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"If you study physics carefully, you must enjoy life. Why bother with fame and fame?" In 2023, Tsung-Dao Lee exhibited his library on the 7th floor of the East Building of Shanghai Library. At that time, these two sentences were the "door" leading readers to the library. Today, these two sentences appear in the obituary commemorating him as a portrayal of his life.

On August 5, Shanghai Jiao Tong University issued an obituary stating that Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee, Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Chinese-American physicist, foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, lifelong director of the China Advanced Science and Technology Center, honorary professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and honorary director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, died at 2:33 a.m. local time on August 4, 2024 at his home in San Francisco, USA, at the age of 97.

In many fields such as quantum field theory, elementary particle theory, nuclear physics, statistical mechanics, fluid mechanics, astrophysics, etc., Lee Tsung-Dao continuously climbed to the peak of science and made "outstanding contributions"; in the development of China's science and technology education, Lee Tsung-Dao also made many contributions, such as facilitating the establishment of the "Junior Class" at the University of Science and Technology of China, setting up CUSPEA (China-US Joint physics graduate student recruitment program), proposing the establishment of postdoctoral and National Natural Science Foundation systems, setting up the China Advanced Science and Technology Center, proposing the establishment of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, and promoting China's basic research to focus on fundamental scientific issues.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, where the Tsung-Dao Lee Library and Tsung-Dao Lee Institute are located, has a deep connection with Tsung-Dao Lee. "I chose Jiao Tong University as a place to store my treasured scientific and artistic works, my life-long accumulated manuscripts and various manuscripts. Under your personal leadership and active promotion, the Tsung-Dao Lee Library was successfully built at Jiao Tong University... Your enthusiastic participation in activities such as the Tsung-Dao Lee Foundation and the Tsung-Dao Lee Science and Art Foundation has made these projects have an impact on Jiao Tong University and even the whole country, benefiting young people. Under your unremitting coordination and promotion, the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute was also formally established. I firmly believe that with your continued attention, it will surely become a world-class institute like the Bohr Institute and contribute to the cultivation of talents for the country." In 2017, Zhang Jie, who was regarded by Tsung-Dao Lee as a "friend regardless of age", was transferred from Shanghai Jiao Tong University to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Tsung-Dao Lee wrote to him, highly summarizing his story with Shanghai Jiao Tong University in recent years.

A reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) learned from Shanghai Jiao Tong University that, in fact, before Li Zhengdao was hired as an honorary professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1987, he had already developed a deep friendship with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which has lasted for more than 40 years.

As early as 1978, in order to enable the students and teachers of Shanghai Jiao Tong University to understand the latest developments in international physics, Tsung-Dao Lee donated three volumes of "Physics Lectures" and two volumes of physics exercises to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 1979, Tsung-Dao Lee visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University for the first time. During his visit, he donated an electronic computer to the Department of Engineering Mechanics and discussed the exchange of researchers and students. From 1980 to 1987, a total of 11 students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University went abroad for further studies through the CUSPEA program organized by Tsung-Dao Lee.

In 1987, Tsung-Dao Lee was appointed as an honorary professor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. At the appointment ceremony, he encouraged students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University to "maintain self-respect and self-confidence."

The Sino-US high-energy physics cooperation is one of the causes that Tsung-Dao Lee attaches the most importance to. It is also the earliest and longest-lasting cooperation project between the two countries since the reform and opening up. From 2003 to 2006, Academician Zhang Jie, then Director of the Bureau of Basic Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, served as the head of the Chinese delegation to the Sino-US high-energy physics cooperation talks. Under Tsung-Dao Lee's multi-faceted guidance, Zhang Jie promoted Sino-US cooperation and creatively solved many difficult problems in Sino-US scientific and technological cooperation. He was deeply trusted by Tsung-Dao Lee and was called "a close friend regardless of age" by Tsung-Dao Lee.

