If you travel back to graduate school, what are you going to do?

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?《Science》，

How to start doing very well as a graduate student? Why is a graduate student important? We all know that the world's first-class research results are completed in the twenties

The second point I have been thinking about is what is the most important thing for graduate students? I think it is the ability to think independently

For the third point, I would like to talk to you about what I can do well and what I can not do well based on my experience in graduate school, so as to give you some inspiration

The first is to work hard

The third is to have thick skin and extensive cooperation and exchanges

Fourth, when doing research and cooperating with others, don't be preoccupied with small losses and take big advantages

First, the development goals are not clear.

　　Second, the development is not comprehensive

　　Third, think independently

　　Finally, I would like to talk about the four aspects from your postgraduate studies to your postgraduate graduation, which may be touched upon for your reference

　　I talked about four pieces, the first piece is the goal

Figure: Four Stages of Learning

　　I quoted a foreign professor saying that a circle is drawn here.

　　To sum up, what is the essential difference between graduate students and undergraduate students, undergraduate students learn knowledge, and graduate students learn to create knowledge

　　In the second part, I would like to talk about research ideas and attitudes from a macro perspective.
After all, we all belong to different majors, and we can’t talk about too many professional things
.
Research is like a long march.
The instructor gives you a direction, and the instructor may not necessarily follow this direction.
It must be very common for you to do it
.
The more inaccurate it may be, the more important it is, and no one has ever done it
.
This may cause this direction to not necessarily work, so you need to be flexible
.
At this time, you can't rigidly follow the instructions of the instructor and do it step by step.
You need to think independently.
After thinking, you can find your direction and whether you can do it or not.
Do you need to adjust, sometimes even major adjustments.
This is the first of the Long March a similar place
.
The second similarity is that the goal you need to adjust, but must be clear
.
You need to be clear about what the outcome of your adjustment is and why
.
Then you must have the belief that you will win, especially in the unknown direction, you will definitely encounter many difficulties.
If you believe that your thing is good, then you must persevere
.
I would like to talk about the four crossings of Chishui here.
Teacher Liu must know more about this Long March story than I do
.
From a military point of view, Sidu Chishui is a very important battle.
It has achieved a transition from being led by the enemy to being led by the enemy.
This may also be the case when doing research, because one thing has to be reversed.
Repeat several times
.
It's important that you don't let your supervisor lead you by the nose, because you are doing the research, and the supervisor only knows some aspects of it, and he can't possibly know better than you
.
This means that you need to do your own research on your own initiative
.

　　I would like to tell you a few stories in this regard
.
The first is Einstein's transcript.
You may have heard the legend of Einstein's three small benches.
According to my research, this is completely fabricated
.
Einstein has been very good since childhood, not the three small benches everyone imagines
.
Here's his high school transcript, Sweden 1898, out of 6, you can see his grades are excellent
.

　　The second little story is about graphene.
Geim is Russian.
Whether he goes to the United Kingdom or the United States, he will encounter the problem of nationality, so the situation was very difficult at the beginning, and there was no research funding
.
He thought that everyone was making carbon nanotubes.
This thing is very hot.
Why should I do it like everyone else? Can I open the carbon nanotubes and see what happens? Then he opened his brain to do it.
this matter
.
Opening up a new field will definitely encounter many, many difficulties, but if you think it is worth doing, don't give up easily
.
Novoselov is only two years older than me
.
The two of them, Geim withstood all the pressure from funding, assessment and other aspects, while Novoselov did research very seriously, which is very similar to the postgraduate stage, any funding is done by the supervisor, you need to do It's about doing research wholeheartedly
.
Graphene has won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Everyone who studies physics should know it, as well as those who study chemistry and materials.
I will not comment here
.

　　The third one is that it is the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
For its discovery, you can verify it.
There is a special article in nature nanotechnology.
It is very interesting for you to read
.
The first thing I found was three people from Exxon.
They finished and posted a very general article.
Then Smalley saw it.
He thought it was very interesting, so he bought the same instrument as Exxon.
I got it in the same way.
This is an article they published in nature.
They drew a soccer ball and a schematic diagram of the experiment, copied from Exxon, and then a mass spectrum
.
Just such an article, he won the Nobel Prize, why? Looking back, you need to know what is gold and what is sand
.
The people at Exxon threw it away like sand, while Smalley did a series of studies to understand the properties
.
So you have to be a person with a heart for research, and opportunities are always given to those who are prepared
.

　　The fourth talk about the discoverer of white dwarf stars, Chandrasekka, why do I know this person? In the 40s and 50s, he drove 3 hours a day to teach a class, rain or shine, there were only 2 people in that class, then Two people later won the Nobel Prize, they are Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao
.
So I know the name of this person.
He is an Indian scientist.
He also has a very powerful uncle who has won a Nobel Prize, and that is Raman
.

