▌Introduction to the author
Peng Huisheng graduated from Donghua University with a bachelor's degree in polymer materials in 1999, Fudan University with a master's degree in polymer chemistry and physics in 2003, and Tulane University in the United States in 2006. Graduated from Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering University. In October 2006, he joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy and began to engage in independent research. In October 2008, he returned to Fudan University and is currently a professor, doctoral supervisor, and deputy director of the Department of Polymer Science. , Principle Investigator (PI) in the Advanced Materials Laboratory. ?
To date, he has published more than 160 academic papers, of which more than 70 have been published in Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics, Angew Chem Int Ed, Adv. Mater., J. Am. Chem. Soc., Phys. Rev . Lett. and other 6 international authoritative academic journals. The research work has been reported twice by Science, five times by Nature, and 10 times by Nature sub-journals as "Research Highlights". Among them, in 2009 and 2011, it was twice rated as the monthly "Top Ten Research Highlights in the Asia-Pacific Region" by Nature Publishing House. It has applied for 73 international and domestic invention patents, of which 33 patents have successfully achieved technology transfer.
How important is the graduate level? "Science" had an exclusive interview, and I specifically used this opportunity to talk about how important graduate students are to a person's development. One thing they all recognize is that graduate school is a watershed that determines a person's future achievements. If you do well as a graduate student, it is likely that you will do very well in the future. There is a proverb in the West that I always recommend to students: excellence is a habit. You have done well as a graduate student, and you have done well as a doctoral student, and then you will continue to do well.
Everyone knows that the world’s first-class research results are completed in their twenties. Everyone thinks that people in their twenties are most creative, and then they are less creative in their thirties. I went out of my way to do some research, and I didn’t find that people in their twenties are the most creative. Finally, I found a quote from neuroscientist Mr. Pu Muming. He believes that the reason creativity declines with age is: the older you get, the more information you receive, and a large amount of information will constrain your creativity. It sounds reasonable, but if you think about it carefully, it doesn't seem to be the case. Because you need a lot of information to do anything, if the amount of information is small, it may not be conducive to your creative results. It seems that the relationship between age and creativity is not clear.
So, what is the reason why great successes are all achieved in their twenties?
?How to do very well as a graduate student?
?Why are graduate students important?
▌I think: When you start to engage in research work independently after graduation (usually at the professor level), most of your time will be occupied by projects, papers, and filling in various forms. In this way, you It is difficult to have enough time to think about your research problem. So, what I want to say is: at the postgraduate level, you can concentrate on one thing and think carefully about your research problem. There will not be so many chores to interfere with you, so you can make important achievements. research results. Therefore, the postgraduate stage is very important, and this is the first point I report.
▌The second point is what I have been thinking about, that is, what is the most important thing in graduate school? I think it's the ability to think independently. There are many examples in this regard. You can take a look at what Einstein said, "Instead of putting professional knowledge first, independent thinking and learning to work are more important." Hua Luogeng also made the same statement, "Scientific inspiration is not It came out of nowhere.” Whatever I want to do, I need to think about it myself. If you follow others, you can't do the best.
▌The third point is that I would like to talk to you about my experience as a graduate student, what I did well and what I did poorly, and give you some inspiration.
What I did well is worth learning from:
●? The first one is to work hard. I worked very hard as a graduate student and was very focused. The guy who locked the door in the leaping building is still here, you can check with him. He closes at 11pm every night and I am always the last person there. I am not necessarily the earliest one to go there in the morning, but I am also one of the earliest ones, and I am basically there on Saturdays and Sundays. This was basically the case when I was studying for a Ph.D. abroad. I had three Christmases, two without rest, and one when I was walking on the road and was called back by my boss. Basically, Christmas is all about work. But no pain, no gain.
?●?The second one is to read a lot of literature. You can do well by reading a lot to understand the background of your research.