Since 2006, Zhang Jie has served as the president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which greatly enhanced Li Zhengdao's understanding of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 2009, Li Zhengdao was invited by Zhang Jie to visit Shanghai Jiao Tong University and was a guest at the school's inspirational forum. He gave a scientific report on the theme of "Using the language of heaven to understand the way of things" and had in-depth exchanges with teachers and students. A teacher from Shanghai Jiao Tong University recalled that the lecture hall at that time was "full of seats and the corridors were full of students."

IC data map of Tsung-Dao Lee Library

In 2010, after several "deep discussions" with Zhang Jie, Tsung-Dao Lee deeply agreed with the culture and talent training concept of Jiaotong University, so he decided to donate his manuscripts, medals, art collections and former residences that he had collected for many years to Jiaotong University to inspire future generations. Since 2011, Tsung-Dao Lee has donated various document manuscripts, Nobel medals, scientific and artistic works and real estate in Shanghai to Shanghai Jiaotong University free of charge. Zhang Jie, the then president, also made a special trip to Columbia University. After many communications, he got Tsung-Dao Lee's consent to use Tsung-Dao Lee's name to name the library that displays these precious gifts. In 2014, the Tsung-Dao Lee Library was officially completed at the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiaotong University.

As a wise messenger who advocates the integration of science and art, Tsung-Dao Lee personally puts scientific ideas into practice and collaborates with many top Chinese artists to integrate them into artistic creation, leaving behind many masterpieces with rich connotations and meaningful meanings. In 2013, Tsung-Dao Lee and Zhang Jie agreed to establish a permanent fund project, the "Shanghai Jiao Tong University Tsung-Dao Lee Science and Art Lecture Fund", with a donation from Tsung-Dao Lee to help Shanghai Jiao Tong University build cross-disciplinary disciplines and cultivate new talents with the concept of "integration of science and art".

Teachers of Shanghai Jiao Tong University displayed the 2021 New Year greeting card drawn by Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee. Photo provided by the interviewee

It is worth mentioning that, later, some teachers and students of Shanghai Jiaotong University received New Year cards drawn by Tsung-Dao Lee himself for several consecutive New Years. "He is indeed a wise messenger who practices the integration of science and art." A teacher of Shanghai Jiaotong University expressed his feelings to the reporter.

In order to commemorate his wife, Ms. Qin Hui-yi, and to allow undergraduate students to get in touch with scientific research and active scientists as early as possible, Tsung-Dao Lee used his personal savings to establish a permanent fund project in 1998, the "Qin Hui-yi and Tsung-Dao Lee Chinese Undergraduate Internship and Further Education Fund" (abbreviated as "Tsung-Dao Lee Fund"). In 2013, Shanghai Jiao Tong University joined the Tsung-Dao Lee Fund, with the goal of "cultivating scientific research elites and leaders with global vision and innovative thinking". In ten years of operation, it has successfully cultivated 325 Tsung-Dao Lee scholars. In 2015, Tsung-Dao Lee personally wrote letters to various Tsung-Dao Lee universities, moving the Tsung-Dao Lee Fund Management Committee's supporting units to Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The first version of the Tsung-Dao Lee Fund Management Committee website was also independently designed and developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University students.

In 2016, at the suggestion of Tsung-Dao Lee, the Party and the State supported Shanghai Jiao Tong University to establish the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, which aims to make breakthroughs in fundamental scientific issues and cultivate world-class master-level talents. The institute aims to become a world-class scientific research institution and promote China's basic research to focus on fundamental scientific issues. At the end of 2021, Tsung-Dao Lee asked Zhang Jie to serve as the director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute to continue to promote the construction of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute.

Today, from the PandaX dark matter and neutrino detection device at a depth of 2,400 meters in Jinping, Sichuan, to the JUST spectroscopic telescope at an altitude of 4,300 meters in Lenghu, Qinghai, to the construction of a 3,500-meter deep-sea neutrino telescope in the South China Sea, Hainan... the scientific research footprint of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute has reached the sky and the earth, bravely exploring unreached places, and has achieved many groundbreaking scientific research results.