Chapter 270: A Responsible Boss
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The autumn wind turned the leaves on the treetops yellow.
It was finally September, the students who were on a three-month long vacation began to return to campus. The empty Princeton campus finally became lively again.
At the same time, Xiao Tong, who has been vacationing in Princeton for the past two weeks, had to say goodbye.
Lu Zhou drove her to the airport and pulled out her suitcase from the trunk.
Xiao Tong took the suitcase and had a sad expression as she said, “Brother, I’m leaving.”
“Yeah, be careful. Go back home directly after you land,” said Lu Zhou. He felt a little worried, so he said, “Screw it, I’ll go buy a ticket and send you home myself.”
“No, no,” said Xiao Tong as she waved her hand. She forced a smile as she said, “I’m not a kid anymore, I can take care of myself.”
Lu Zhou had a smile of relief.
“Yeah, you’re right, you’re old now. Oh yeah, about mom… ”
Xiao Tong said, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll tell mom not to worry!”
Lu Zhou nodded and joked, “Then thank you, Miss Inspector!”
After he bade farewell to Xiao Tong, Lu Zhou stood on the sidewalk and watched her walked into the airport.
Xiao Tong stopped at the entrance of the airport. She then looked back and waved her hands.
Lu Zhou smiled at his sister and waved back.
Coincidentally, while he was waving, an acquaintance approached him.
Molina was dragging her suitcase out of the airport when she noticed Lu Zhou waving. She was stunned.
Obviously, she had not expected to see Lu Zhou because she did not tell anyone which flight she was taking.
She clearly misunderstood the situation.
Molina had a smirk on her lips as she walked toward Lu Zhou.
Lu Zhou noticed her as well.
He was about to say hello, but she spoke first.
“Thanks, I really didn’t expect you to come to pick me up.”
Molina walked past Lu Zhou and put her suitcase into Lu Zhou’s car trunk.
She then looked at him and with her blonde hair gently swaying, she said, “Since you gave me such a nice surprise, I won’t ask where you got my flight information.”
She opened the car seat and sat on the passenger seat.
Lu Zhou looked at her and did not react. Molina was stunned. She frowned and asked, “Is there a problem?”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “No problem, I’m going back to Princeton anyway…”
Although Lu Zhou sounded a bit weird, Molina was in a good mood so she did not care.
Lu Zhou opened the door and sat in the driver’s seat. He was about to start the car but he hesitated.
Although it was not a big deal to pick someone up, and Molina had picked him up before, Lu Zhou did not want to have any misunderstandings so he felt it was necessary to clarify.
Therefore, before he started the car, he said, “By the way, I was actually here to send my sister back to China.”
Molina, “…?”
…
After Xiao Tong returned to China, Lu Zhou’s life returned to normal again.
Over the next few days, he would either be at the Institute for Advanced Study, Frick Chemistry Laboratory, or his apartment.
In order to build a logically self-consistent mathematical model, and to complete his PowerPoint, he needed to do more experiments.
Although this sounded cumbersome, it was not that bad.
For a mathematician, especially one who was involved in mathematical physics, building the model after obtaining the results from the experiments was a piece of cake.
Of course, this was not only for those materials scientists that did not understand mathematics.
A rigor mathematical model could accurately predict the physical properties of an untested material. It could also provide a reference to the experimenter.
For example, it could narrow down the scope of the experiment.
Also, Lu Zhou needed to perform multiple Coulomb cycles on this sample in order to promote the technology. He had to compare the performance of the two materials by using a graphite negative electrode as the control group.
The academic community was concerned with breakthroughs. The market was concerned with a series of production issues such as safety and costs. More results meant a higher bargaining power for Lu Zhou.
The only thing that annoyed him was that the experiments took a long time. As for the experiment that required expensive types of equipment, he had to personally keep an eye on the progress.
Normally a boss would not personally do this stuff. Instead, they would delegate it to someone down under. However, Lu Zhou was a mathematics professor. Since all of his students were in the field of mathematics, they could not help him at all.
Thankfully, Professor Chirik solved this problem for him.
He had a lot of students and except for a few who often did experiments and attended conferences, most of them were free.
When Lu Zhou heard that he had more than a dozen master’s students, he nearly choked.
“A dozen? How can you manage so many at once?”
Professor Chirik said nonchalantly, “Find a few talented ones and train them. For the rest, don’t bother with them.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Sure enough, a good scholar doesn’t mean you are a good supervisor.
This guy must’ve sent offers out like candies, and ruined the academic careers of some students.
Lu Zhou suddenly wondered if as a boss, he was a bit too responsible…
…
In any case, he had found his helper.
The next day, Professor Chirik brought his student over to Lu Zhou.
This young student was tall and well-built. It did not look like he did research. Instead, he looked like he was a rugby player.
However, Lu Zhou was not too weirded out.
Professor Chirik walked in and said, “This is Connie, the one I told you about. He’s well versed in computer science, organic chemistry, and applied mathematics, he should be able to help you.”
That Connie guy warmly reached out his hand and looked at Lu Zhou with worship reflected in his eyes.
“Hello, Professor Lu, very nice to meet you!”
Lu Zhou shook his hand and smiled.
“Hello.”
Professor Chirik patted Connie’s shoulder and said, “Okay, Connie, I already explained what you need to do. You’re facing the top computational materials science professor at Princeton, so study hard, and don’t humiliate me.”
Connie smiled and said, “Rest assured professor, I won’t let you down.”
Lu Zhou coughed and said, “I’m not exactly the top, I just did a little work.”
“No no no, don’t need to be humble,” said Professor Chirik as he waved his hand. He then said with a serious tone, “There have been many theses published in Nature over the past decade, but not many have caused such a sensation. It’s no exaggeration to say that you have changed the industry personally. The work you did was undoubtedly great.”
Lu Zhou smiled and did not respond.
It would be up to the world to decide if it was great.
With the addition of Connie, Lu Zhou was finally freed from the tedious and boring repetitive work.
Maybe it was because this guy had been benched by Professor Chirik for too long, he worked quite hard for Lu Zhou.
No matter how late he worked, he would still arrive at the laboratory at six o’clock the next morning.
Two and a half busy months passed by quickly.
Finally, before Black Friday in November, Lu Zhou made six samples of lithium batteries after completing the Coulomb cycle 1000-2000 times.
The results were gratifying. Other than a small dent in the negative electrode material, there were no lithium dendrites forming.
The No. 7 control group sample did not use the PDMS material. The copper foil was already filled with lithium dendrites, and the battery was completely destroyed. It was obvious how amazing Lu Zhou’s research results were.
At last, he finished all of the preparations. As for now, he just had to wait for the conference to begin…
