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8.6

Intellectuals

The Intellectual

In the early morning of August 4, 2024, local time in the United States, Tsung-Dao Lee (November 24, 1926 - August 4, 2024), a world-renowned scientist and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, passed away in San Francisco, USA.

We are publishing here a commemorative article from the CUSPEA Scholars Association, as well as an article written by "The Intellectual" on the occasion of Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee's 95th birthday.

In Memory of Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee

I was shocked to learn of the passing of Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee and was deeply saddened!

Mr. Li is a physicist with great international prestige. In 1957, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics with Mr. Yang Zhenning for proposing the non-conservation of parity, becoming the first Chinese to win the Nobel Prize. More than 40 years ago, at the beginning of China's reform and opening up, Mr. Li Zhengdao, with the support of Deng Xiaoping, Yan Jici and other central and Academy of Sciences leaders, initiated the "China-US Joint Training Physics Graduate Examination Program" (CUSPEA). In that era when everything was in ruins, he overcame many difficulties and opened up a channel for Chinese students to study in American universities. This forward-looking ice-breaking move opened the door to "going out", which has important historical achievements and historical significance, and also changed our destiny.

From the launch of the CUSPEA project to its end in 1988, nearly a thousand students went to North America to receive first-class graduate education and training in ten years. The CUSPEA students of that year have now become leaders and elite backbones in many fields, working in well-known universities and research institutes at home and abroad, and becoming outstanding leaders of enterprises. Among them, 15 scientists have become academicians in China, Europe, the United States, Canada and other places, about 300 people have held positions or become Fellows in various international scientific and technological organizations, more than 100 people have won various international science and technology awards, and there are more than 400 successful high-tech inventors and entrepreneurs. It can be said that CUSPEA is a monument in the history of new China's foreign science and technology and talent exchanges, and has written a strong stroke in the history of China's reform and opening up.

Mr. Li worked hard for the development of science and technology in his country and made great contributions. He not only initiated the CUSPEA program, but also established the postdoctoral system and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under his initiative. He also played an important role in promoting the signing and renewal of the China-US Science and Technology Cooperation Agreement, especially the cooperation between China and the United States in the field of high-energy physics.

Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee's strong sense of patriotism and the spirit of "science belongs to all mankind" he advocated are timeless and admirable, and they are an example for us to learn from forever.

Mr. Tsung-Dao Lee will live forever!

——Tang Chao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Director of the Interdisciplinary Science Department of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and President of the CUSPEA Scholars Association

Tsung-Dao Lee: Dedicated all his efforts to cultivating talents for the motherland

Although they had not seen each other for 22 years, Zhu Guangya and Li Zhengdao recognized each other at first sight.

It was September 19, 1972, when Tsung-Dao Lee and his wife returned to their homeland after 26 years away. Zhu Guangya had received a notice earlier and went to the airport to meet them. When they parted, they were both in their 20s, but when they met again, they were nearly 50 years old.

In the spring of that year, Nixon made a historic visit to China, sending a strong signal of easing Sino-US relations. Lee expressed his desire to return to China to visit Zhou Peiyuan, then chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, through the American Association for Science and Technology, and received quick approval from Premier Zhou. During his first visit to China, Lee's schedule was very full. He stayed for a month and a half, visited many places, and met many of his former teachers and friends.

Atomic bomb, not learned

In 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, shocking the world. Hua Luogeng, Wu Dayou, and Zeng Zhaolun were commissioned by the Nationalist government to take several young people to the United States to study atomic bomb-related technologies.

When Zhu Guangya graduated and stayed on as a teaching assistant, he was 21 years old; Li Zhengdao was only a sophomore in the Department of Physics, only 19 years old, but "had already shown extraordinary talent in physics, and was highly praised by teachers and admired by classmates." The young Li Zhengdao was also selected to study in the United States, which became a rare opportunity in his life.

Figure 1 Tsung-Dao Lee’s student years at Southwest Associated University (from left to right in the photo are Lou Ge, Tsung-Dao Lee, Ye Ming-han, and Lu Zu-yin).

In the summer of 1946, Hua Luogeng, Tang Aoqing, Wang Ruiyi, Sun Benwang, Zhu Guangya and Li Zhengdao set off from Shanghai on a cruise ship. After two weeks of sailing, they arrived at the west coast of the United States. After arriving, they learned that the United States would not open up its atomic bomb technology to other countries. In addition, the situation of the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in China took a sharp turn for the worse, so the inspection team had to disband and each went their own way.

Zhu Guangya went to the University of Michigan with Wu Dayou. He returned to China soon after completing his doctorate in the fall of 1949. At the age of 35, he was nominated by Qian Sanqiang to serve as the leader in China's nuclear weapons technology development. Later, he was awarded the "Two Bombs and One Satellite" Medal of Merit.

Decades later, recalling this past event, Tsung-Dao Lee said, "Of the people Chiang Kai-shek sent out to learn how to make atomic bombs, only Guangya was a party member. When he returned to China, he made atomic bombs. Choosing me was a mistake. I did not learn how to make atomic bombs, but only worked in the field of pure theoretical physics. The other people also did not make atomic bombs."

