Transcription
Professor, how are you enjoying life here in Tsinghua? Have you got used to your life moving to China already?
It. You love it?
It. Everything is easy, easy to order things online.
Oh, really? Groceries easy to pay. Are you enjoying like food delivery or order things online? I don't know.
I, I like, I like food delivery. I like ordering groceries online. They arrive on time.
Yes, to your door.
To my door, and they've been picked very carefully and they look good. So, I enjoy that a lot. Chinese supermarkets have a lot of different vegetables. I enjoy that a lot. Life here is really wonderful. I mean, people are nice. Uh, things are easy to do.
Mhm.
The thing that strikes me the most is that whenever you approach someone with a task, they're actually looking to help.
Yes.
Actually carry out the task.
Very helpful and supportive.
They're really more help-minded and also they want to get to the to the solution.
Uh-huh.
And I love that. I love that about dealing with others. I think in, in, in my life, I've met people who are constantly saying, "This is not going to work," and "That's not going to work." And you give them a task, and all they can do
Is no, no, no.
12 reasons why it shouldn't work.
Mhm.
While others say, "You know what? Let me, let me give it a try. Let me try this. Let me try that." Trying to figure out a way of getting it done. I think that this is so important to have not just in our culture but also in, in the work, in the workplace. You need people who are going to get the job done. And to get the job done, to get the job done, you need somebody that says, "Let me try. Let me see what I can do."
Professor, joining or starting over at a new institution, especially after winning a Nobel Prize, I believe it's a major option or major decision for you personally, professionally. So, what prompted you to make this big decision?
It wasn't a single thing that prompted me. I was taught by my mentor in the US and by my own father to always break away from the norm. Do new things so that you can learn new ways of doing things. What better way to learn new things than to go to a completely new culture? Learn how that culture thinks, how people solve problems, and in the meantime, exercise my love for chemistry. That over the years in the US, I've always had, as I said, 15 different nationalities. And I've dealt with Chinese students in my lab all of the time, almost from day one.
Right.
And quite honestly, they are truly inspiring to me because, because they are able to face hardship in the experiment and still sustain their interest, still maintain their experiment, the intensity of their experiments, the intensity of thinking about it and learning. And in the end, this has always led to great discoveries. So, so it seems like I have the great, a great combination here where the molecules are calling me again to do more and do better and never stop.
Mhm.
And I have perhaps the very talent that could get me there fast.
Well, Professor, you have Chinese students and you work closely with the Chinese scholars as well. So, is there some common qualities that really impressed you?
I think that they are willing to try and try again and again until they succeed. And in the world of experimentation and science, an experiment that works the first time around is not a very good experiment. Okay, but experiment that really means something where you're learning is, is, is when you are not getting what you want from the experiment. Repeated, repeated failures. And in this repeated failure, learning, but also it requires a very courageous mind to come to the lab every day to fail and fail and fail and fail. That persistence is absolutely necessary in science. Obviously, you need to have the skill, the scientific skill. But I would say that among the Chinese students, I find a higher proportion
Mhm.
Of students who are willing to carry out this path and ultimately succeed.