text | "China Science News" reporter Li Chenyang
The 2021 Youth Science Fund projects funded a total of 21,072 projects, with a funding of 6,282.5 million yuan, and an average funding rate of 17.29%. It is one of the most widely funded project types among the National Natural Science Foundation of China one.
This year coincides with the 35th anniversary of the establishment of the Youth Science Fund project. " China Science Journal " will conduct a series of exclusive interviews with scientists who have received funding from the Youth Science Fund project.
Sun Changpu
In 1993, Sun Changpu (former) mentored his student Wang Xiaoguang (now a professor at Zhejiang University). Photo provided by the interviewee
In 1988, Sun Changpu had just graduated from his master's degree and started working as a lecturer at Northeast Normal University. Here, he applied for the first national-level scientific research project in his life: the Youth Science Fund Project (hereinafter referred to as the Youth Fund) of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (hereinafter referred to as the National Natural Science Foundation of China). This type of fund project is as young as him and has just entered its second year.
When he applied for the fund for the first time, Sun Changpu had no idea about the amount of funds and how to use them. He only applied for 5,000 yuan, thinking that it would be enough for a business trip. Two teachers, Tang Lin and Yue Zhonghou, who were in charge of this work in the Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences of the Natural Science Foundation of China, thought his topic was good and took the initiative to increase the funding to 8,000 yuan. At the end of the project, because of his good research, according to the regulations at the time, he was awarded an additional 4,000 yuan for basic research.
Today's Sun Changpu has already grown into a famous theoretical physicist in my country, and was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Over the past 30 years, he has maintained a close cooperative relationship with the Natural Science Foundation of China. He began to serve as a fund project review expert very early. To this day, he is still a member of the National Science Foundation of China and a member of the theoretical physics dedicated academic leadership group. Team leader, and has been responsible for and presided over the formulation of the “13th Five-Year Plan” and “14th Five-Year Plan” strategic development plans for the physics discipline of the Natural Science Foundation of China since 2015.
A timely help, Kaijiang Tuoyu
In Northeast Normal University in the late 1980s, the scientific research atmosphere was not as strong as it would later be.
Young Sun Changpu was filled with enthusiasm for scientific research, but he seemed to be walking in a blank space without the coordinate system . Is the direction I want to go in useful? Is it important? Am I the type to do scientific research? No one seemed to be able to give him exact answers to these questions.
He spent a lot of time, carefully reading almost all the literature in the field, focusing on the scientific issues he thought were the most important, and asking several seniors for advice. As a result, he was often poured cold water on him-"This is not interesting" or "Everyone else is doing it." It’s almost done.”
In such loneliness and stagnation, the approval of the youth fund application was like a breeze entering the house, making this young man's heart suddenly come alive.
"For me, the most important thing about applying for this fund is not the money, but the recognition from my peers and seniors." Sun Changpu said, "It is this recognition that confirms that I will not be superstitious about individual authority and challenge conservatism." Concepts and determination to dare original innovation.”
The title of the Sun Changpu Youth Fund project is “Berry Phase Factors and Induced Norm Structure.” At that time, this was a relatively advanced field, and he was also one of the first scholars to carry out relevant work based entirely in China. It didn’t take long for this field to become “popular” in the domestic physics community, with “overwhelming numbers of people doing it.”
With the support of the Youth Fund, Sun Changpu published nearly 20 papers in mainstream foreign journals. One of the early articles on "artificial gauge fields (this term did not exist at the time)" did not have a strong response in the academic community when it was first published. With the rapid development of cold atom experiments over the past decade, this work began to and are constantly cited in theory.
Sun Changpu turned on his computer and showed the citation trend chart of this paper to China Science News. The histogram clearly shows that this article published in 1990 only reached its peak citations 20 years later in 2010, and continues to this day.The scientific research achievements that Sun Changpu won the National Natural Science Award second prize in 2008 were also derived from this work and its subsequent development.
"Looking back, when I first started the research on the Youth Fund project, I was still very green in all aspects, but I was fortunate to have done some work that can be retained." Sun Changpu said.
In the many years since, Sun Changpu has successively won the Natural Science Foundation of China general project , the special fund for outstanding young and middle-aged talents, the special fund project, the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars project, etc., and is still responsible for the basic science center project today. "I have won almost all Natural Science Foundation of China projects." He smiled, "But the one that has the greatest impact on me is this Youth Science Foundation project that provides help in times of need."
During the most difficult period for him to get started, behind him This little push helped him run quickly.
accompanied him all the way, and the fish and water blended together
Interestingly, this youth fund did not only affect Sun Changpu alone.
At Northeast Normal University, the news that Sun Changpu successfully applied for the Youth Fund quickly spread throughout the campus, and young colleagues were even more encouraged. For a time, the theoretical physics discipline of Northeast Normal University ushered in a period of great development. Sun Changpu and three other peers were known as the "Four Little Dragons" because of their good scientific research work.
