Domestic scientific research gives nation technological gains

Chinese scientist Zhang Ge uses three words to describe the spirit of being a researcher — patience, perseverance and obsession.

After 20 years of working in the scientific field, Zhang and his team, at the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed one of the most sophisticated reflectors for use in the country’s space exploration and defense industry.

It means that China no longer needs to rely on other countries to produce such high-tech equipment.

“If a telescope can be compared to the human eye, then the reflector is the cornea,” Zhang said.

“Equipped with such a device, a satellite can focus on things on Earth as small as an apple sitting on a table.”

In 2016, they built a reflector using silicon carbide, a material that is also used in light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. It had a diameter of 4.03 meters, larger than that of the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency-led mission.

However, the success came after years of struggle, Zhang said.

When his team was first put together, they didn’t have enough people or funding, so members had to work long shifts to ensure research was carried out 24 hours a day.

Zhang’s teacher Zhao Wenxing, also a founder of the project, said that the spirit of diving into problems head first was key to making scientific breakthroughs through research.

“He first said those three words — patience, perseverance and obsession. And we all kept that in mind,” Zhang said.

Cui Congcong joined the team in 2012. He said that one time the sintering furnace, used in the production of silicon carbide, was broken and no one knew what they should do, with Zhang deciding to drill into the furnace himself to examine and solve the problem.

Scientific innovation cannot be accomplished in one step. It needs long-term persistence and accumulation.”

Lu Lehui, leader of a chemical devices development team at the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

“It’s the spirit of devotion that helped us complete the impossible mission,” Cui said.

Nothing is certain in scientific research, but that doesn’t mean that it is not worth the effort, Zhang added.

The spirit is shared with Lu Lehui, leader of a chemical devices development team at Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“Scientific innovation cannot be accomplished in one step. It needs long-term persistence and accumulation,” Lu said.

His team combined chemical engineering and biological analysis to develop more than 10 new devices that are today used in environmental monitoring and protection.

Commercialization of scientific research also brings economic benefits. Lu’s team has worked with Jilin Grand Analysis Technology Co to set up eight automated environment monitoring stations along Taihu Lake and Liangtang River Wetland Park in the city of Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu province, to record real-time conditions of the water and soil.

To date, the team has trained some 600 postgraduates, seven of which have won national-level awards for their doctorate dissertations.