In 2004, a tenured professor at Princeton University with an American green card packed his bags at his home and signed his name on a house sale contract. "I want to serve my motherland. This time I plan to stay in China and never come back!"

Starting in 2004, he planned to devote all his energy to cultivating high-end talents in China's computer profession.

But at this time, Yao Qizhi still retained American citizenship.

It was not until the end of 2016 that the 70-year-old Yao Qizhi completely gave up his identity as an American citizen, became a Chinese citizen, and officially became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

After Yao Qizhi returned to China after completing his studies, he trained computer professionals for China, which is undoubtedly admirable.

So what are the stories about this great man of science?

Yao Qizhi, who has made great achievements in the computer field, won the Turing Award as early as 2000. This award is known as the Nobel Prize in the computer industry.

But perhaps what we didn’t expect is that Yao Qizhi only started to come into contact with computers halfway through his studies.

His main field of research is actually physics. How did Yao Qizhi, who became a monk halfway, change his research direction?

The physics genius who became a monk

Yao Qizhi was born in Shanghai on December 24, 1946. At that time, Shanghai was not peaceful and the world was very chaotic.

The domestic situation has not stabilized, society is still full of turmoil, and his parents are living in the cracks.

In order to provide a stable living environment for their children, Yao Chizhi's parents took advantage of their social background to obtain ferry tickets to Taiwan.

Yao Qizhi, who has been living in Taiwan, his parents have attached great importance to his education since he was a child.

Because the living environment is relatively stable, Yao Qizhi also has more time to study problems and complete his studies.

Yao Qizhi, who slowly became a big boy, saw on TV and newspapers that Yang Zhenning, Li Zhengdao and other scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and he was very excited in his heart.

Therefore, Yao Qizhi’s ambition at that time was to become a physical scientist comparable to Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao.

Yao Chi-chi, who has always had excellent academic performance, entered the Department of Physics of National Taiwan University after graduating from high school.

After receiving his undergraduate degree from National Taiwan University, Yao Chi-chi plans to study in the United States and continue studying physics.

Yao Qizhi, who had a very high starting point, applied for Harvard University master's degree. This opportunity was hard-won for him.

Yao Qizhi’s mentor was the then famous Glashow. Glashow’s main research directions were elementary particles and quantum field theory.

Research in these two aspects as well as in cosmology enabled Glashow to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979.

What is even more worth mentioning is that Glashow is a scientist with a Chinese plot.

Perhaps we don’t know that in addition to being a national leader, Chairman Mao also once proposed a discussion on “elementary particles”.

At the Seventh World Particle Physics Symposium held in 1977, Glashow proposed to name Chairman Mao's hypothesis "hair particles" to commemorate Chairman Mao.

Glashow is also one of the few foreign scientists who does not hold ideological discrimination against China.

Therefore, he chose Yao Qizhi from China as his student and guided him until he graduated with a doctorate.

Studying with such a teacher, Yao Qizhi will naturally be influenced by his mentor.

After successfully receiving his PhD from Harvard , Yao Qizhi chose to engage in physics work that he was familiar with in the next year.

But then the appearance of a person made Yao Qizhi change.

This person is Chu Feng, Yao Qizhi’s wife. The two met at Harvard University, and Chu Feng happened to be studying computers.

At a class reunion, the two fell in love at first sight. If Yao Qizhi wants to understand Chu Feng's daily life, he must understand computers.

After coming into contact with computers, Yao Qizhi showed a strong interest and gradually began to like computers.

Later, under Chu Feng's suggestion, Yao Qizhi slowly changed the direction of his research and gave up the research of physics.

Yao Qizhi then came to University of Illinois, where he studied computer science and also studied for a graduate degree in computer science.

Although Yao Qizhi is not a professional, this does not prevent him from learning computers.

Yao Qizhi, who has a strong learning ability, has a smooth journey, and professional papers are not difficult for him at all.

rose to fame

In 1975, 29-year-old Yao Qizhi received a PhD in computer science from the University of Illinois. In September of the same year, he went to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After entering the Department of Mathematics at MIT, Yao Qizhi held the position of assistant professor.

In September 1976, Yao Qizhi moved from the Department of Mathematics of MIT to the Department of Computer Science of Stanford University, where he also served as an assistant professor.

In July 1986, Princeton University extended an olive branch to Yao Qizhi and invited him to serve as a professor.

In 1993, Yao Qizhi even proposed the quantum communication theory, which was unprecedented in the computer world at the time.

Then he followed his own ideas and basically completed the mode of the quantum computer.

Yao Qizhi, who has extensive experience in , will apply the knowledge he has learned in physics to computers.

The research object is not single, which greatly enriches Yao Qizhi's knowledge.

In the research of other disciplines, Yao Qizhi also successfully combined cryptography with computers.

is applied in practice. As long as a contract is signed on a computer, the computer system designed by Yao Qizhi can automatically identify the authenticity of the contract.

Innovative moves like this also made Yao Qizhi more and more famous, and he naturally won the Gartner Award, which was very important in the computer industry at that time.

So in 1998, Yao Qizhi was elected as an academician of the National Academy of Sciences.

After entering the National Academy of Sciences, Yao Qizhi had access to more resources and more advanced equipment, and also made greater progress in researching computers.

In 2000, Yao Qizhi won the Turing Award, known as the Nobel Prize in computing.

This is the first time in the history of Turing Award winning that a Chinese has such an honor.

At this time, Yao Qizhi, who was already well-known in the global computer industry, attracted everyone's attention.

In order to retain such talents, the U.S. government naturally offered extremely favorable conditions to Yao Qizhi.