Sun Changpu's salary at that time was only sixty or seventy yuan a month. In comparison, the more than 10,000 yuan distributed by the Youth Fund was nothing more than a huge sum of money. Unlike those disciplines that require the purchase of instruments and experimental reagents, theoretical physics is mainly an individual creative thinking activity. Sun Changpu used the money to buy a large number of books and arrange various domestic and foreign visits. Through cross-regional and cross-field exchanges again and again, his academic vision has been expanded unprecedentedly. The windows that
Youth Fund opened for him don’t stop there.
"In that era, scientific research funding mainly came from administrative appropriations, and the emergence of the Natural Science Foundation of China was refreshing." Sun Changpu recalled. It was a very simple era. Since most of the staff of the Natural Science Foundation of China were scientists, they had a natural cordiality in dealing with them.
As one of the youngest project review experts of the Natural Science Foundation of China, Sun Changpu once lived in a room with the great mathematician Mr. Gu Chaohao when he participated in the fund review; in many meetings, he was young and ignorant of the world, and he was indifferent to others. , and several prominent scientists debated the project's academic views. These successful gentlemen all liked this young man who was not afraid of tigers. After the argument, they even dragged him to drink together.
This democratic, free and dynamic academic atmosphere is one of Sun Changpu’s most precious memories. "We grow up together, and we are in harmony." "My friends at the Natural Science Foundation of China have watched me grow up, and I have watched many of them grow up." When talking about the Natural Science Foundation of China, Sun Changpu's tone Full of emotion.
When Sun Changpu was young, the Youth Fund was almost the only funding support channel for them to independently carry out scientific research work. Today, young people seem to have far more choices. In different eras and different social environments, the Science Foundation keeps pace with the times and constantly makes adjustments and changes, but how to maintain its original intentions?
Keep pace with the times and maintain our original aspirations
“I think we should not only keep pace with the times but also maintain our original aspirations.” Sun Changpu said.
"The National Natural Science Foundation of China is a key platform for basic research and talent growth." He said, "Here, you can independently choose the direction and topic of scientific research, and freely challenge authority and scientific problems. On a loose and open academic platform , In each specific scientific research practice, generations of scientific and technological workers have experienced the scientific spirit of 'one says one' and the academic democratic style. "In his view, no matter how the National Natural Science Foundation of China is reformed, these are the only things that can be achieved. The original intention should not and cannot be changed.
The eternal question faced by the National Natural Science Foundation of China is: as funding investment continues to increase, has our original output also increased? Has the quality of basic research really improved? To answer this question well, we must "constantly seek change" and build a science funding system in the new era.
In recent years, the Natural Science Foundation of China has continued to promote the systematic reform of science funds by focusing on promoting changes in scientific research paradigms and improving the level of condensation of scientific issues.
As a scholar who has been conducting scientific research on the front line for a long time, Sun Changpu’s understanding of “scientific research paradigm change” is very concrete. "The theoretical physics research I engage in is originally a cross-disciplinary fusion, with high complexity and cross-cutting characteristics." As the dean of the Graduate School of the China Academy of Engineering Physics, he has been exploring basic research that meets national needs. Model, "Engineering physics research is a major intersection in the true sense, and one research often brings together at least nearly a hundred disciplines. In the process of carrying out engineering technology innovation research in response to major national needs, there is an urgent need for profound 'scientific research paradigm change'".
In Sun Changpu’s view, the National Natural Science Foundation is always the best way to support basic research. However, the scientific research paradigm supported by the National Natural Science Foundation should not only be oriented to basic research with free exploration. "When funds are abundant, the Natural Science Foundation of China should also support some demand-oriented, long-term basic research that requires long-term overcoming of difficulties. This is the need of the situation and also the national mission." He said.
In meetings after meetings, the case Sun Changpu talks about most often is the story of the development of strong lasers. Before and after World War II, the great development of radar gave birth to revolutionary discoveries from masers to lasers. In the late 1980s, French physicist Gérard Mourou realized that radar chirp signal amplification technology might be useful for research on strong laser requirements. He found Donna Strickland, a female doctoral student in the group, and spent a week developing chirped pulse amplification technology for lasers. This invention paved the way for mankind to create the shortest and most powerful laser pulse . This pair of teachers and students won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. "If there were no specific needs for radar, who would have thought of inventing lasers and developing strong laser technology?"
Therefore, Sun Changpu always emphasizes that basic research innovation driven by demand must not be underestimated. Support for this type of research should be fully reflected in the "scientific research paradigm reform".
"Especially for the Youth Fund, it should consciously guide young people to carry out basic research for national needs. While emphasizing free exploration and innovation, it should also create more diverse possibilities for young people's careers." He said.