?●?The third is to be thick-skinned and engage in extensive cooperation and exchanges. The platform in this area needs to be strengthened. When our teachers discussed it together, one thing that bothered us was that we finally invited experts to give reports, but not many students went to listen. In fact, it is not easy to invite experts to make reports. It takes time and money, and the people we invite are only those we consider worthy of being invited. When I was studying for a Ph.D. in the United States, I remember very clearly that once there was a report in the department, all the professors who had no classes would attend. As soon as I saw that the first two rows were full of professors, and then there were students behind them, everyone would take this time to listen to the report, and continue to do experiments after listening to the report. I feel that the atmosphere in our area is not strong enough. Of course, this is a subject issue. I feel that some reports are far from my direction. You don’t have to listen to general reports that are far from your own direction. But you still need to listen to master-level reports and listen to other people's methods of thinking about problems. If you think that others can achieve this level, they must have their own uniqueness, and different disciplines may be able to inspire you. In this regard, there are Many examples.
? ●? Fourth, when doing research and cooperating with others, do not worry about everything, suffer small losses, and take advantage of big things. Because it is difficult to be absolutely fair in anything, and there will always be a party that suffers a little bit in a cooperation. The most important thing for us is to consider how to do things well. Also, be thick-skinned, which will save you from detours. When I was a graduate student, I always actively asked questions. In the first year, the teacher thought it was very good and praised you a lot; in the second year, the teacher was still enthusiastic; in the third year, the teacher became afraid and said: "Don't ask me, I am busy now." But I feel like this My work efficiency is very high because my problems can be solved at any time.
The above is what I think I did well. What about the things I did poorly?
?●?First, the development goals are unclear. Sometimes I want to go to industry, and sometimes I want to go to academia. This won't work, because the focus of development will be different when you go to different places, which will waste a lot of your time and energy. In addition, my research direction also changed, sometimes this, sometimes that. In the end, although I did a lot of work, it was not deep enough.
?●?Second, development is not comprehensive. I have always attached great importance to doing experiments, because we are experimental science, but other aspects have not been developed enough, such as writing papers. Looking back now, the importance of writing a paper accounts for at least 50% of an article, which is more important than doing experiments. If you want to sell something, writing a thesis is very important. During the graduate school period, you should consciously develop your writing skills. And give reports, this is so important. As you all know, graphene won the Nobel Prize. The winner (Geim) had very average reporting skills when he was young. Later, he may often go out to give reports, and his reporting skills are very impressive. On the eve of winning the prize, he was invited to Sweden to give a report. report, and many of the subsequent evaluations by the awards committee came from his report. These abilities and habits need to be cultivated at the graduate level. If you cultivate them well, you will benefit a lot.
●?Third, lack of independent thinking. I feel that I am very bad in this area. Why is my research direction unclear? I did whatever the instructor asked me to do. I did a lot of work, but it wasn’t deep. The main reason is that I lack independent thinking and do not dig deeper. ?
Finally, I would like to briefly touch on the four aspects from your graduate school to graduate school for your reference.
1. Goal
Only when you have a clear goal in doing anything can you do it well. It is like shooting a target. If you go in the wrong direction, you will hit farther and farther away. Missed the target. What is the goal of graduate school?
Figure: Four stages of learning
I quoted a foreign professor’s statement that a circle is drawn here. Human beings are such a circle. The inside represents the known and the outside represents the unknown. In elementary school, you learned a little bit, in middle school you learned a little more, in college, you learned a little more, and then you had a professional direction. When you are a graduate student, you have to read a lot of literature, and you have to study this If you dig deeper in the direction, you have to come into contact with the most cutting-edge things in this major. This is the limit of what humans currently know.
So, what are you going to do as a graduate student? You must choose a point here. This point needs to be discussed with the instructor. This is your research direction. Do you need to make a difference in this direction? What can be accomplished? In three or five years, you need to think hard about this point, because the instructor does not know this point. Finally one day you break through this point. The size of your breakthrough is related to your personal cultivation. At this time, you have advanced human knowledge one step further, and at this time you have graduated.
Therefore, graduate students must break through this point. If you break through this point, you will graduate. The bigger this point is, the more successful your research will be. When everyone graduates, think about whether you can do this. I think this is the goal of graduate school.
