Reflection on the 3rd WORLD LAUREATES FORUM--Mind of Science

Some sub-venues of the third WORLD LAUREATE FORUM were located in Shanghai, and my school provided access to some parts of this meeting. What impressed me the most was the Nobel Prize winner, Steven Chu’s talk on life choices, career choices and so on. His talk might have something to do with the location of this year’s sub-venue of physics, Shanghai. College students are universally more concerned about career these days, so his talk on career choice was down-to-earth and more relevant to the situation of Chinese students than the other laureate’s talk. Actually, although Steven Chu is a Chinese American, he could still get to know Chinese students’ thoughts about research and career because he got in touch with many Chinese students studying in America. Steven Chu believed “youth is wasted on the young,” when you are young, you would like to take risks. He did something that seemed dangerous to the young, like handling chemicals, and he still chose to become a physicist in spite of the recession at that time. Doing research can make you live a comfortable life if you are satisfied with wearing simple clothes and living a simple life. But doing research and making a lot of money is mutually exclusive. He has used his car for 19 years and he still hopes that it will be his last car. Even back in Stanford, the cradle for entrepreneurs, as a professor, he was encouraged by many people to get a startup, but he refused because he didn’t want to spare time on such things. He thinks that the key to be happy is firstly one needs to be able to share happiness and secondly, to have global empathy. In my opinion, different jobs are not equivalent regarding their meaning to the world. On average, scientists actually do the most sacrifice and contribute the most to the world, and this is why I always pay much respect to scientists. Not all people are the same and not all people are suitable for doing research, but everyone can think of a way to contribute to others rather than just stay in their little circle. Don’t drown in your Wechat or Facebook, jump out, find what you like, stick on to it and make contributions not only to you, but to the outside of your circle.