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A Dialogue between a Nobel Laureate and High School Students

Date: February 22, 2017

 

 

 

 

With the Beatles song "when I was 64 years old" softly playing in the background, 64 pages of slides summarized the years that witnessed the growth of J. Fraser Stoddart from a young boy to the gracious elder man, Scenes of him lying on the sofa with his little grandson in his arms, telling the ordinary but great life of a Nobel Prize Laureate. Then the master mingled with over 400 students from 36 different middle schools in China. It was the prelude a science feast with five honored guests; Nobel Prize winners J. Fraser Stoddart, Bruce A. Beutler, Ada E. Yonath, Robert H. Grubbs and K. Barry Sharpless. The dialogue between the Nobel laureate Fraser Stoddart and high school students started on February 22, 2017, at Tianjin University.

On the day, the 75-year-old "Nobel grandpa”, deliberately dressed in a red traditional Chinese costume, and arrived at the hall half an hour early before the start. He walked among students, taking photos with people around him, autographing, chatting and laughing. The activity generated an exceptionally vibrant atmosphere.

During the hour-long keynote speech, he shared with his young audiences his growing up experience, and illustrated his scientific achievement, the design and synthesis of molecular machines, which won him the Nobel Prize, with plenty of vivid images and dynamic demonstration graphs of “Catenanes”, “Rotaxanes” and “Borromean Rings...". In the process, he also introduced his research team; a group of excellent young people from all over the world. He emphasized the contributions made by young scholars from China. In his speech, the lesson he offered, based on the experience of overcoming all the difficulties the team had met in the process, was that the secret of success lay in the capacity to withstand failures.

Speaking of his research, he said that although the forms of Catenane and Rotaxane had existed for thousands of years in history, and similar patterns had already appeared in China even 7,000 years ago, for chemists, this was a completely new field. In recent decades, scientists all over the world, including China, showed great enthusiasm and interest in this field of research. He said that chemistry was also a creative discipline. Curiosity and a driving force are crucial to creation. In addition to these two factors, a proper environment was of great importance. Innovation, in his view, can’t be realized in a short period of time. To achieve it, he thought, people should dedicate their whole lifetime to it. He added, as a matter of fact, individuals with innovation capability were often “forced” to become a “lifers” of the job that he or she created: actually, they have no occupation; they create an occupation.

During the Q&A session after the speech, Professor Stoddart answered questions posed by the audience and collected from the Tianjin University official WeChat and website. While being asked “What brings you to China and teach in the university (TJU)? Do you lose heart when faced with failures in experiments?  How do you to see success and failure?”, he replied that he came to China because he enjoyed China and he thought China had a long history and was full of the kind of spirit that he’d like to see in people. He believed that China would witness great prosperity in the future. As for the advice for students, he said that young people should pay more attention to science and keep at it with passion and perseverance. When answering students’ questions, he humorously said that he was “the dullest in the family”. Although he didn’t start researching molecular machines from the beginning, however the excellent training during his schooldays prepared him for his future work. He refused to predict which field the next Nobel Prize of chemistry would be in, but he assured all the students that the future of chemistry was in their hands. By way of explanation, he said that just like modern painting in Spain and France changed the way painters paint, so chemistry had something in common with arts. Chemistry offered people many opportunities to create and to change the way we do things and think. “What students should do now is to learn the history and interlinked subjects of chemistry.” Finally he said that “there is no summit in the mountain of science. Since you are standing on the shoulders of giants, why not take the next great step yourself? “

When talking about the influence of Nobel Prize to his life, he said frankly that indeed it brought a lot of pressure and challenges. He called himself “a little celebrity” and felt greatly honored to have the opportunity to talk with Presidents and Prime Ministers. In addition, he liked the new status of a Nobel Prize Laureate which made it possible for him to share his experiences and research with people around the world and he was looking forward to having more opportunities and time to talk about science with Chinese young people. He also said that in his eyes, he may still be a “very old boy”.

In 2014, Professor Stoddart accepted the invitation of his good friend Professor Jay Siegel, Dean of the School of Pharmaceutical Science and Technology at Tianjin University, to come to the school and then was hired as a Professor. At this grand gathering, five Nobel Prize Laureates came to Tianjin University and attracted more than one hundred top scientists from around the world. Professor Stoddart said in an interview that teaching in Tianjin University was one of the best and happiest decisions he had ever made, and he would put more energy into mentoring of students in the future.

Five Nobel Prize Laureates in total were invited to attend a series of activities. In addition to Fraser Stoddart, Bruce Boitler, winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery concerning the activation of innate immunity in 2011, Ada E. Yonath, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome in 2009, Robert H. Grubbs, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on olefin metathesis in 2005, and K. Barry Sharpless, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions in 2001. These five Nobel winners gathered at Tianjin University on February 23, delivering their lectures for students at the symposium themed "A Dialogue with the Nobel Laureates Inspired by Their Research Careers". From February 24 to February 26, they worked with hundreds of top scientists around the world at the conference to discuss “the future of molecular science and human science and technology”. Twenty eight world-class scientists, including ten academicians from all over the world, delivered keynote speeches in the conference.