After arriving in the United States, Li Zhengdao, who only studied for two years as an undergraduate, had the honor of becoming a student of the physics master Fermi (E. Fermi) at the University of Chicago. His academic ability improved by leaps and bounds, and he won the Nobel Prize at the age of 31 (becoming the second youngest winner of the Physics Prize at the time of the award), which had a profound impact on many fields of physics.

Figure 2 On December 10, 1957, Tsung-Dao Lee accepted the Nobel Prize in Physics medal and certificate awarded by King Adolf Gustaf VI of Sweden.

Zhou Guangzhao once said that Tsung-Dao Lee's research field "almost covers all areas of theoretical physics" and "his important influence and many works that can be written into textbooks can be seen in the most cutting-edge fields of theoretical physics at different times." S. Drell, former president of the American Physical Society, also said, "Looking at the various fields of physics, it is difficult to find a place without Tsung-Dao Lee's footprints. His sharp physical intuition and superb ability to solve difficult problems have made lasting and clear contributions to the development of physics."

Obviously, Li Zhengdao's "superb ability to solve difficult problems" is not limited to the field of physics. When he returns to China, he will use his wisdom to help Chinese science recover from its ruin.

The most worrying issue

The first stop of the visit was Shanghai, the birthplace of Tsung-Dao Lee.

In the war, he only attended elementary and middle school for a few years. In 1941, the Japanese invaders occupied the Shanghai Concession. The 15-year-old Li Zhengdao went to the rear area to study alone. He traveled through Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou, suffering from malaria, dysentery, scabies, and famine.

At the age of 17, Li Zhengdao was admitted to Zhejiang University with equivalent academic qualifications. He studied under physicist Shu Xingbei at Yongxing Field in Meitan, Guizhou. At the age of 19, he went to Kunming and entered Southwest Associated University as a sophomore transfer student. After only one year at the Associated University, he boarded a ship in Shanghai to the United States.

Unexpectedly, it has been 26 years since we last saw each other.

Figure 3: Li Zhengdao’s mother, Li Zhangmingzhang (left), Li Zhengdao when he was 14 years old in Shanghai (center), and Li Zhengdao’s father, Li Junkang.

In his hometown, the reception staff arranged for them to visit the Shanghai Industrial Exhibition Hall, Jiangdi Tunnel, Children's Palace, Steam Turbine Factory, People's Commune and other places, watch the modern revolutionary Peking opera "Ode to the Dragon River" and the ballet "White Haired Girl", and visit Fudan University and the East China Institute of Applied Physics. Li Zhengdao donated the latest computer and two integrated circuits he brought with him, as well as 22 valuable cultural relics of his father-in-law Qin Mengjiu to the motherland.

Their next stop was Beijing, the capital of New China.

Before being received by Zhou Enlai, Li Zhengdao was asked to meet with Zhang Wenyu and others from the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Beijing Hotel where he was staying to discuss an academic issue. The institute had just obtained an example of ultra-high energy interaction using a large magnetic cloud chamber at the Yunnan Cosmic Ray Experiment Station at an altitude of 3,200 meters, and believed that it might be a new heavy particle.

The Institute of Atomic Energy was the predecessor of the Institute of High Energy Physics, which was established on February 1, 1973. Just one month before Tsung-Dao Lee arrived in Beijing, 18 researchers from the First Department of the Institute of Atomic Energy, led by Zhang Wenyu, wrote to Premier Zhou Enlai, pleading with 300 scientific and technical personnel from the Second Ministry of Machine Building to leave the Institute of Atomic Energy and establish the Institute of High Energy Physics to conduct preliminary research for the construction of an accelerator.

The letter mentioned that since "withdrawal from the Soviet-led Dubna Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in 1965, except for the Yunnan Cosmic Ray Observatory which can barely operate, high-energy physics experiments have been almost blank, and high-energy physics research has relied on foreign experimental data... Because no one has been in charge for many years, it is very difficult for us to carry out any experimental work: there is little funding, lack of laboratories, materials and equipment cannot be purchased, and there is no number for processing. Under such circumstances, high-energy physics had to be sidelined, most comrades had nothing to do, and people's hearts were uneasy."

Premier Zhou quickly replied, saying, "This matter cannot be delayed any longer. The Academy of Sciences must focus on basic science and theoretical research, and at the same time combine theoretical research with scientific experiments. High-energy physics research and preparatory research on high-speed accelerators should become one of the main projects that the Academy of Sciences should focus on."

Figure 4 On October 14, 1972, Zhou Enlai met with Tsung-Dao Lee (left) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

During the meeting at the Great Hall of the People on October 14, Premier Zhou asked Li Zhengdao in detail about the "discovery" of the Yunnan Cosmic Ray Observatory, saying that he would report it to Chairman Mao, so the questions had to be clarified.

In a discussion with Zhang Wenyu and other members of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Lee believed that the probability of misjudging the so-called new particle ten times heavier than the proton was much greater, perhaps close to one percent, and it was difficult to call it a "discovery" in this case. Now that the Prime Minister had personally inquired about it and had to report to Chairman Mao, Lee felt that the matter was of great importance.