Of course, there are many goals for graduate school, but I think this is a core point. The most important thing for a graduate student is to do research, and the supervisor only serves as a guarantee. You should be the one who really takes the lead. During your graduation defense, you should know your research better than everyone else doing it, because it is you. A pioneering point. Finally, people must be self-aware and position themselves correctly. Don’t forget the whole picture because of this point. In fact, in the advancement of human knowledge, everyone’s contribution is very limited.
2. Research Thoughts and Attitudes
1. Don’t let your instructor lead you by the nose. Take the initiative to do research yourself
Research is like a long march. The instructor gives you a direction, but the instructor may not be accurate in this direction. If he is accurate and asks you to do it, it is definitely very ordinary. The more uncertain it is, the more important it may be. No one has ever done it. This may result in this direction not necessarily being feasible, so you have to be flexible in your implementation. At this time, you cannot rigidly follow the instructor's requirements and do it step by step. You very much need to think independently. Only after thinking about it can you find out whether you can do it and whether you need to make adjustments, sometimes even major adjustments. This is the same as the Long March. A similar place. The second similarity is that you need to adjust your goals, but they must be clear. You need to be clear about what results you want to adjust and why you want to adjust. Then you must have the belief that you will win, especially if you go in a big unknown direction, you will definitely encounter a lot of difficulties. If you believe that your thing is good, then you must stick to it.
Here I want to tell the story of the Long March: crossing Chishui four times. From a military point of view, I think it was a very important battle. It realized the transformation from being led by the enemy to being led by the enemy. When the enemy makes such a change, research may also be like this, because one thing needs to be repeated several times. The important thing is that you don't let your tutor lead you, because you are doing the research, and the tutor only knows some aspects of it, and he cannot know better than you. In other words, you need to take the initiative to do research on your own.
I would like to tell you a few stories in this regard. The first one is Einstein’s transcript. You may have heard the legend of Einstein’s three benches. According to my research, this is completely fabricated. Einstein's grades have always been very good since he was a child. He is not what everyone imagines as three small benches. This is his high school transcript, Sweden in 1898, with a full score of 6. You can see that his results are very outstanding.
The second short story is about graphene. Geim is a Russian. Whether he went to the UK or the United States, he would encounter nationality issues, so the situation was very difficult at the beginning, with no research funding. He thought that everyone is making carbon nanotubes. This thing is very hot. Why should I do it like everyone else? Can I open up the carbon nanotubes and see what happens? Then he used his brain to do this.
Opening up a new field will definitely encounter many difficulties, but if you think it is worth doing, don't give up easily.
Novoselov1 is only two years older than me. Between the two of them, Geim withstood all the pressure from funding, assessment, etc., while Novoselov did research very seriously. This is very similar to the postgraduate stage. The tutor is responsible for all funding, and you need to do it. What is important is to do research wholeheartedly. Graphene won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Anyone who studies physics should know this, and those who study chemistry and materials should also know this. I will not comment here.
1 My note: The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov from the UK in recognition of their breakthrough contributions to the synthesis of graphene materials since 2004.
Third, it is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. You can research its discovery. There is a special article in nature nanotechnology. It is very interesting to read it. Sometimes you will learn something from your research. Some lessons. The first person who discovered it was three people from Exxon. They finished it and published a very general article. Then Smalley saw it and thought it was very interesting, so he bought the same instrument as Exxon. They obtained it by following the same method. This is the article they published in Nature. They drew a soccer ball and a schematic diagram of the experiment, copied it from Exxon, and then a mass spectrum. For such an article, he won the Nobel Prize. Why? Looking back, you need to know what is gold and what is sand. The Exxon people threw it away like sand, and Smalley did a series of studies to understand its properties. So you have to be a diligent person in research, and opportunities always come to those who are prepared.
