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2024.08.05

Word count: 2604, reading time: about 4 minutes

Introduction"Science talents can also be cultivated from an early age, just like arts and sports. We can refer to the method of recruiting and training ballet dancers, and select a very small number of teenagers around 13 or 14 years old who have the conditions for training from all over the country and send them to universities for training."

Author |First Financial News Qian Tongxin Jinyezi

On August 5, a reporter from China Business News learned that the first Chinese Nobel Prize winner, Tsung-Dao Lee, passed away at the age of 98. Professor Pan Jianwei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, forwarded a mourning article for Tsung-Dao Lee in his WeChat Moments, and wrote: "Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee will live forever."

Tsung-Dao Lee was born in 1926 in Shanghai, China, and his native place is Suzhou, Jiangsu. He is a full professor at Columbia University, a Chinese-American physicist, and a Nobel Prize winner in physics. He is famous for his contributions to parity non-conservation, the Lee model, relativistic heavy ion collision (RHIC) physics, and non-topological soliton field theory.

Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning jointly proposed the proposition that parity is not conserved in weak interactions. After experimental verification, the two jointly won the Nobel Prize in Physics and the Einstein Science Award in 1957. To this day, there are only six Chinese who have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Li Zhengdao has been away from his parents since he was a teenager. He has been displaced and suffered many hardships in the war for many years. He made a physics discovery that shocked the world in his early 30s. 50 years ago, he suggested that science talents should be cultivated from an early age, laying the foundation for the establishment of the "Junior Class" at USTC. He also single-handedly promoted the China-US Joint Training Program for Physics Graduate Students (CUSPEA), allowing nearly a thousand Chinese students to study physics in the United States.

The most accomplished generation in the history of Chinese physics

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, due to practical factors, the students studying abroad mainly majored in engineering, law, politics and business, so it was still difficult to develop a scientific career in China. Among the many disciplines, physics was the most representative.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first generation of physicists began to study physics abroad and engaged in physics teaching after returning to China. At this time, the academic tradition of modern physics in China had been initially formed, and achievements had been made in fields such as X-rays and nuclear physics.

In the intergenerational relationship of modern Chinese physicists, Tsung-Dao Lee can be counted as a third-generation physicist (not strictly speaking). When Tsung-Dao Lee entered university in 1943, the first two generations of physicists who had studied abroad had already provided valuable academic resources and research environment for the growth of young students such as Tsung-Dao Lee. Laying a good foundation in China and learning from famous teachers abroad, physicists including Tsung-Dao Lee, Chen-Ning Yang, Qian Xuesen, and Deng Jiaxian became the most accomplished generation in the history of Chinese physics.

According to an article published by the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in May this year, Tsung-Dao Lee was not only talented in theoretical physics, but also thirsty for knowledge. When he was at Southwest Associated University, he often went to his mentor Wu Dayou's home to ask questions or ask for difficult problems. Later, Wu Dayou simply gave him a textbook used by senior undergraduates in the United States. As a result, Tsung-Dao Lee solved all the problems in less than two weeks, which surprised Wu Dayou. This talent and thirst for knowledge became an important reason why Wu Dayou later recommended Tsung-Dao Lee to study in the United States.

However, since the beginning of his studies, Tsung-Dao Lee did not have good experimental conditions. When he was at Zhejiang University, he often conducted experiments in dilapidated temples. Wu Dayou summarized this period of history and believed that one of the reasons for the slow development of Chinese physics research was that most people abroad studied experimental physics rather than theoretical physics. After returning to China, these scholars were restricted by practical conditions and could not give full play to their talents. Therefore, Chinese physics during this period was faced with insufficient theoretical level and was restricted by practical conditions.

Source: Tsung-Dao Lee Institute official website

50 years ago, the emphasis was placed on cultivating talents in basic sciences

Pan Jianwei once said: "If Mr. Yang Zhenning and Mr. Li Zhengdao proved that Chinese people can do good 'science' abroad, then we have now proved that Chinese people can also do good 'science' at home."