He was worried that his true opinion "whether it would bring unfortunate consequences to his colleagues who were working hard on cosmic ray research in the high mountains of Yunnan." After learning that domestic scientific magazines had ceased publication and the observation results had not yet been published, Lee immediately suggested whether the publication of the Chinese Physics Journal could be resumed and the results could be published in Chinese with an English abstract.

The Prime Minister's personal concern deeply touched Tsung-Dao Lee.

On the one hand, although general academic research was almost completely halted at the time, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong’s personal inquiries showed that "they attached importance to the achievements in basic science and high technology"; but on the other hand, such an error in probability calculation would not be unknown to Chinese scientists, so why did no one point it out?

"The fundamental problem here may be that in 1972, the previous atmosphere of free academic exchange had been abolished by the Cultural Revolution." Li Zhengdao later recalled, "From the 1950s to the first half of the 1960s, China already had a strong team of scientists capable of producing two bombs and one satellite, but by the early 1970s, it was on the verge of collapse. If it continues like this, the older generation of scientists will not be able to be protected, let alone the training of the younger generation of scientists? Therefore, how to help the motherland build a new, young team of scientific workers is the issue that I feel most deeply and worry about the most after returning to China in 1972. I have repeatedly considered this issue concerning the successors of the Chinese nation's scientific and technological cause and how to solve this major problem, and strive to do my best to make some contributions to the country in solving this problem."

Is science less important than ballet?

Figure 5 On October 1, 1972, the 23rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tsung-Dao Lee and his wife Hui-yi Qin attended the National Day Garden Party at the Summer Palace in Beijing.

What he saw when he returned to China in 1972 made Li Zhengdao worried about China's future. However, two years later, he found that the situation had not improved and was even worse.

"In 1974, when we visited Fudan University again, I found that they had completely lost the little hope they had. The only research work I saw at Fudan University was to measure the power of a few large light bulbs. The vast majority of students did not study at school, but went to the countryside to work, that is, to serve the people. There were only a few workers, peasants and soldiers at Fudan University. From their conversations, I found that although they were very enthusiastic, they lacked understanding of the most basic common sense of science and were almost completely illiterate. They had no opportunity to learn, and they did not know what they needed to learn. In this way, how could they serve the people?"

During his second return to China in 1974, organizers arranged for Tsung-Dao Lee and his wife Hui-yi Qin to visit a ballet troupe, but the two were in no mood to do so as they saw that the entire country was on the verge of collapse.

Qin Huiyi mentioned to Li Zhengdao that Jiang Qing had sat next to her at the last dinner where the Premier met with her and praised the training of young members of the Shanghai Ballet Company. The wife's words stimulated Li Zhengdao like a flash of lightning, and made him think of a "breakthrough" for his advice - since the ballet members praised by Jiang Qing did not have to work, why not science?

After visiting the Shanghai Ballet School, Mr. and Mrs. Tsung-Dao Lee learned that these young students only worked on the campus for one hour every morning, and the rest of the time they were in training - if they worked in the countryside for four years, they would not be able to train again when they came back.

That night, Tsung-Dao Lee wrote "Some Thoughts after Visiting Fudan University". After arriving in Beijing, he asked his good friend Zhu Guangya to read it and then submit it to Premier Zhou.

On May 24, Li Zhengdao was again received by Premier Zhou in the Great Hall of the People. Unlike the last time, this time there was a large crowd, including the "Gang of Four" Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and their "thug" Xie Jingyi.

During this "unusual" meeting, Tsung-Dao Lee and the Gang of Four had a heated debate.

Li Zhengdao proposed that basic scientific talents, like ballet talents, should also be trained from a young age and continuously. Under the repeated criticism of Jiang Qing and others, Li Zhengdao asked, "Is science less important than ballet?" "In modern times, no country's success can be separated from science and technology."

The fallacies of Jiang Qing, Xie Jingyi and others were not worth refuting, but except for Tsung-Dao Lee, many scientific researchers and managers present remained silent and did not speak even when called upon.

After the meeting, Premier Zhou said that the article written by Li Zhengdao would be sent to Chairman Mao for review, and the suggestions made could also be tested. Jiang Qing still insisted: "If the experiment fails, should we try again?"

Li Zhengdao recalled, "After that meeting, I felt very complicated. Regarding basic science and talent training, it was originally a very simple question, and the answer was also very obvious. No one could change the correct understanding with sophistry and rhetoric. However, under the political situation in China at that time, even Premier Zhou could not give a positive answer, which shows the seriousness of the problem."

Despite strong opposition from the Gang of Four, Tsung-Dao Lee did not intend to give up.

A week later, on May 30, during a meeting with Mao Zedong, in addition to discussing the symmetry of interest to both sides, Li Zhengdao once again proposed that at least the education of outstanding young students should continue and be valued. Mao Zedong agreed. After that, Li Zhengdao's proposal was handed over to the University of Science and Technology of China for implementation. Four years later, USTC established a junior class. Subsequently, many universities across the country also established similar junior classes.