The fourth one talks about Chanderasekar, the discoverer of white dwarf stars. Why do I know this person? In the 1940s and 1950s, he drove three hours a day to teach a class, rain or shine. There were only two people in that class. Those two people later won the Nobel Prize. They were Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao. So I know this person’s name. He is an Indian-born scientist. He also has an uncle who is very powerful and has won the Nobel Prize, that is Raman.
The last story is about Landau 2. He said a sentence: "Who is the beautiful girl?" When I was teaching undergraduates, I asked them who the beautiful girl in this sentence was. , they said it was Madame Curie. Landau's beautiful girls refer to the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He said that all beautiful girls have been taken away by others, so I will do something else! There are two types of scientists. One type works step by step, A leads to B, B leads to C, C leads to D, and finally makes a great discovery; the other type is like Landau and Bohr, who do nothing when they get something. They do not make assumptions but rely on intuition in their analysis. They can see the results at a glance. They are geeks. This type of scientist is extremely rare. Although the importance of what he finally did was much less important than the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, he worked very hard on it and finally won the Nobel Prize.
2 My note: Lev Davidovich Landau (1908-1968), a Soviet Jew, is known as the last all-powerful physicist in the world.
There is a "Landau Ten Commandments" 3, which people who study physics should know. On his birthday, someone gave him a board inscribed with his ten greatest contributions. He has achieved a lot of results. He basically does what he does best, loves what he does, and goes all out. This is one of the advantages of Landau. I think this point is very important. You cannot do one line and throw away the other. Another strength of Landau is his willingness to challenge authority. Once Einstein gave a report. As I just said, Landau could see the conclusion of many things intuitively. He directly said that Einstein's equations were wrong. Later, Einstein thought for a long time and felt that Landau is right. You think at that time, Einstein was the absolute authority, and Landau was just a young man. He stood up and dared to point out the mistakes of the authority. I think this kind of courage is needed to do research.
3My note: On the occasion of Landau’s 50th birthday, Soviet academic circles carved his ten major contributions to physics on a stone tablet as a birthday gift, calling them the “Landau Ten Commandments” in the same way as a prophet. ": Awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering theory of condensed matter, especially liquid helium.
In 1956, the Soviet physicist Shapiro had discovered parity nonconservation. He also wrote a paper at that time and showed it to Landau, because at that time, publishing a paper required recommendation, and Landau needed someone to recommend it. Dao felt that this thing was impossible and that symmetry should be conserved, so he threw the paper aside. A few months later, Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee published a paper on parity non-conservation, which was a pity. Looking back, in addition to Landau's academic style, Shapiro should also reflect on why he didn't dare to insist on what he thought was right. Landau was wrong, and he could have published the paper.
Here is a positive example, that is, the Indian mentioned above. The results he won the Nobel Prize were made in the 1930s. He was at Cambridge University at the time, but his results were not recognized by an astronomical authority at the time. That authority criticized him every time they held a meeting, but he always insisted on his views. Later he went to the United States, and the authority who opposed him also died. , won the Nobel Prize in the 1980s. Once I saw an interesting saying on the Internet: New theory defeats old theory, not because the people with new theory persuaded the people with old theory, but because the people with old theory died, and the new theory People educate the next generation. Therefore, I always emphasize one point to my students: you must exercise, and you can’t do it without exercise. I have given you many examples, including the discovery of the double helix, which was first made by a female scientist. She pursued perfection and has not published it. , and later died young. She had already passed away when the Nobel Prize was awarded, and she had no chance to win the Nobel Prize.
2. When doing scientific research, you must have the mentality of “making it the best”
What I just talked about was looking up at the stars. Next, let’s talk about how to carry out experimental work. These are some of my personal thoughts. Have a "do it and you'll make it your best" mentality. The experimental results obtained must also have a positive attitude. You hope it is A, but the result may be an "-A". Many times, the opposite result is also important, or even more important.
Once, I listened to a report by a great scientist. He said: "If you get the opposite result, you are likely to make a major discovery." You must focus your energy on When it comes to big scientific issues, don’t get hung up on the details. Also, you need to do a lot of experiments. If your experiments cannot convince you, even if you publish an article, experts will be able to see the quality of your work at a glance. When you develop well in the future, this will have a great impact on your reputation. So, experiment more so you can better understand what your job is like.
