2020 is an extraordinary year. In this extraordinary extraordinary, there are challenges and opportunities. In this extraordinary extraordinary, technology shows its power. The more we understand the power of science and technology, the more we can face our shortcomings and deficiencies. The Fifth Plenary Session of the Nineteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed to take scientific and technological self-reliance as a strategic support for national development. Only by achieving technological self-reliance and self-reliance can we firmly grasp the initiative of development in our own hands. "Thirteenth Five-Year", a brilliant end; "14th Five-Year", a long way to go. The clarion call for self-reliance and self-reliance in science and technology has been sounded, encouraging us to move forward on the road to the summit of scientific research.
Hot Words of the Year
Breakthrough from 0 to 1
This year, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the symposium of scientists that we must take a path of innovation that suits the national conditions, especially the improvement of original innovation capabilities in a more prominent position, and strive to achieve more "from 0 to 1" breakthroughs. . This year, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Natural Science Foundation of China jointly formulated and issued the "Working Plan for Strengthening "From 0 to 1" Basic Research" to optimize the original innovation environment and strengthen the original innovation of the national science and technology plan. Specific measures have been proposed in many aspects, such as guiding and strengthening the training of basic research personnel.
This year, our scientific and technological workers fulfilled their mission and wrote the "1" in many fields, marking China's mark. such as:
The Beidou-3 global satellite navigation system was officially launched, with the guidance and company of the “China Beidou” worldwide; the “Tianwen-1” set off to fly to Mars, and will be the first one in the world to achieve the three “orbiting, landing, and patrol” Big mission; the quantum computing prototype "Nine Chapters" came out, which is 100 trillion times faster than the current fastest supercomputer; the "Struggle" all-sea deep manned submersible is known as the "fourth pole of the earth" The Mariana Trench set a new record for China's manned deep diving of 10,909 meters; Chang'e 5 returned to Earth with lunar samples safely, and China's first extraterrestrial celestial body sampling and return mission was successfully completed...
"From 0 to 1", there are more scientific issues waiting for us to break through.
The "Struggle" that created a new record for manned deep diving in China. Xinhua News Agency
Solve the "stuck neck" problem
In 2020, the international situation will be volatile and complicated. This makes us once again soberly aware that the key technologies related to the national economy and people's livelihood must be in our own hands, otherwise we will be "stuck" by others.
From the top-level national policy design, to the scientific and technological circles, industry circles, and financial circles, we are constantly making improvements and efforts. For example, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has turned the US "stuck neck" list into a scientific research task list for layout, and will concentrate the strength of the whole institute to overcome key core technologies and key points in the major areas of most concern to countries such as aviation tires, bearing steel, and photolithography machines. Material problems. While Huawei, HKUST Xunfei and other high-tech companies are constantly strengthening their own research and development capabilities, they have joined hands with research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, Tsinghua University and other universities to attract and borrow wisdom to jointly overcome key technologies. problem.
The just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference made it clear that one of the important tasks in 2021 is to enhance the independent controllability of the industrial supply chain. Among them, it is mentioned that it is necessary to coordinate the promotion of shortcomings and forging longboards, implement key core technology tackling projects for weak links in the industry, solve a batch of "stuck neck" problems as soon as possible, and intensively cultivate and develop more unique areas in the industry's advantageous areas. stunt.
The lunar samples carried by the Chang'e-5 return capsule were put into special containers. Xinhua News Agency
Time does not wait for me. We expect that the innovation chain, industrial chain, and financial chain can be effectively connected to form a joint force to overcome a number of "stuck neck" problems as soon as possible, and firmly grasp the initiative of development in our own hands.
Evaluation System "Breaks the Four Only"
General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out at the symposium of scientists that it is necessary to accelerate the reform of scientific research institutes, give universities and scientific research institutions greater autonomy, give innovative leaders greater power to determine technical routes and use funds, and resolutely eliminate the "paper, only Title, only academic qualifications, only awards".
Under the guidance of this policy, my country continues to deepen the reform of the evaluation system and eliminate the "Four Onlys". The relevant departments have successively issued the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform of Project Review, Talent Evaluation, and Institutional Evaluation" and "On Further Carrying Forward the Spirit of Scientists and Strengthening the Style of Work and Study. "Construction Opinions" and other guiding documents to build a diversified evaluation system and stimulate the innovation vitality of scientific and technological workers.
In 2020, the intensity of "breaking the four Wei" will gradually increase. The Ministry of Science and Technology initiated the "Measures to Eliminate the "Thesis-only" Bad Orientation in Scientific and Technological Evaluation (Trial)", and the Ministry of Education issued the "Several Opinions on Eliminating the "Thesis-only" Bad Orientation in the Evaluation of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities", directly Refers to the bad orientation of "thesis only".