Recalling this period, Li Zhengdao once said that the proposal at that time was mainly aimed at cultivating basic scientific research talents. In view of the political situation at that time, in order to make the proposal more easily accepted, he proposed "whether it is possible to 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 to go to universities for training. It can be seen that the actual purpose of my proposal is 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 will be put on the right track."

But since there was a "Junior Class", Tsung-Dao Lee tried his best to help. For example, two students in the "Junior Class", Gan Zheng and Xie Yanbo, both went to Princeton to study for a doctorate in physics. Xie Yanbo's mentor was the famous condensed matter physicist Anderson, but the two did not get along. At that time, a Peking University student shot and killed a professor in the United States. Anderson felt threatened and asked Tsung-Dao Lee for help. Tsung-Dao Lee met with Xie in person to discuss the matter until he sent him back to China. The same was true for Gan Zheng. Tsung-Dao Lee spent a lot of energy to help him solve the problem and eventually sent him back to China.

Although the junior class of HKUST has been controversial for more than 40 years, it is the product of a special historical period after all, and it has produced some talents, so it seems that there is no need to blame it. Many of the practices of the junior class in gathering talents and cultivating them have been borrowed and imitated by many similar undergraduate training programs later.

Work that is more important than winning a Nobel Prize

In response to the complex situation at the time, the Chinese government creatively found a "breakthrough" in talent training, which was also reflected in the China-United States Physics Examination and Application Program (CUSPEA) proposed by Tsung-Dao Lee in 1979.

Figure 6 On April 18, 1979, at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsung-Dao Lee gave a lecture in the Science Hall of the Beijing Friendship Hotel and had discussions with his classmates during breaks.

In the spring of 1979, taking advantage of the situation in China that had just begun to improve, Tsung-Dao Lee gave remedial lessons to nearly a thousand young people from 33 scientific research institutions and 78 colleges and universities. Even senior scientists such as Zhu Guangya, Liu Da, Zhao Zhongyao, Zhang Wenyu, Zhu Hongyuan, Hu Ning, and Zhou Guangzhao came to listen to his lectures. Tsung-Dao Lee got up at three o'clock every morning, spent six hours preparing for his lessons, lectured for three hours in the morning, and held discussions in the afternoon. He had lunch with the audience twice a week and exchanged ideas. In this way, he taught graduate students physics classes from morning to night for nearly two months.

Talking about the CUSPEA project, Tsung-Dao Lee said, "I was extremely worried when I saw the serious crisis of talent shortage in our country. I deeply felt that in order to speed up the training of scientific and technological talents in our country, it was far from enough to just hold lectures and make up lessons in China. From my own growth experience, I deeply felt that we must create opportunities for systematic learning and development for a group of young people in our country as soon as possible, especially to enable them to go to the world-class research institutes and universities in the United States for systematic learning. This is a long-term plan for cultivating talents and it is also my unshirkable responsibility. It was for this consideration that I designed this unique and temporary CUSPEA project in 1979."

What was the situation of China’s scientific and technological talents when the CUSPEA project was implemented?

In fact, China had not awarded doctoral degrees until the implementation of the new degree regulations in 1981. In 1907, Li Fuji became the first Chinese to obtain a doctoral degree in physics in the UK; in 1914, Li Yaobang became the first Chinese to obtain a doctoral degree in physics in the United States. Before 1949, there were 165 Chinese who obtained doctoral degrees in physics; from 1949 to 1978, only a handful of Chinese (in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries) obtained doctoral degrees in physics; after the 1960s, only a few people obtained doctoral degrees in physics in Western European countries.

The old generation of scientific and technological workers, who were already few in number, are gradually getting old and dying, while the new generation of students are busy "going to the countryside" and lack basic education, let alone impacting the forefront of world science.

There are no teachers and no students. To continue the lifeline of Chinese science and catch up with the world as soon as possible, the fastest way seems to be to send young people abroad, wait for them to return after completing their studies, and then bring back the spark of science.

But going abroad was not easy at that time.

In 1979, China had just started reform and opening up, and the college entrance examination had only been resumed for two years. Overall, it was still very closed, with tight finances and limited channels for going abroad. More importantly, although the Cultural Revolution had ended, its influence was still there, and many people were resistant to or even afraid of studying abroad. There were no TOEFL and GRE exams in China, and the graduate school admission procedures in the United States were incompatible with the situation in China.

Tsung-Dao Lee once again demonstrated his superb problem-solving ability.

Starting in the spring of 1979, Tsung-Dao Lee bypassed the normal graduate student admissions process in the United States and directly contacted the physics departments of various universities. He also organized written tests and interviews in China, creating a new, temporary, fair and effective channel for studying abroad. With the support of domestic institutions and 97 universities in the United States and Canada, 915 people were selected and admitted in ten years, and the United States was guaranteed to cover all the nearly 100 million US dollars of funding for these people before they graduated with their doctorates.

Surprisingly, Tsung-Dao Lee personally did all the coordination work, which was so huge and complex.

