Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou would definitely laugh if he knew what Professor Stanley was thinking.
Honest to god, Lu Zhou didn’t care about their conversation at all.
Because he didn’t need to care, he had better things to do…
Lu Zhou stayed in his hotel room for the night.
The next day, the Organic Chemistry Conference held by the American Chemical Society began.
Scholars from all over the world participated in this conference. Some were from America, some were from China.
By 9 o’clock in the morning, the huge venue was already filled with people.
Although it was still an hour until the official ceremony began, many people had already arrived, and they were all waiting patiently.
The opening ceremony of the biennial Adams Chemistry Prize was the highlight of the Organic Chemistry Conference. No one wanted to miss it.
Lu Zhou was the first Chinese scholar to receive the medal, and naturally, he was the center of attention.
When Lu Zhou was getting ready backstage, he bumped into a CTV reporter.
The young lady was holding a microphone, and Lu Zhou felt she looked familiar. He suddenly remembered that this was the reporter he met in Stockholm for the Crafoord Prize.
Fate really is a magical thing.
The reporter smiled and spoke in a pleasing voice, “Professor Lu, hello, can I borrow five minutes of your time?”
There was an hour until the opening ceremony began, and Lu Zhou had five minutes to spare.
He said, “Of course.”
The lady handed out the microphone and asked, “How are you feeling right now?”
Lu Zhou replied, “It’s a bit early to answer this question as the medal is still in the hands of Professor Berstein.”
The reporter smiled and said, “Then I’ll change my question. Since you are the first Chinese scholar to receive this medal, you must be full of excitement?”
Lu Zhou smiled as he replied, “I was excited, but that was two months ago when I first heard I was awarded this award.”
The lady asked, “Most people heard about you when you proved the Goldbach’s conjecture and when you won the Crafoord Prize. So, they must be surprised that a mathematician was able to win the Adams Chemistry Prize. May I ask then, what sparked your interest in chemistry?”
Lu Zhou didn’t answer this question directly. Instead, he smiled and said, “Remember what I said to you in Stockholm?”
The reporter lady smiled and said, “I remember you said that the purpose of mathematics is to change science.”
“Exactly, the purpose of mathematics is to change science,” Lu Zhou nodded and said, “and right now, I’m changing science.”
…
The interview only lasted for five minutes.
The opening ceremony began and it was soon the prize-giving time.
Lu Zhou walked on stage and received a gold medal and a silver watch from Professor Burstein, the president of the American Chemical Society.
Giving silver prizes was a tradition of the Adams Chemistry Prize, and every iteration of the prize was different.
This silver watch was very small; it had the emblem of the Adams Chemistry Prize engraved on the back. Due to the finely crafted patterns, this watch was worth a lot of money. However, the money was insignificant compared to the glory of the Adams Chemistry Prize.
Professor Burstein shook hands with Lu Zhou as he said, “The development of new energy concerns our future. I thank you for your contribution to the world and giving us more time for research.”
It seemed that this watch had a meaning behind it.
Lu Zhou took the watch from the professor’s hands and said, “Thank you.”
The crowd erupted in applause.
The prize-giving time finally ended.
However, the ceremony wasn’t finished.
For the Adams Chemistry Prive, there was a tradition that the prize winner had to give an hour-long speech during the ceremony.
This was the highlight of the award ceremony.
Lu Zhou adjusted the microphone and began to speak.
“Materials, energy, and information technology are the three pillars of modern technology. However, other than information technology, our research in the fields of materials and energy over the past century has been slow.
“However, the academic community has been misunderstood. Every day, there are new technologies being born in laboratories in the corners of the world. I believe that everyone here knows that we don’t lack new materials, we lack useful materials.
“I think one of the reasons is that we don’t have a theoretical system that can find useful materials for us. We’ve been relying solely on the scientific intuition of researchers.
“This is my motivation behind studying computational materials science.” Lu Zhou paused for a second and looked at the crowd before he said, “I believe that with rigorous calculations, we can calculate new potential materials and save a lot of money and time.”
The professors and scholars in the crowd were nervous.
Jesus, did this guy come up with another mathematics proof again?
“… My report will be semi-academic.”
The scholars sighed in relief, especially those chemistry professors that weren’t so good with mathematics.
There was no doubt that computational materials science was a promising research direction, and the academic community recognized its value. However, Professor Lu’s theory was too difficult to understand.
Although many professors in fields such as crystal chemistry and nanomaterials had an understanding of geometry and topology, their knowledge was rudimentary.
But now it seemed that they didn’t have to worry
Lu Zhou already said that this was going to be a semi-academic speech, therefore, he wouldn’t talk about anything too difficult.
“… I am studying the effect of the pore size and surface area of carbon nanospheres on the diffusion rate of polysulfide compounds. The copolymer of polyaniline fluorene polypyrrole is used as the precursor, and polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride is used as the postcursor.”
While speaking, Lu Zhou picked up a piece of chalk from the podium and drew a simple molecular model on the blackboard behind him. He wrote down the surface area, aperture, and other data next to the model.
Up until now, everything was easy to understand.
Everyone had their guard down. However, Lu Zhou suddenly stopped writing and continued to speak, “When I studied these products, I found something interesting…”
Lu Zhou quickly wrote down the first line of the equation.
Then, he went out of control…
Woods sat in the back row of the lecture hall, and he looked around with a worried face.
Before becoming CEO of ExxonMobil, he was an engineer. Therefore, he had a certain understanding of the chemical industry. Although he had never done any research work, he could still read theses.
But now, he had no idea what was on the blackboard.
Woods took a deep breath and looked at Professor Stanley before he whispered, “Are all semi-academic reports this difficult?”
Professor Stanley hesitated for a moment before answering him.
“Normally, it’s not like this…”
It was obvious… that this wasn’t normal.
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