The United States has more than 40% of the world's Nobel Prize winners, and 70% of the world's Nobel Prize winners choose to work in the United States.

Princeton University first gave Yao Qizhi a tenured professorship, and Yao Qizhi had already obtained a green card from the United States.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the economic development of the United States was far behind China. Some of the hardware conditions provided by the U.S. government to Yao Qizhi were completely unimaginable in China at the time.

And the United States is a very open country, the cultural atmosphere there is very tolerant, and outstanding talents from all over the world are attracted to the United States.

In order to allow outstanding talents to live and work in peace and contentment in the United States, the welfare system provided by the U.S. government is extremely complete.

Return to China

But Yao Qizhi has not forgotten that the Chinese blood flows in his body. He has made great achievements and sees that China is slowly waking up.

But compared with the United States, China's high-tech industries still have a long way to go.

China is working hard to shorten the gap with developed countries. As reform and opening up enter a new stage, China's socialist system is also full of vitality and vitality.

Yao Qizhi is concerned about China's development, and he also knows that computers will definitely play a vital role in China's future development.

The third technological revolution wave is sweeping the world, and China has missed the first and second industrial revolution . This opportunity, Yao Qizhi feels that China must seize it and cannot fall behind again.

Yao Qizhi came to the United States to study in the past because the educational resources in the United States are indeed richer than in China. He also learned a lot of knowledge in the United States that he could not learn in China.

He was able to complete so much research with the support of educational resources and advanced technology in the United States.

After entering the new century, Yao Qizhi felt that it was time for him to repay China.

In 2002, Yao Qizhi established a professor group at Tsinghua University.

Since then, he has traveled back and forth between the United States and China, where he teaches at Tsinghua University.

At the same time, Yao Qizhi also used his personal connections to bring some world-renowned Chinese scientists to Tsinghua University to teach students the most cutting-edge computer knowledge.

In 2004, Yao Qizhi planned to devote all his energy to teaching students at Tsinghua University, and traveling between China and the United States made Yao Qizhi feel very hard.

Therefore, Yao Qizhi resigned from his position as a tenured professor at Princeton University in 2004 and accepted the invitation from Tsinghua University.

On March 16, 2005, Yao Qizhi, who was still an American citizen, received a "green card" for permanent residence in Beijing.

At the same time, after returning to China, Yao Qizhi still had many connections with universities in Hong Kong.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong specially invited Yao Qizhi to give a blog lecture to impart knowledge to University of Hong Kong students.

"Microsoft -Liqun Computing and Interface Technology Joint Laboratory of the Chinese University of Hong Kong" subsequently invited Yao Qizhi to serve as the chairman of the committee.

With the efforts of Yao Chi-chi, in 2007, the Theoretical Computer Science and Communication Science Institute of the University of Hong Kong was successfully completed.

In the same year, the Computer Research Center of Tsinghua University was also completed under the leadership of Yao Qizhi.

Until the end of 2016, Yao Qizhi, who had not been back to the United States for a long time, completely gave up his American identity and became a Chinese citizen again.

He also changed from a foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to a formal academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In May 2019, Yao Qizhi became a professor of the artificial intelligence class at Tsinghua University.

It is worth mentioning that Yao Qizhi's "Yaoban" is very unique.

As an internationally renowned scientist, Yao Qizhi also personally teaches undergraduates at Tsinghua University.

Yao Qizhi’s class is full of personal characteristics. His long-term experience in living in the United States has made Yao Qizhi understand that computer teaching must be taught in English throughout.

Some computer programs are inseparable from English, so he believes that learning English well is the basis for learning computers well.

Yao Qizhi also redesigned undergraduate textbooks based on his own understanding, and put some of the latest international trends and cutting-edge research into the classroom to allow students to keep pace with the times.

At the same time, he also extracted some of the most critical and core courses for undergraduates to study diligently.

Even though he has achieved many achievements and is considered a fairy-level figure in the computer industry, Yao Qizhi has always maintained an approachable attitude.

Yao Qizhi often discusses the most popular issues with his students, forming a situation of mutual learning and teaching. The novel teaching model of

also allows students of Yao Qizhi to gain something, and the potential of each student has been greatly explored.

Yao Qizhi’s students have lived up to Yao Qizhi’s expectations after graduation.

Some of them will choose to continue studying abroad for further studies, while others will choose to find employment.

Nowadays, in several major Internet companies in China, such as Alibaba , Baidu and Tencent , many computer professional talents came from Yao Qizhi.

and Yao Qizhi’s greatest wish in this life is to train the next winner of the Turing Award.

Yao Qizhi’s return to China was of great significance in an era when Chinese computer talents were scarce.

It is under the leadership of people like Yao Qizhi that China's computer development will not be left behind by developed countries.

Yao Qizhi has filled the gap in China's computer field. At the same time, he is a role model and has cultivated many talents for China's computer development.

He often teaches students in class to always maintain their thirst for knowledge. After all, there is no end to learning, and there is no limit to the number of skills you can have.

Yao Qizhi’s return to China also inspired many talents studying abroad and set an example for them.

Many international students who originally planned to spend their lives overseas have returned to their home countries and contributed to China's development.

In Mr. Yao, we see that when there is a certain conflict between national interests and private interests, Mr. Yao did not hesitate at all and resolutely chose to safeguard national interests.

Mr. Yao, who is already in his seventies, has set his sights on the next generation and the future development of computers in China.

Yao Lao has a dream of home and country. Returning to the motherland is not just a return to the roots of the older generation, but also a kind of inheritance of scientific spirit and a reflection of the feelings of home and country.

Such a dream of a family and a country is not far away from us, and now we are on the road to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Finally, I hope that we can all maintain a pure heart and work hard for China's future.

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