"In the United States, all the organizational and coordination work for implementing CUSPEA, including sending letters to universities in the United States and China three times a year, filled several mailboxes in and around Columbia University. The post office protested to me because it hindered the normal sending and receiving of other mail. Therefore, my wife Qin Huiyi and my assistant Ms. Irene Tramm had to push a cart to nearby and distant post offices to send mail. The details of each round of student applications, the cost of each student's study in the United States, and even the trivial matters of their study and life while studying in the United States, were all done and implemented for each student one by one by my wife Qin Huiyi and my assistant Ms. Irene Tramm."

Li Zhengdao once said that these matters took up roughly one-third of his time and energy every year in the past ten years. Li Zhengdao also often personally helped CUSPEA students solve all the big and small matters of their study and life in the United States. He was called their "chief parent."

Figure 7 Tsung-Dao Lee and others celebrate the successful implementation of CUSPEA. The female student in the middle is Li Zhaoping, on the left is Tsung-Dao Lee, and on the right is Marvin L. Goldberger, president of the California Institute of Technology.

When the CUSPEA project was established, it was clearly stipulated that students must return to their home countries after completing their studies. Therefore, the visa to the United States was not a J-1 visa, which does not allow working in the United States. Sino-US scientific and technological exchanges were almost interrupted, and Tsung-Dao Lee was also under pressure. He was attending an international conference in Beijing at the time, and after the meeting he insisted on personally sending each foreign friend to the airport; after returning to the United States, he also earnestly explained to the international students and advised them to have confidence in their motherland.

"At that time, some international students quarreled and made trouble with Mr. Li, and some even made up some groundless rumors to slander and attack Mr. Li. Mr. Li remained unmoved and insisted on explaining for our country on various occasions," recalled physicist Gan Zizhao.

"Among the students in the CUSPEA program, there were a very small number of ungrateful and disrespectful students. In order to stay in the United States, they participated in spreading rumors and slandering Professor Zhengdao. Ren Canghai and Pang Yang (both doctoral students supervised by Li Zhengdao) stood up to fight back. Professor Zhengdao was of course very angry, but besides being angry, what he was most worried about was the scientific and technological exchanges between China and the United States. He still tried his best to promote the continuation of scientific and technological exchanges between China and the United States. Under the special circumstances at the time, he proposed the 'Returning Home Visit Program for Young Overseas Scholars' to allow some students in the CUSPEA program to return to China for academic exchanges." said Liu Huaizu, who was deeply involved in the CUSPEA project.

A friend in need is a friend indeed. Recalling that difficult period, Zhou Guangzhao said:

"For a period of time, the West imposed "sanctions" on my country, interrupting many aspects of communication with us, including exchanges in science and technology, which made our socialist construction, especially scientific and technological development, encounter very great difficulties. At this time, Zhengdao stepped forward again. When he met President Bush Sr., he explained to President Bush the importance of Sino-US relations and the necessity of maintaining cooperation between the United States and China based on his personal experience. As a result, the cooperation between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the US Department of Energy was not interrupted, and the annual meeting of the Sino-US High Energy Physics Cooperation Conference was held in the United States as usual in the autumn of that year. At the same time, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the US Academy of Sciences continued to maintain contact. Zhengdao also overcame many difficulties and organized young Chinese students who were studying and working at the forefront of science and technology in the United States at that time to return to China for short-term academic exchanges. In this way, domestic scholars learned about the research at the forefront of international academics, and the general public abroad learned about the real situation in China, which produced very good results. The role played by Zhengdao at that time was invaluable."

Under the influence of CUSPEA, similar study abroad programs were established in biology and chemistry, which played a positive role in alleviating the country's talent shortage. Li Zhengdao once said that CUSPEA was very meaningful, even more than winning the Nobel Prize.

Attract and retain talent

Since 1983, Chinese students who were sent abroad in the early days of reform and opening up have returned home with doctoral degrees. At the same time, after China resumed the degree system in 1981, some students also began to obtain doctoral degrees. How to attract these talents to return to China, continue to receive training, and then conduct independent scientific research has become a very urgent matter.

Figure 8 On April 15, 1979, Deng Xiaoping met with Tsung-Dao Lee and his wife to discuss the issue of sending high-energy physics researchers to study in the United States.

In March 1983 and May 1984, Tsung-Dao Lee wrote to Chinese leaders twice, suggesting the establishment of a postdoctoral system and a mobile station. On May 21, 1984, Deng Xiaoping met with Tsung-Dao Lee to listen to his suggestions.

Li Zhengdao explained to Deng Xiaoping that to truly do research, one must train oneself to find directions, methods, and results, which is inseparable from postdoctoral training. At the same time, postdoctoral fellows can also participate in or undertake major scientific research projects and can choose research topics based on their expertise and hobbies. At the same time, he also mentioned that the CUSPEA project, which began in 1979, has also been carried out for four sessions, and about 400 doctors will return to serve China one after another. "How to properly arrange their work so that they can continue to develop and grow into high-level scientific and technological talents needed by China is a very urgent issue." Li Zhengdao proposed to build more than a dozen postdoctoral mobile stations.