Of course, there are many experiments that fail for no reason. When I was doing anionic polymerization, I couldn't figure out why it couldn't be done. Then one day I suddenly did it, and I have been able to do it ever since. Therefore, sometimes there are too many reasons for failure and cannot be found, so the easiest way is to repeat it. I think experimental science is like this. You need to work hard to do it, and there is a certain probability of doing it. Mr. Mao Yisheng once said: "Diligence is the mother of success." Everyone is very smart when they are in graduate school. The reason why you can do better than others is because you pay more.
3. Some methods and techniques in scientific research
1. Develop a good experimental habit
To develop a good habit, in this regard I I was very bad and suffered a lot. When I was studying for my master's degree at Fudan University, I did a lot of work, and some of it was very important work. Everyone knows that there is a certain lag in writing a paper. Since the experimental record book is very poor, when I look at the experimental data after I go abroad, I can’t remember under what conditions the data was obtained. The experimental conditions are not easy to write down, so I can’t. When publishing an article, the conditions cannot be written randomly, otherwise others will not be able to repeat it, and that is fraud.
At that time, I felt that I must have remembered these experimental conditions, and I did remember them at the time. I did not need to look at the experimental notebook when repeating the experiment, but human memory always has certain limitations. After a year, things become a bit unclear. At this time, you can no longer publish articles, and the loss will be huge. So develop a good experimental habit.
I believe that when doing experimental science, you must have two experimental notebooks, one is a plan notebook and the other is a record notebook. The plan is a plan before the experiment, what I will do tomorrow, what I will do in a week, etc., and then also think about how much time it will take to do these experiments, what steps are there, what matters need to be paid attention to, etc., in this case Your ideas for conducting experiments will be very clear, which can improve efficiency and increase experimental safety. Safety accidents can easily occur if you do experiments without a plan and in a hurry. When doing experiments, you must be more careful, and every step must be written clearly, including time, temperature, and weather. Chinese laboratories are different from those in the United States in that they are not constant temperature. These all have an impact. With this record, it will be very convenient for you to write the paper, because it is all written! You will write your graduation thesis or publish the paper very quickly, and it will be very efficient for others to repeat your experiments. I highly recommend this to everyone.
Picture: Experiment Plan and Experiment Record Book
I don’t agree with “the amount of information is inversely proportional to creativity”. I think you still need to read a lot of literature. If you don’t know what others are doing, how can you do it better than others? If you don’t know other people’s stuff, how do you know whether your own stuff is good or bad? So stay abreast of the latest information, which are the top journals in the field. There is a trend now that good results are gathered in the top journals.
"Nature" established its authoritative position in the field of science in the 1950s. Before that, no one knew what "Nature" was. This is the case now, and it is also the case in the United States. Good results are submitted to "Nature" and "Science", and then submitted to other journals after rejection. And there are too many documents now, so you can just read these authoritative journals. I can’t say 100%, most of the good results are in these journals, which can save you time.
2. Actively participate in academic reports and don’t work behind closed doors
Another point I want to talk about is that you should actively participate in academic reports and don’t work behind closed doors. I think our teachers should also reflect on this. Teachers have a lot to do, but there should still be time to listen to reports. Academic reports are a good opportunity for communication. We need to slowly improve in this regard. If you are a classmate, it is even more necessary to participate, because there are many communication channels for teachers and few students. Especially for some masters, if you ask questions and chat with others, it will be very helpful to you in the future. For example, if you want to study for a postdoc there, or it will be a very important network for you to do independent research in the future, the network is established slowly in this way, not all at once. Therefore, you need to seize the opportunity to chat with others. There are always some people, and you will find that others have a good impression of you. In this way, when you encounter difficulties, others will be very happy to help you.
