Students in round table with boffins
A SPECIAL young scientists forum was held at the World Laureates Forum yesterday.
Chinese and American young scientists presented their research work to the laureates, who then led round table discussions with students from local middle to graduate schools.
Each table paired one or two top scientists with around 10 students for a brainstorming session.
“For me, one of the real highlights (of the three-day forum) was just sitting down today with nine students and discussing the future of the world,” Nobel laureate in chemistry Michael Levitt said.
Over the past three days, Levitt had repeatedly stressed the importance of giving young scientists space to grow and “letting young people have their crazy ideas,” which was echoed by all the scientists.
The students, selected by Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, all have a strong interest in science with many having won international and domestic awards in science and innovation competitions.
“It was a fantastic experience to see so many legendary Nobel laureates here in one room, and even more so to be sitting at the same table and talking with one of them,” Fan Yueyang, a 12th grader at No. 2 High School of East China Normal University, told Shanghai Daily.
Fan has won many awards, including the top winner in plant sciences category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
He is primarily interested in biology and has been working on extracting effective compounds from traditional Chinese medicines. He is following in the footsteps of his role model Tu Youyou, the 2015 Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology of Medicine.
Frank Wilczek, the 2004 Nobel laureate in physics, chaired the round table discussion at Fan’s group, which changed the 12th grader’s perception about science.
“Previously, I thought it would be better to focus on a specific area at an early age, but Prof Wilczek encouraged us to be curious about all subjects because they are all inter-connected nowadays,” he said.
Top Chinese hematologist and molecular biologist Chen Saijuan was impressed by the intelligence, communication skills and excellent English of the students.
“I think these kids are the future of the science and technology in our country,” she said. “I have hopes that there might be a Nobel laureate from these students one day.”
But the students have even bigger dreams.
“My dream is not to win a Nobel Prize for myself, but that China becomes such a country strong in science and technology one day and we set up a top international award like the Nobel Prize in China,” said Yang Hongjia, an 11th grader at the High School Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University.