The Long March 11 sea-launched carrier rocket adopts the "one arrow and nine stars" method to launch the "Jilin One" high score 03-1 group of satellites. Xinhua News Agency
Abolish the "four only" and deepen reforms, so that scientific and technological workers will not be entangled by papers and awards, be free from distractions, and go lightly. Only in this way can scientific and technological workers be more innovative and vigorous, and scientific and technological innovation can truly serve the needs of the country.
These "breaking the four wei" measures are conducive to the establishment of an evaluation system for concentrated research and innovation and creation, to encourage and guide the vast number of scientific and technological workers to pursue the truth, bravely climb the peak, and create a dedicated research, pursuit of excellence, and integrity in the whole society. The scientific research environment allows scientific and technological workers to write papers on the land of the motherland.
Carry forward the spirit of scientists
At the beginning of 2020, in the face of the sudden new crown pneumonia epidemic, Chinese scientific and technological workers have made great contributions to the epidemic prevention and control, vaccine research and development, and protection of life. Zhong Nanshan, an 84-year-old academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Zhao Zhendong, the "new crown vaccine guardian" who has permanently fixed his life on the front line of the war epidemic... These portraits of the era composed of faces demonstrate the great power of the spirit of the new era of scientists.
Since the founding of New China, generations of scientific and technological workers have taken the country's prosperity, national rejuvenation, and people's happiness as their own missions. They have created the spirit of "two bombs and one star" and the spirit of "manned spaceflight" and other spiritual monuments that will shine through the future.
General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward earnest hopes to the vast number of scientific and technological workers at the symposium of scientists: I hope that the majority of scientific and technological workers will not forget their original aspirations, keep their mission in mind, uphold national and people’s interests first, and inherit and carry forward the older generation of scientists’ minds of the motherland and serving the people. Excellent quality, carry forward the spirit of "two bombs and one star", take the initiative to shoulder the important historical responsibilities, and integrate their scientific pursuits into the great cause of building a modern socialist country.
Now, the younger generation is continuing its glory. In 2020, paleoanthropologist Fu Qiaomei is using ancient DNA technology to uncover the mysteries of history; the heads of hundreds of key measurement and control positions of the Chang'e 5 launch team are only 33 years old on average... These young people are using themselves Sweat, pouring out the most beautiful flower of technology.
Looking forward to 2021, I believe that under the inspiration of the spirit of scientists in the new era, the whole society will further form a strong atmosphere of respecting knowledge, advocating innovation, respecting talents, loving science, and dedicating to science, so as to gather majestic strength to build a world scientific and technological power.
actively participate in the global innovation network
On December 12, 2020, the Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment facility was officially decommissioned. This experiment that put China at the forefront of neutrino research in the world is the largest international cooperation project between China and the United States in basic research. Russia, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong and Taiwan have also made important contributions to experimental construction and scientific research. The Daya Bay International Cooperation Group is composed of more than 200 scientific researchers from 41 scientific research institutions in 7 countries and regions, and has achieved several items such as "discovering a new type of neutrino oscillation" and "precisely measuring the energy spectrum of reactor neutrino". The world's leading scientific research results.
Scientific research must be self-reliant, but not shut down. Today, Chinese scientific research institutions and Chinese scientists are integrating into the international innovation network with a more active attitude. Take the Chinese Academy of Sciences as an example. In recent years, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has successively signed relevant scientific and technological cooperation agreements with the Russian Academy of Sciences, the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission, and the French National Research Center; it has initiated the implementation of scientific and educational cooperation expansion projects in developing countries and the "Belt and Road" technology. Cooperation action plan; accelerate the promotion of overseas deployment of scientific research platforms, and build 10 overseas science and education cooperation centers overseas. A group of scientists have held important leadership positions in international scientific organizations. For example, Yuan Yaxiang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, served as the chairman of the International Federation of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. The open Chinese science and technology community has also attracted more and more foreign scientists to work in China.
Explore the "world-class" mechanism
Author: (Dean of the School of Life Sciences, University of West Lake) in the Tao
In December 2019, I officially joined West Lake University as the Chair Professor of Cell Biology and concurrently as the first Dean of the School of Life Sciences. I, the dean, want to be a dean without a sense of existence.
I asked myself, what is the most important thing to build a young college? A good college, a good research institute, and a good university. If you want to achieve real success in scientific research, you must let PI (Distinguished Researcher)— -Our most important group is freed from tedious daily administrative affairs.