Some of the questions asked in this meeting.
Q: What do you think science and technology can bring to the energy and environmental crisis? Do we need scientific research to control traditional forms of energy in the future? What do you think of the situation, due the high production cost, that makes it hard for new energy forms to be widely used and how should we break the bottleneck of new energy applications?
A: I’m not an expert in the field of energy or green science. Edinburgh and London are also faced with various problems like many other places in the world, such as environmental and management problems. But what we all can do, I think, is to pay more attention to protecting the environment.

Q: What brings you to China and teach at the university (TJU)? Do you lose heart when facing with failures in experiments? How do you see success and failure?
A: I come to China because I really enjoy China. I think China is full of the kind of spirit that I like to see in people. I was very fortunate to be a schoolboy at a time when great minds got together and brought very much new thoughts and new ideas to the whole of the Western world. I think I was part of the spirit of looking into the future, having the courage to dream. And I think China has a very long history, and you young people are very fortunate to have all this backgrounds of rich history and culture that should enable and lead you to do remarkable things. I think there has to be some resets, some adjustments so that you can be in a best possible place to be creative. It doesn’t mean that you are going to have to be self-critical about what you do with your lives. It tells means that you should not just learn by rules, but to learn to be able to think and to be selective in the path you follow. The Chinese government are seeking best practice. And what best practice did I recommend: I recommended that the government think about giving scientists support and then just allow them to do what they enjoy doing. In my lab, a student in the university, not a major of chemistry, was for some reason very curious about chemistry and wanted to found out what these people do in the chemistry lab. And so, I let him into the chemistry lab with some senior members of my group. What drove him to do this is just the passion and love of doing what he did. After all what counts is your passion and love for science.

Q: Were you an excellent student in you class?
A: Actually, my wife is the first in my class. I was the second, I think. How did I perform in my school? I did well. In other words, I finished all I needed to do and passed the exam required to go to university. In university, I was not so interested in the attending lectures or sitting in examinations. My older daughter also has double degrees in chemistry and a PhD. In my autobiography for the Noble foundation I commented that I was the dullest in the family.

Q: Do you think artificial molecular machines can be as functional and powerful as natural systems?
A: Yes, they can be as powerful. But there’s still a long way to go. But someday we will witness artificial molecular machines bringing another industrial revolution to the world. The future of molecular machines will be remarkable. And as I look further into the future I can say that molecular machines will have incredible applications for both information technology and health science. I think you will live to see the miracle.

Q: Is there any possibility that molecular machine will be used as weapon, for example molecular gun?
A: I hope not. I love chemistry very much and I love this colorful world. I hope molecular machines will be used in the way that will help us live in a peaceful world. We can surely find a way to live in harmony in this planet earth.

Q: How did Nobel Prize change your life?
A: I’m living under a lot of pressure. I find it quite challenging to satisfy all interests people have, but I’m trying my best to turn myself into a “minor celebrity”. The new identity, of course, brings some good changes, such as having more opportunities to share my research and my experiences with more people and to encourage young people like you in this room to dream, to achieve further and better. As I have told you, I’m a very old boy, brought up on a farm in Scotland, and I didn’t travel any further than 25miles, 45 kilometers in the first 25 years in my life. But I have very good schooling and the support from my parents, so that I was able to take off and go to Canada, England, the United States and then China. It’s been an adventure. What I’m certain is that it is the price you have paid on the road that contributes to your extraordinary journey, will take you to many places, do many things and meet many excellent people. Yes, everything has positive aspects and negative aspects. I hope I’m able to manage negative ones and emphasis the positive things. So that’s why I’m here; to encourage you to have dream and to go into the world as individuals. The world is your oyster.

Q: Can molecular machine be used in cancer treatment, or is there any better remedy?
A: I have both passion and resolution to solve the problem, but I don’t think the result will be seen soon. We need time. We hope to find the solution to the problem and we are fighting for it, and we will work harder for a better society. What you can do is to maintain a healthy diet in daily life.

Q: As middle school students, we just study chemistry in textbooks. You may not study in this way when you were in high school. Was a high grade your only purpose while studying chemistry? Have you ever thought about becoming a master in that field?
A: I’d like to tell you a story. In high school, I had a lot of opportunities to do physical and chemical experiments. In the third grade (in university), a professor asked in front of hundreds of students that who could suck the liquid before us with their mouth. Nobody answered. So, in the following summer vacation, to solve this problem, I did a lot of work in addition to the examination. At that time, I had not started the study of molecular machines, but I had a lot of training as a student, which laid the foundation for my future research.

Q: Could you predict which field of chemistry will the next Nobel Prize Laureate be in?  And what is the future development direction of chemistry?
A:About the next Nobel Prize, I’m sorry that I can’t give any prediction. But about the direction of chemistry, what I want to say is that chemistry is in your hands. Just like modern painting in Spain and France changed the way painters paint, so chemistry has something in common with arts. By which I mean that chemistry offers you many opportunities to create and to change the way we think and do things in chemistry. What you should do is to learn the history and interlinked subjects of chemistry. There is no summit in the mountain of science. Since you are standing on the shoulders of giants, Why not take the next step yourself and make it a great one?

 

 

Original Article From: http://www.tju.edu.cn/english/News/Latest_News.htm

Learn More and Apply: Tianjin University

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