Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou was eating noodles in the cafeteria when he received a call from Professor Li Rongen. He was thinking about a thesis from the journal Material Science and Engineering which was about the theoretical calculation of graphene semi-electron mobility.
“Hey, Lu Zhou.”
“What?”
“You can publish that thesis.”
“Oh.”
“I mean, now that we’ve already submitted the final report to the higher authorities for an application of a conclusion report!”
“… ?!”
When Lu Zhou finally realized what happened, he stood up from his chair, which scared the couple sitting next to him.
He took a deep breath and held his phone tight as he asked with an excited and trembling tone, “We… succeeded?”
Professor Li Rongen smiled and used a positive tone to reply, “Yes! You’re right! We succeeded!”
Lu Zhou quickly asked, “What’s the ratio?”
“0.47wt%, your guess was completely correct! The best ratio of CNTs material to cement is indeed between 0.4 and 0.5, no more than 1wt%. We have made an empirical and inertial mistake. This could have been avoided,” said Professor Li Rongen as he was overwhelmed by his emotion.
“Professor Li, can you send me the thesis about the blending ratio of CNTs material?”
“Of course, I already sent it to your email,” said Professor Li Rongen with a smile.
Lu Zhou hung up the phone and quickly finished his bowl of noodles. He then went straight to the library.
He sat down in the library and quickly opened the email on his computer. Once he downloaded the PDF version of the thesis, he quickly found the section about the ratio.
“… When the CNTs material content is 0.5wt%, the compressive strength and tensile strength of cement increase by 47.1% and 34.2%, respectively.”
Finally, this last technical difficulty was solved. The entire problem came to a successful conclusion.
It was not just only the ratio of CNTs material to cement-based materials, but also the surface functional modification of CNTs material, and even the design of production processes, etc. These problems were all solved during this research project, but Lu Zhou was not involved in the other segments.
With the end of the entire research project led by Professor Li Rongen’s team, they could publish at least five theses and two technical patents.
If Lu Zhou recalled correctly, not only was this project supported by the National Engineering and Materials Science Fund and the Provincial Science and Technology Department fund, but it also received an investment from the company, Zhongshan New Materials.
When the time arrived, Professor Li would split the research into two parts and submit two conclusion reports. One would be the vertical process of the research and the other would be about the horizontal process of the research.
In addition to the published theses, the two patents should belong to Zhongshan New Materials.
Next was to submit the materials used and receive the fund settlement statement, project research reimbursement, and then they should wait for the feedback from the project authorities…
However, Lu Zhou did not have to worry about these complicated things. There were designated people in the lab who were responsible for this type of thing.
Lu Zhou leaned against his chair and took a deep breath.
This torturous research finally came to an end.
However, he felt an inexplicable sense of being lost.
It was like a large stone was lifted off his chest, but he missed the pressure of the stone.
When Lu Zhou looked at the thesis again, he was surprised to find his name in the list of authors.
Obviously, his contribution to the thesis was recognized by all of the project members. Even if he had never seen the old campus laboratory, he still received a high degree of evaluation.
He loosened his fist and suddenly shook his head. He then started to stare at the computer screen.
“My battle isn’t over yet… I still have an SCI thesis left!”
The last step!
He opened a word document and his fingers danced on the keyboard.
[Fourier FTIR Spectroscopy Analysis and Mathematical Method for the Effect of Carbon Nanotube Materials on Cement Early Age Hydration Reaction
[Abstract: The hydration process of Portland cement and its carbon nanotube modified samples at an early age was characterized by FTIR. Through mathematical methods such as functional analysis, mathematical models were established. It was concluded that CNTs material did not affect the hydration reaction in early stage when they were mixed with Portland cement.
[Introduction…]
…
Lu Zhou spent the entire day typing up the thesis. When he finally finished it, he brought it to the lab.
Once he entered the lab, it was like Brother Qian had gone crazy. He hugged Lu Zhou and shouted excitedly, “We did it! Lu Zhou, we did it!”
“Okay, okay. I know, I know!”
Finally, Liu Bo was able to get rid of Brother Qian’s hug. However, Liu Bo then smiled and walked over with his arms open. Luckily, Lu Zhou managed to dodge and escape.
Professor Li Rongen stood aside with a smile and looked at the group of young people.
He waited for the excitement to end before he spoke.
“You finished the thesis?”
“Finished.”
Lu Zhou took out the USB but was rejected by Professor Li.
“You don’t have to show it to me. I’ve already read the first draft you gave me and there are no problems in it. You did all of the research by yourself, so publish it in your own name.”
“How can I do that, the data…”
Professor Li smiled and said, “Then write Liu Bo and Qian Zhongming name on it. The Fourier infrared spectrum data was collected by them. Or you can add my name to the fourth place. It doesn’t matter for me. Anyway, what I hope is that you can become my graduate student.”
Embarrassed, Lu Zhou smiled and did not answer.
This was difficult to answer.
It was not that he disliked Professor Li. The main reason was that he did not think about which direction he wanted to study in the future.
Professor Li smiled and changed the subject, “Computational materials calculation is an emerging interdisciplinary field. The general material science journals are not strong in reviewing this field. My suggestion is that you can choose the foreign Computational Materials Science submission. Although the impact factor I saw last time seems to be only 2.2, the influence of a journal cannot be measured by the impact factor alone.”
“As for the signature of the paper, just write your own name. You don’t have to take care of me. I published five theses in one field with the help of my team, what’s one more?”
Professor Li was not bragging when he said this. His team was well funded and their research ability was strong. Averaging at least 10 theses per year.
Professor Li never cared too much about the author name placements for theses.
As for the fourth author…
The domestic academic environment was different than in foreign countries. Only the first author mattered. Second and third name placement might be meaningful for master’s students, but for a professor like him, it was of no use.
The professor cared only about practical results.
Stuff like patents.
Lu Zhou still wanted to say something but was interrupted by Professor Li.
“Okay, let’s stop talking about academics. I booked a few tables at the Zijinshan hotel, I’ll drive you guys. We’ve worked for an entire year, so let’s have a feast tonight. Your travel expenses from now on will be reimbursed!”
Liu Bo, “Professor Li, thank you! So generous!”
Brother Qian also shouted some words.
A smile appeared on Lu Zhou’s face, but his expression was slightly weird.
Wait a minute…
Isn’t the Jin Autumn Singing Show tonight?
He promised Shi Shang that he would go and support him.
Emm…
Oh well, I’ll ditch him.
For Lu Zhou, eating with professors in a big hotel was a lot more tempting than standing in a school gymnasium.