Tsung-Dao Lee has made great efforts to promote basic research in physics in China. He is also the earliest advocate of the "Junior Class" of USTC. In an article "Suggestions on Cultivating Basic Scientific Talents" published in May 1974, he proposed: "Science talents can also be cultivated from an early age like art and sports. We can refer to the method of recruiting and training ballet dancers, select a very small number of teenagers around 13 or 14 years old who have the conditions for training from all over the country, and send them to universities for training."

This suggestion laid the foundation for the famous "Junior Class" of USTC. In 1975, USTC implemented Li Zhengdao's plan and prepared to establish a science middle school. However, due to changes in the situation at that time, this plan was not completed. Until 1977, the society's expectations for rapid talent training increased day by day, and a group of students were admitted to universities by exception. However, there were still some students who were too young to enter the university directly. USTC decided to open a preparatory class based on the model of the science middle school as a temporary solution to accommodate these students. On March 8, 1978, the preparatory class opened. A few days before the opening of the school, the preparatory class was renamed the "Junior Class".

Li Zhengdao later recalled: "The actual purpose of my proposal was not to set up a junior class, but to break the situation of not paying attention to the cultivation of basic scientific talents and other types of talents, so that the cultivation of various types of talents in the country can be put on the right track."

In 1979, Tsung-Dao Lee was invited by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to give lectures at USTC. He found some outstanding graduate students and wanted them to study abroad for further training, so he asked the Department of Physics at Columbia University to give these students a standard test for admission to the department's graduate school, which opened the chapter of the Sino-US Joint Physics Graduate Entrance Examination Program (CUSPEA).

From 1980 to 1988, this project enrolled a total of 915 students to study in the United States, of which USTC accounted for 27%. Li Zhengdao later said: "I deeply feel that CUSPEA is meaningful and valuable. In some ways, it is more meaningful than my work on parity non-conservation."

At the end of 2014, Tsung-Dao Lee suggested establishing a world-leading scientific research institution similar to the Bohr Institute in Denmark in Shanghai to conduct cutting-edge scientific research in physics and astronomy, search for the connection between the largest and smallest in the universe, explore the most basic and profound laws of interaction in nature, and make China's contribution to the progress of human civilization.

In November 2016, the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute (hereinafter referred to as "LII") was officially established at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In September 2017, Professor Frank Wilczek, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, became the first director of the LII. In November 2021, Professor Zhang Jie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, became the second director, and Professor Frank Wilczek became the chief scientist of the LII. After several years of construction, three major research directions have been formed: astronomy and astrophysics, particle and nuclear physics, and condensed matter physics, and scientific research teams have been established in each research direction.

Zhang Jie recalled his first meeting with Tsung-Dao Lee in an interview with Caixin, and said that Lee talked with him about China's future, which left a deep impression on him. Later, under Lee's guidance, Zhang Jie served as the head of the Chinese delegation to the Sino-US high-energy physics talks. The little details of Tsung-Dao Lee's way of dealing with people also influenced Zhang Jie's working style, and the two became close friends regardless of age. Now Zhang Jie follows Lee's instructions and leads the entire institute to build the Lee Institute into a world-class frontier basic research institution.

Zhang Jie recently told Caixin in an interview that during the first five-year construction period, Li completed the construction of a building located in the core area of ​​Shanghai Zhangjiang Science City, formed three major research directions: astronomy and astrophysics, particle and nuclear physics, and condensed matter physics, and established scientific research teams in each research direction.

He said that the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute is currently leveraging the advantages of the big science research paradigm and focusing on fundamental scientific issues. "The entire institute is conducting in-depth exploration around the 'origin and evolution of matter under extreme cosmic conditions' in the hope of achieving major breakthroughs. The institute has completed the '2035 Development Plan for the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute' and hopes to form a 'Shanghai School' of basic research within three five-year periods and build a world-class basic science institute with significant academic influence by 2035."

WeChat Editor| Rainforest