Deng Xiaoping immediately stated that a dozen or so mobile stations were too few, and that hundreds or thousands should be established to form a system for training and using scientific and technological talents.

In order to overcome the difficulties in the mobility of scientific and technological talents and the phenomenon of inbreeding caused by staffing and housing restrictions, Tsung-Dao Lee personally designed and collaborated with relevant units to properly solve specific issues such as postdoctoral research funding, housing, staffing, wages, household registration, family arrangements, and welfare benefits.

For example, in his second meeting with Deng Xiaoping on July 16, 1985, Tsung-Dao Lee hoped that the annual daily expenses of each postdoctoral fellow would be increased from the original 8,000 yuan to 12,000 yuan. Deng Xiaoping immediately said that it was settled. For another example, Tsung-Dao Lee proposed in 1989 that the Postdoctoral Science Fund be formally established in 1990. In 1994, due to the reform of China's foreign exchange management system, the foreign exchange owned by the Postdoctoral Science Fund faced the problem of all foreign exchange settlement. He wrote to then Premier Zhu Rongji, pleading to retain the Foundation's foreign exchange account, and the problem was resolved.

Figure 9 In May 1990, upon the suggestion of Tsung-Dao Lee, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation was established.

Gong Ke, former president of Nankai University, who was one of the beneficiaries of this system, recalled, "As a university leader, looking back at the postdoctoral system from the perspective of school development, I have a different view. At the 2002 meeting, I said that postdoctoral fellows are very important for Tsinghua University to build a world-class university and for Tsinghua to absorb nutrients and fresh air from different schools. This is not just a matter of having more people come to Tsinghua to do scientific research, but a process of bringing different research styles and different academic insights into Tsinghua. From this point of view, the postdoctoral system is of great significance to Tsinghua and to the breakthrough and development of a long-term relatively closed and even inbred system of higher education in China."

Attracting and cultivating scientific talents also requires the support of scientific research funds. Before the 1980s, China not only had a lack of young and middle-aged research teams, but also had a very scarce scientific research fund.

In 1981, 89 academicians wrote to the central leadership, suggesting the establishment of a natural science fund for basic research across the country to give full play to the role of scientists in allocating basic research resources. These suggestions were affirmed, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences began to implement the science fund in 1982.

Figure 10 On May 27, 1992, Tsung-Dao Lee delivered a scientific report at the 10th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

At this time, Tsung-Dao Lee actively collected information about natural science foundations in some developed countries and provided it to domestic leaders for reference. On July 3 and July 12, 1985, he wrote to Deng Xiaoping twice, proposing the establishment of the National Natural Science Foundation of China; in the interview on July 16, 1985, Tsung-Dao Lee once again stated the importance of establishing the National Natural Science Foundation.

"I think that from the perspective of attracting outstanding Chinese scientists from abroad to return to China, many people abroad will become leaders in the science and technology community in the next ten or twenty years. This is the motherland's wealth. To attract them back, one of the important ways is to increase investment in basic scientific research. For domestic scientific talents, we must encourage them to do innovative work and also have the support of funds," said Tsung-Dao Lee.

Regarding the design of the Natural Science Foundation, Tsung-Dao Lee also put forward specific suggestions, such as the fund should be used entirely for basic scientific research and applied basic research in natural sciences; the committee must have a strong academic awareness and must be independent, giving power to scientists, and there cannot be an administrative agency above it to manage it, otherwise it will be difficult to make a fair evaluation; the head of the committee must be a first-class scientist with personal experience and comprehensive understanding of basic science and applied basic science; attaching importance to and strengthening basic research and applied basic research is a long-term idea, and the policy cannot be changed frequently and must be stabilized.

Deng Xiaoping agreed, saying that this was a new thing, so we should start working on it first. Then, in February 1986, the National Natural Science Foundation of China was established, and Tsung-Dao Lee served as an honorary consultant. Tang Aoqing, the first director of the foundation, proposed the review principles of "relying on experts, promoting democracy, supporting the best, and being fair and reasonable", which have been implemented to this day.

For the source of living water

The National Natural Science Foundation of China mainly funds basic research. In fact, since returning to China in 1972, Tsung-Dao Lee has repeatedly discussed the importance of basic research, reminding that without the source of basic research, there will be no advanced scientific and technological applications. In the mid-1980s, he first coined the metaphor of "water, fish, and fish market" to illustrate the relationship between basic, applied, and development research, and he often mentioned it afterwards.

Among the three types of research, basic, applied, and development, basic scientific research with original innovation characteristics is extremely important. Li Zhengdao repeatedly emphasized the leading role of basic research in "moving one move to the whole body" -

"As a nation with a long history and culture, we must contribute to the development of mankind and cannot take a negative attitude towards basic scientific research. The idea of ​​waiting is definitely wrong. If we just wait blindly, once a new scientific discovery is made, we will definitely fall behind others. Scientific research is like the waves in the ocean, one wave after another. When a wave reaches its peak, its next step must be to fall, and then a new wave will come out. Therefore, if you only see that other people's waves are high, you will blindly follow them, but you don't look for new waves that will become huge waves. As a result, other people's waves go down and they go to do something else, and you are still following others. In this way, you will never develop, prosper, or lead. If you want to develop, you must find new waves yourself, see where the new waves start, and before it reaches its peak, it is best to catch it when it is just about to start and make it reach its peak."