4. Several key points in writing scientific research papers
First of all, I think a very important point in scientific research papers is drawing. Pictures play a great role, especially in good journals. Foreign countries Some people are paid to draw pictures. When we review a paper now, when we get the paper, we first look at the picture. Sometimes the picture is ugly at first glance and gives you a very bad impression. Secondly, it is language training. Our native language is not English, but good journals are basically in English. We emphasize using logical rigor to conquer editors and reviewers, and there should be no grammatical errors. Of course, beautiful language is better.
Regarding language training, here is a method recommended by Shi Yigong of Tsinghua University. He recalled that when he was a graduate student, his English was very poor. In order to improve his English, he read English news reports or articles for at least half an hour every day. Later, he trained in English during his graduate studies, and he found this method very useful. When you first start writing a paper, you can imitate others, but don't plagiarize. According to the definition of English, if 6 consecutive words are the same, it is considered plagiarism, so everyone must pay attention. You must be passionate about writing articles and realize its importance. It is as important as doing experiments.
Of course, the article needs to be revised. Lu Xun said it well, "A good article needs to be revised 20 times." I think 20 times is completely necessary. You must be satisfied with the article, even if you are not satisfied with it. It is unlikely to satisfy the reviewers.
In addition, everyone must learn to make academic reports. Academic reports must be logical and pay attention to the audience's reaction. Slides must use pictures to illustrate the issues and use a small number of keywords to emphasize them. You must also be enthusiastic when making reports. If you If there is no enthusiasm, then the audience will definitely be more listless, and of course there will be body language and so on. I highly recommend Premier Zhou Enlai in this regard. I'm not very good at this aspect, but I can't change it and I haven't developed good habits.
Finally, let’s talk about writing a graduation thesis. To quote Mao Zedong: "Articles must be accurate, clear, and vivid." He has an introduction on how to make articles accurate, clear, and vivid. You can check it out. Another point is, don't talk empty words, any point of view must be supported by materials. The same goes for when we write letters of recommendation. Empty words are definitely a bad recommendation letter. This is a saying from Tao Xingzhi. When we write academic papers, we should not only make it understandable to mothers, but at least colleagues should understand it at a glance.
I noticed that the preface and acknowledgments of the graduation thesis are all "copy here and copy there". I think this is a bad habit. Don't pursue length. Use your own language to express what you want to express. Regarding acknowledgment, there are many templates on the Internet. Generally, the first paragraph is to thank Teacher XX for his bright and honest character, which has benefited me a lot in my life. It can be applied to teachers who put it in ABCD. The next paragraph is to thank my classmates ABCDE. Anyone can take it and change the name. Okay, that doesn't make much sense. Acknowledgment means saying what you want to say, if you have it, you have it, if you don't have it, you don't have it, and you can say as much as you want. Here I will give you an example of thanks from former US President Clinton:
To my mother, who gave me a love of life
To Hillary, who gave me a life of love
p>To Chelsea, who gave joy and meaning to it all
And to the memory of my grandfather, who taught me to look up to people others looked down on,
because we are not so different after all
——Bill Clinton
This acknowledgment is very specific. He thanked his mother for filling him with love for life; he thanked his wife for giving him the love of his life; he thanked his daughter for giving him the joy and meaning of life; he wanted to especially thank his grandfather, because he His grandfather taught him one thing, that is, to respect those who are looked down upon, because essentially no one is much higher than anyone else, and everyone is equal. The content is very clear and the language is beautiful.
The above is my translation. I tried to retain its original meaning, which may not be correct. It is for your reference. So, no matter what you write, you should say it in your own words and don’t plagiarize other people’s work. Chinese people all have this problem, and so do I.
In the end, I don’t want to see this scene: This picture was found from "nature": he has a PhD and has been a postdoctoral fellow for 3 years. I calculated it for at least 11 years. He only published 6 articles in 2011, so he can only work for food. This is rather pitiful. I hope that our graduate students will work for fun in the future, and do it only when you enjoy it, so that you can do your best.
So I hope that I can see the real certificate many years later. What kind of certificate is this? The 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by Robert H. Grubbs. I hope to see the real certificate here. So how many years will it be after so many years? I hope it's not ten thousand years. Thank you all!