I have been engaged in scientific research for more than 20 years, and I know the importance of being open-minded to scientific research. People who do scientific research don't want to be disturbed, they all want a very quiet environment. If I find that my schedule is empty one day, I will be particularly happy, which means I can spend the whole day reading articles, thinking about questions, and doing things.
Therefore, I hope to ensure that PIs can settle down and think about issues from the system. We have established a college-level administrative assistant system at the college level. One administrative assistant is fully responsible for the administrative affairs of three or four PIs. Regardless of whether it is connected to the college or the school's administrative department, administrative assistants are equivalent to PIs.
It sounds, this is not a difficult thing. But in fact, good ideas and culture are often easier said than done, and it takes a lot of norms and details to truly implement them.
If you join the School of Life Sciences of West Lake University, you can get very thoughtful administrative services, and you can't feel my existence as the dean. You can get things done without coming to me, it's good.
We have a good atmosphere and platform. We recruit very good people, give them good resources, and are equipped with good student, post-doc and administrative services. But, will this be a world-class one? I think it is not enough. We need to have innovative attempts in the layout. This point is often discussed together with President Shi Yigong, and we have also consulted many experts and scholars. .
What we are currently exploring is a model called "corelab", where independent laboratories within several colleges or even across colleges work together to break through major academic issues of common interest.
Not only West Lake University, if you want to produce world-class scientific research results in China, you must find a new system, which may combine the advantages of many different systems and at the same time suit China's national conditions. What are the characteristics of scientists? They are bold and like to experiment. Any attempt usually has two results, either success or failure. If everything is done, it means that the courage is not enough, and failure is not necessarily a bad thing to some extent.
If you want to make a plan for the School of Life Sciences of West Lake University in 2021, I hope that internationalization can become an important one. When the epidemic is over and the world returns to normal, I hope that we can re-enhance the exchanges and connections between each other, and allow different cultures, different ideas, and different perspectives to complete more collisions and interweaving-this will bring us benefits. Human inspiration bursts out.
shoulder the new mission of close integration of industry, university and research
Author: Yan Xueqing (Peking University)
Carrying out cutting-edge scientific research and using cutting-edge technology to solve people's livelihood problems are the dreams of every one of our scientific researchers. The CLAPA team of the Peking University laser accelerator where I work has been conducting research in the field of laser acceleration for more than ten years. Although this is a basic research topic, it may also have a wide range of applications in medicine, materials, biology, and electronic information in the future.
Particle accelerator is not only an important instrument for exploring basic physics, its application also penetrates into all aspects of people's production and life. Laser acceleration is a brand new particle acceleration method, which can be widely used in materials science, biology, medicine, magnetic confinement fusion diagnosis, high energy density physics and particle irradiation in the future.
For the first time, our team proposed and experimentally verified a new method of phase-stabilized light pressure acceleration, which solved the key physical problems of accelerated ion energy dissipation and low energy, and achieved the leap from laser ion acceleration to laser ion accelerator for the first time in the world. With the support of the national key R&D program key special project-"Research and Application Demonstration of the Petawatt Laser Proton Accelerator Device" and the Beijing Laser Acceleration Innovation Center of Huairou Science City, we will carry out technical research on the laser proton radiotherapy system to achieve laser proton in the future Clinical application of radiotherapy system.
I think that as a scientific researcher, you have to "hold the sky" and "stand up". The so-called "top of the sky" means launching an assault to the forefront of science and technology; the so-called "situation" means the landing of high-tech science and technology and applying it to the people.
In addition to the research and development of laser proton radiotherapy equipment, our team also focuses on the technical application of high-power laser technology and laser acceleration technology in related fields, and is committed to applying advanced technology to production practice, with the goal of driving the entire industry chain forward and solving related problems. The key issue of "stuck neck" in the field.
Just in 2020, the People's Government of Baiyun District, Guangzhou City and Peking University signed a cooperation agreement to jointly build Guangdong Xinxing Laser Plasma Technology Research Institute. This is a private, non-enterprise institution. In the future, it will carry out applied research and transformation of results around high-power laser technology, laser accelerator technology, application technology of new particle sources, etc., and promote the cross integration of laser plasma technology and medicine. Increase the speed of industrialization and provide an incubation platform; provide a driving force for my country's scientific and technological progress in key areas such as medical care, health, industry, materials, and information, and provide continuous and important platform support for the industrialization of major innovations.
I often think that our generation of scientific researchers is very lucky. When doing scientific research in China, we have caught up with a very good era, we have received enough respect, and we have more resources to do what we want to do. This is a very happy thing. In the future, our team will continue to focus on technological innovation, achieve more technological breakthroughs and transformation of technological achievements in the future, and strive to contribute to the strength of the country, the revitalization of the nation, and the happiness of the people.