Li Zhengdao himself is a model of original research. According to his doctoral student Pang Yang's recollection:

"Mr. Li likes to read detective novels, and also reads a lot of literature, history, and art books. He seems to never read physics books or physics literature. Mr. Li usually communicates and discusses with others a lot. He said that most people spend a lot of time studying what others are doing, which makes it difficult to make breakthroughs. They just take a small step on the basis of others. He taught me that the most important thing when communicating and discussing with others is to find out what the other person does not understand, rather than to learn what others have already done. Only in this way can you get ahead of others."

This was clearly a true lesson from Fermi. When Fermi died, people cleaned up his office and found no academic journals or books on physics, except for his own manuscripts and classification cards. His physics knowledge was all taught to him by others, and his inspiration often came from verbal exchanges and discussions at academic conferences and other occasions.

For a long time, many people have often underestimated the role of basic research, thinking that it is of little use to economic development.

In a letter to Deng Xiaoping on July 12, 1985, Tsung-Dao Lee put forward a fundamental view on how to achieve "quadrupling the gross national product" -

"If Chinese products are only of higher quality and lower price than foreign products, I am afraid that it will still not be able to make exports exceed a certain upper limit. Because in order to protect their own products, countries will impose restrictions on Chinese goods, and this upper limit may be much lower than what the motherland needs to quadruple. To double this second time, we must have a stronger and more sophisticated scientific and technological team. One possibility is that it would be best to have a variety of cutting-edge high-tech products with a large foreign market, which only China can make and other countries cannot make. Just like from the 1950s to the present, the United States has almost monopolized the world's computer market. However, in order to make this possible in the future, we must continue to attach importance to and strengthen basic and applied basic sciences. We cannot ignore investment in this area, and we must pay attention to cultivating and developing talents in this area. Compared with the technology of applied development, the investment in this area is small and has a long way to go. However, the investment in this area seems to be much less than that of general developed countries. Therefore, it must not be reduced any further. To achieve quadruple, it is still necessary to increase it appropriately so that it can develop together with applied development and production and balance each other."

Cultivate talents step by step

Figure 11 Tsung-Dao Lee holds the slide rule that his mentor Fermi made together with him to measure the temperature of the sun.

In addition to increasing investment, the development of basic science must also rely on talents. How to cultivate talents is also what Li Zhengdao has always been concerned about. He combined his own experience and observation of the development of science and put forward many suggestions.

He believes that "scientific achievements come from young people, a new generation of talents, and a new technology. There will be no exceptions"; but it cannot be said that all young people are talents. To cultivate talents, it is necessary to create an environment for them, identify the direction, and seize time and opportunities. To cultivate talents, there must be good mentors, and mentors and students need to work closely together on research.

"To cultivate talents in basic science, it is necessary for mentors to set an example, and for teachers and students to conduct research and work together one-on-one. It is not enough to just buy a machine or watch a screen or record a video. These will not give you in-depth knowledge. What is more important is the accumulation of people, one or two days, one or two weeks, one or two years. My own growth experience, from Professors Shu Xingbei, Wu Dayou to Fermi, all cultivated me in this way. My growth experience well illustrates the importance of this way of cultivating talents." said Tsung-Dao Lee.

More than once, Tsung-Dao Lee recalled the stories of Fermi's personal training of him. For example, in a discussion, Fermi asked about the internal structure of the sun and asked Tsung-Dao Lee to tell him next week. A week later, Fermi asked what the temperature of the sun was. Tsung-Dao Lee said that according to the literature, it was about 10 million degrees. Fermi asked Tsung-Dao Lee to calculate it himself and not to follow blindly. So, the master and apprentice made a slide rule themselves. Fermi spent two days doing carpentry, and Tsung-Dao Lee calculated the logarithmic scale and pasted it on the slide rule. With this huge slide rule, Tsung-Dao Lee quickly calculated the temperature of the sun.

In response to the phenomenon that some supervisors do not conduct scientific research themselves, Tsung-Dao Lee said that the development of science and technology depends on personal practice.

“Some researchers in science and technology think that once they have secured funding, they can rely on their students or postdocs to do research and write articles. Even if such a researcher was a scientist, I think he will not only lose his interest and fun in doing research, but he may also become dishonest. Therefore, the scientists we want to train must be practitioners who can practice what they preach and constantly strive for self-improvement.”

Figure 11 The signing ceremony of the "Zhengzheng Fund" on January 23, 1998. The signatories in the photo are, from right to left, Qian Peide (President of Soochow University), Chen Jiaer (President of Peking University), Li Zhengdao, Yang Fujia (President of Fudan University), and Li Fashen (President of Lanzhou University).

