On April 29, Prof. Dan Shechtman, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, paid a visit to HSXJTU and held a cordial conversation with HSXJTU teachers and students. His own research story told us that “confidence and persistence is the secret for success”
Prof. Dan Shechtman, born in 1941, is an Israeli scientist of Matierials Sience. He won the Nobel Prize in 2011 for his discovery of quasicrystal. Prof. Shechtman was attending BIT’s 3rd World DNA and Genome Day in Xi’an. His visit to HSXJTU met with warm welcome from HSXJTU Faculty and students. Mr.Chen Dawei, Vice president of Xi’an Council for Promotion of International Trade and Mme. Tang Weihua, Party Secretary of Beilin Education Bureau also joined this visit.
“Stick to the right direction and never give up, you will eventually succeed.”
Prof. Shechtman gave a wonderful lecture in which he introduced how he did his research and found quasicrystals. He first found this abnormal phenomenon through electron microscope---a non-periodic icosahedral phase in quasicrystals.This discovery met with enormous opposition. His supervisor even gave him an undergraduate rudimentary textbook and asked him to study the “common sense of crystal structure”. In order to continue his research and study this special crystal, he was forced to leave his research team.
Prof Shechtman said that confidence and persistence led him to success. If he had abandoned his view when meeting with doubts and sarcasm from academic authorities including two-time Nobel Prize winner, people would never have found the existence of quasicrystal which is something between crystals and non-crystals.But now scientists all admit the existence of quasicrystal and began to reconsider material structure.
Follow your true heart
Prof Schechtman’s lecture sparked tons of questions from the audience. One student asked how to become a qualified talent. Prof Shechtman said,”It is crucial for high school students to choose subjects that they love and to follow their true heart. To do what you like and work constantly hard on what you choose. Strive to be the first in class, at school, in your city, your country and even in the world. You will then eventually become an expert.”
Prof. Shechtman also said, “When you discover a new thing, first of all you must make sure it is really new, and then try to explain what you see. You can listen to others but don’t be misled by them, neither do you give up; Persistence is a must for any creative scientist. All discoveries in science are based on experiments. Don’t believe blindly in any theory. Always honor the truth instead of taking books and authorities for granted”
“Teacher’s influence on students is profound and far-reaching”
When heard a question from one Chemistry teacher, Prof Schechtman obviously with stirred-up emotion, said that teachers’ influence remains throughout students’ life. This is how he feels for his high school Physics teacher. “He is a perfect teacher. One day, he asked me to come to the blackboard to solve a circuit diagram with a resister in it which he had just drawn. When I finally finished it, he said,’Dan understands physics’. I was 17 then and remembered his words forever”.
Prof. Schechtman said that education is broader than teaching, for the former also includes guiding on values and encourages on teenagers. He believes that society should invest more money and energy on good teachers in order to keep the talents.
After answering questions, Prof. Schechtman visited campus, chemistry lab, biology lab and also answered a few questions about experiments.
