakthroughs in energy technology is inseparable from advancements in materials technology. We need a larger magnetic field to constrain the erratic plasma. We also need a more secure first wall to withstand the light and heat from the fusion reaction.”
Lu Zhou looked at the researchers and paused for a second. He then began to talk about his main point.
“Our future research will be focused on two major directions. One is the field of superconducting materials. Like what I said, we need to engineer a more concise material that has a lower superconductivity temperature. This is to strengthen our magnetic field.
“The other is heat-resistant materials. We need to build a first wall that is resistant to high temperatures and can block the plasma that escaped from the magnetic field.
“Right now, we have made some progress on the side of the superconducting materials. At the MRS meeting, the SG-1 superconducting material reached a superconductivity transition temperature of 101K. Among other superconducting materials, this number isn’t anything special. However, the plasticity of graphene gives us great potential for further research.”
Lu Zhou showed a list of technologies required for controllable nuclear fusion on the PowerPoint behind him.
These were all problems known to the public; the known bottlenecks of controllable nuclear fusion.
He was a one-man army. He couldn’t solve all of these problems by himself. The best way was to split a big research project into smaller research projects and then delegate the small research projects to his research team.
And he would choose some of the more difficult problems to conduct research on.
In fact, many Chinese research inst.i.tutes used a similar model when trying to conduct a major research project.
For example, an academician received an eight-figure yuan project funding. The academician then split that project into many seven-figure or six-figure level projects, which he delegated to scholars in the Changjiang Scholars Program. If the project couldn’t be split further, then Changjiang Scholars would delegate the work to lower-ranking Jie Qing scholars. It was like building the entire project out like a pyramid…
Of course, this was an inaccurate comparison. After all, in the academic pyramid, whether it was the Changjiang Scholars or the Jie Qing scholars, they were all considered top experts by average researchers. Differences could only be seen by comparing experts among experts.
However, there was no dispute on who would be at the bottom of the pyramids. That naturally would be the noob researchers, and they would be given the most tiring job.
Lu Zhou looked at the pairs of eyes in the conference and paused for a second.
“If we succeed, we will give benefits to the country, the people, and even our entire human civilization. This value cannot be measured with any monetary currency.
“I know this isn’t a project that can be done overnight, and every step of the way will be full of difficulties.
“But I am confident that we will overcome these difficulties!
“We will all try our best together!”
…
The conference ended.
Liu Bo was holding his conference notes and muttered to himself, “Controllable nuclear fusion… Do you think this stuff is reliable?”
Qian Zhongming: “What do you mean by reliable?”
Liu Bo: “Including everyone, there are only a hundred people in our research inst.i.tute and that includes the undergraduate students that just came from Jin Ling University. There are only 20 formal researchers. Did you see the research project on the PowerPoint? Just the human resources part alone is making me worried.”
Qian Zhongming didn’t reply to his question. Rather, he asked, “Other than our boss, how many n.o.bel Prize winners are there in Chinese academia?”
Liu Bo was stunned; he didn’t know why he was asked this question.
“Academician Yang, Old Tu… Mo Yan?”
Qian Zhongming: “I’m talking in the academic community.”
Liu Bo: “Then there’s only two.”
Qian Zhongming then asked, “How many are still on the frontier of scientific research?”
Academician Yang was already 95 years old. Even though he had cultivated many talented Chinese physicists and put forward many constructive opinions for the Chinese physics community, he had clearly moved away from the frontier of scientific research.
Old Tu was the same, she was already 87 years old. She was already at the age of retirement, and she was enjoying her life. Regardless of whether or not the elderly woman was still doing scientific research, it was unrealistic to expect someone that old to produce any significant research results.
Liu Bo pondered for a bit and said, “… I think it’s only G.o.d Lu.”
“Yeah,” Qian Zhongming nodded and said, “so do you think a lack of research talents will be a problem for him?”
If the n.o.bel Prize winner’s research inst.i.tute wanted to hire people… then the researchers in the entire country or even the entire world would be running toward that inst.i.tute, and they would be trying their best to squeeze their way in.