But in the past two years, Li Yong's name has been increasingly associated with the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)".
In 2020, the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope passed the national acceptance and officially opened for operation. Yi Lee's appearance on CCTV's Everybody Talk brought the story behind the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)" and the development of astronomical science to the audience. Not long ago, Li Yong also appeared in the hit program Future China.
In addition to being the "chief scientist of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)", Li Yong's own scientific research career is equally wonderful.
"Chief scientist of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)", this position is not qualified by any one person.
But Li Yong's evaluation of himself is simple: an inflexible person.
The reason why he said this is actually a little chat with his brother when he was studying at Harvard University. Chatting and chatting, the two found that they were both the only people in their respective classes who were still doing pure scientific research.
The so-called "pure science" is relative to "applied science". In specific research, exploration and discovery are the main methods.
Li Yong University majored in nuclear physics. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, many students majoring in physics later transferred to engineering, Internet and other majors that were more closely related to practical applications, more advanced and more profitable. People like Li Yong who have always insisted on the field of physics have become a minority.
And Li Yong's "intransigence" has become one of the most precious qualities of his achievements.
In 2000, Yi Lee entered Cornell University in the United States, majoring in astrophysics and radio astronomy, and pursuing a doctorate. After graduating from Ph.D., he successfully entered the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States as an astronomer. Later, he had the opportunity to work as a researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA and the California Institute of Technology.
During this period, Li Yong's microwave satellite team detected oxygen in interstellar molecules for the first time. Li Yong also innovated the observation method of cosmic hydrogen. His latest observation method-"neutral hydrogen narrow line self-absorption" method is the only reliable method to measure the total abundance of atoms in molecular clouds at present.
On 20 10, Li Yi's team won the excellent team award of NASA for its research contribution to the far-infrared heterodyne receiver of Herschel telescope. He himself became the only scientist born in China among the winners.
It is these past experiences and achievements that made him approach the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)" step by step.
At the beginning of this year, at the press conference of the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Li Yong announced a series of important scientific achievements after the opening and operation of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST). For example, they found the largest sample of fast radio burst events so far, revealing the complete energy spectrum and bimodal structure of fast radio bursts for the first time.
However, at the beginning of the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)" project, Li Yong and his team partners had to face difficulties that many people could not imagine.
Li Yong first joined the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) as a part-time job. It was in 2008, and he was still working in the United States, and he made great achievements in the field of American radio astronomy.
However, with the deepening of cooperation with the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)", an increasingly clear idea appeared in Li Yong's mind: the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)" is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and people in this field are fortunate to participate in such research and personally participate in the construction.
With this in mind, Li Yong submitted his resignation to NASA at that time, and returned to China on 20 12 to devote himself to the construction of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST).
Since then, nearly one-third of the time every year, Li Yong has been "lost" in the mountainous areas of Guizhou.
Life in the mountains is certainly not as good as that in the city. As one of the engineers, Li Yong has to do everything.
At the beginning of the project, he moved bricks, planted trees and lived in a leaky house. Endure a Life Without Hot Water and Toilets In addition to these, ........................................................................................................................................... has to endure the generous "gifts" from the mountains: amazing insects and wild snakes that appear from time to time. ......
But after persistence, Li Yong felt that everything was worth it.
In addition to a series of research results obtained after the official operation of the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)", the technical bottleneck it broke through in the construction process also promoted the development of domestic engineering technology. For example, the anti-fatigue cable net technology and cable net engineering management of the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST) have been applied in the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.
However, for Li Yong and many scholars in related fields, aiming the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)" at the universe is still their main work direction. For example, the seemingly sci-fi search for extraterrestrial civilization is part of their daily work.
In the description of extraterrestrial civilization in science fiction works, there is always a sentence "Don't answer". However, it is meaningless to put the same question into reality, which is too entangled to answer. Li Yong believes that from the perspective of technology itself, large-scale radio signals generated by human activities have been launched into space, and may even have flown out of the solar system, which can be received by extraterrestrial civilizations (if any).
In this case, through the 500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST), every minute we learn more about space, we gain more confidence in examining space.
Perhaps this is the so-called feeling and motivation of scientists who have made great efforts to build the "500-meter spherical radio telescope (FAST)".