Li Zhengdao himself is such a practitioner. He is grateful and respectful of Fermi's training of him, so he also guides graduate students step by step, spending half a day every week chatting with them and discussing any issues.

In the 1990s, Tsung-Dao Lee and his wife, Qin Hui-yi, were still busy with the country's science and education. Unfortunately, at the end of 1995, Qin Hui-yi was diagnosed with lung cancer, and her condition progressed rapidly. Tsung-Dao Lee accompanied her day and night by her bedside. At the time of farewell, Qin Hui-yi suggested that after her death, their personal savings be donated to establish scholarships to support young students, especially girls, to get involved in scientific research as early as possible. This was the "Qin Hui-yi and Tsung-Dao Lee Chinese Undergraduate Internship Fund" (abbreviated as "Tsung-Dao Lee Fund") established in November of the following year.

In 2000, Wu Dayou was critically ill. During his visit to Taiwan, Hsinchu National Tsing Hua University President Liu Jionglang, Dean of Academic Affairs Peng Zongping, Wu Maokun, and Professor Shen Junshan proposed to Tsung-Dao Lee that the "Tsing Hua University" could be accepted by the "Tsing Hua University" and be willing to raise funds on its own. Tsung-Dao Lee expressed his approval at the time and submitted their request to the Management Committee for discussion. In this way, Hsinchu National Tsing Hua University became the fifth member of the "Tsing Hua University", which effectively promoted the exchange of young students on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Ms. Irene Tramm, an assistant to Tsung-Dao Lee, worked for him from the time she graduated from college at the age of 23 until she died of cancer at the age of 65. After her divorce, she remained single, without relatives or friends, and was taken care of by Tsung-Dao Lee when she was sick or hospitalized. She donated all her life savings to the "Tsung-Dao Foundation", and after her death, her ashes were buried in China according to her wishes.

In terms of training undergraduates to do scientific research, the Junior Class and the “Zhengzheng Fund” are at the forefront. In 2009, the “Experimental Program for Training Outstanding Academics in Basic Disciplines” was established to answer Qian Xuesen’s question. These projects also influenced undergraduates’ exposure to scientific research.

All Chinese people are actually one person

Li Zhengdao's love for his motherland is not only about science and education. He donated money to his compatriots in the severe floods in the Yangtze River Basin in the summer of 1998, the NATO missile attack on the Yugoslav Embassy in May 1999, and the SARS epidemic in 2003.

After his wife Qin Huiqi passed away, Tsung-Dao Lee began to cook for himself. He remembered his mother's stewed meat made with the old family soup, but it was hard to find the recipe at that time. He went to the food store on the street, bought all the seasonings, added a little of each, and the soup he made was fragrant and delicious. In his later years, he lived alone. The trick to cooking was to buy a few pounds of various meats, such as beef, lamb, and pork, cook them together with the old soup, divide them into portions, freeze them in the refrigerator, and eat them with vegetables every day.

Since 2000, despite his advanced age, Tsung-Dao Lee still visits China two or three times a year to attend academic conferences and communicate with young students. It was only after 2010 that he returned less frequently due to health reasons, but he often expressed his friendship through video or letters.

After Lee retired in 2011, he donated his life-long research manuscripts, letters, Nobel Prize medals and other materials, as well as his collection of famous paintings, books and cultural relics to Shanghai Jiao Tong University to establish the Lee Library. He also donated a villa in Shanghai to Jiao Tong University. The Lee Institute, established in 2016, also hired Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek as its director, recruiting outstanding young talents from all over the world to promote cutting-edge research in physics.

Figure 13 In his later years, Tsung-Dao Lee moved to San Francisco and often strolled along the beach.

In October 2014, Tsung-Dao Lee left New York, where he had lived for 61 years, and moved to San Francisco to be closer to his children and grandchildren. He also often strolled alone along the beach of the San Francisco Bridge.

Tsung-Dao Lee once said that all Chinese people are actually one person. We are the largest person in the world, connected in spirit, just like a big tree. "Each of us is a branch of the same tree, and each tree is a part of the whole tree... The entire Chinese nation is one person, the largest person in the world, the largest person in history, and the largest person in the future."

He interpreted this sentence with his life.

His historic achievements in physics have already brought glory to the Chinese nation. His efforts over several decades to help Chinese science recover from its devastation, get back on track and gradually prosper are appreciated by countless descendants of the Chinese nation.

——The author of this article is Di Lihui

In 2007, Tsung-Dao Lee, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physics, was interviewed by the editor-in-chief of Nobelprize.org. Video source: Nobel Prize official website

The following video comes from

Thank you wholeheartedly

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Acknowledgements:

The author would like to thank Dong Jielin, distinguished professor of the School of Business at Soochow University and director of the Center for Enterprise Innovation and Development, Wang Zuoyue, professor of the Department of History at California Polytechnic State University, Pumona, and Liu Huaizu, former deputy director of the General Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former director of the Office of the Leading Group of the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider Project, for reviewing and making revision suggestions. Special thanks to the Tsung-Dao Lee Library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Image information provided by: Tsung-Dao Lee Library, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.