　　The last story is about Landau, who once said, "Who is the pretty girl?" I asked my undergraduates who was the pretty girl in that sentence, and they said it was Marie Curie
.
Landau's beautiful girl refers to the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.
He said that beautiful girls have been taken away by others, so I will do something else! There are two types of scientists, one is step-by-step, A pushes B, B pushes out C, C pushes out D, and finally gets a great discovery; the other type is like Landau and Bohr, they get a thing without analyzing or speculating, but relying on intuition, and seeing the result at a glance, They are geeks, and such scientists are extremely rare
.
Although the importance of what he finally did was much lower than that of relativity and quantum mechanics, he was very attentive to do it, and finally won the Nobel Prize
.
There is a "Landau Ten Pieces" that this physics student should know
.
On his birthday, someone gave him a board engraved with ten great contributions he made
.
He has made a lot of achievements, basically doing one line to do the best, doing one line love one line, and going all out
.
This is one of the advantages of Landau, I think this is very important, you can't do one line and throw away one line
.
Another advantage of Landau is that it dares to challenge authority
.
Once Einstein gave a report, as I said just now, Landau could see the conclusion of many things intuitively.
He directly said that Einstein’s equations were wrong.
Later, after thinking about it for a long time, Landau felt that Landau is right
.
You think that Einstein was an absolute authority at that time, while Landau was just a young man who dared to point out the mistakes of authority when he stood up.
I think this kind of courage is needed to do research
.
What he did wrong, I don't know if everyone has heard this story
.
In 1956, the Soviet physicist Shapiro had discovered parity non-conservation.
He also wrote a paper at that time, and then showed it to Landau, because at that time, people needed to recommend a paper to publish.
Landau thought it was impossible.
Symmetry should be conserved, leave the paper aside
.
A few months later, Yang Zhenning and Li Zhengdao published a paper on parity non-conservation, which makes people feel very unfortunate
.
Looking back, in addition to Landau's academic hegemony, Shapiro should also reflect on what he thinks is right, why didn't he dare to insist? Landau was wrong, and he could also publish papers
.
Here is a positive example, the Indian man mentioned above.
His Nobel Prize-winning results were made in the 1930s, when he was at Cambridge University, but his results were not recognized by an astronomical authority at that time.
, that authority criticized him every time they met, but he always insisted on his own views, and later he went to the United States, the authority who opposed him also died, and won the Nobel Prize in the 1980s
.
Once I saw an interesting statement on the Internet: the new theory wins the old theory not because the people of the new theory convince the people of the old theory, but because the people of the old theory die and the people of the new theory die Educating the next generation
.
Therefore, I have been emphasizing one point with my students: you need to exercise, not exercise.
I have given you many examples, including the discovery of the double helix, which was first made by a female scientist.
She pursues perfection and has never published it.
, later died young, and when the Nobel Prize was awarded, she had already passed away, and she had no chance to win the Nobel Prize
.

　　I just talked about looking up at the starry sky.
Next, I will talk about how to carry out experimental work.
These are some of my personal impressions
.
If you want to do it, you must do it best, and the experimental results you get should also have a positive attitude.
You want it to be A, and the result may be an "-A".
In many cases, the opposite result is also very good.
important, even more important
.
Once, I listened to a report, also a big scientist, he said: "If you get the opposite result, it is likely to make a major discovery
.
" Focus your energy on some big scientific problems, Don't get caught up in the details
.
Also, do a lot of experiments.
If your experiments don't convince yourself, even if you publish an article, experts can see the quality of your work at a glance.
When you develop well in the future, this will be good for your reputation.
will have a big impact
.
So experiment a bit more so you can get a better idea of ​​how your work is going
.
Of course, there are many experiments that fail for no reason.
When I was doing anionic polymerization, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't do it.
Then one day I suddenly made it, and it has been done since then
.
So, sometimes there are too many reasons for failure to find out, so the easiest way is to repeat it
.
I think experimental science is like this, you need to do it diligently, and there is a certain probability to do it
.
Mr.
Mao Yisheng said: "Diligence is the mother of success
.
" Everyone is very smart when they reach the postgraduate level.
You can do better than others because you pay more
.

　　To develop a good habit, I myself am very bad at this, and I have suffered a lot
.
When I was studying for a master's degree in Fudan, I did a lot of work, some of which were very important
.
Everyone knows that there is a certain lag in writing a paper.
Because the experimental record book is very bad, after going abroad to look at the experimental data, I can't remember the conditions under which these data were obtained.
The experimental conditions are not good enough to write.
Publishing an article, because the conditions are not to be scribbled, otherwise others will not be able to repeat it, that is fraud
.
At that time, I felt that I definitely remembered these experimental conditions, and I did remember them at the time.
When repeating the experiment, I did not need to read the experimental notebook.
However, human memory always has certain limitations.
After a year, some If it is not clear, you will not be able to publish articles at this time, and the loss will be great
.
So develop a good experimental habit
.
I went out of my way to find a well-done lab record
.
In my opinion, to do experimental science, there must be two experimental notebooks, one is the plan book and the other is the record book
.
The plan is a plan before the experiment.
What will I do tomorrow, what will I do in a week, etc.
, and then think about how much time it will take to do these experiments, what steps, what things need to pay attention to, etc.
Your ideas for doing experiments will be very clear, which can improve efficiency and increase the safety of experiments.
There is no plan for experiments, and it is easy to have security accidents when you are in a hurry
.
When doing experiments, be more careful, and write every step clearly, including time, temperature, and weather.
Chinese laboratories are different from those in the United States.
They are not constant temperature, and these are all influential
.
This way, it will be very convenient for you to write your thesis, because everything is written! You will be very fast when you write your graduation thesis or publish your thesis, and it will be very efficient for others to repeat your experiments.
I strongly recommend this to everyone.
Recommended
.

Figure: Experiment plan book and experiment record book

　　"The amount of information is inversely proportional to creativity" I don't agree.
I think it is still necessary to read a lot of literature.
You don't know what other people are doing, how can you do better than others? You don't know other people's stuff, how can you Know if your stuff is good or bad
.
So keep up to date with the latest information, which is the top journals in the field
.
There is a trend now that good results are gathered in the top journals
.
"nature" established its authoritative position in the scientific field in the 1950s.
Before that, no one knew what "nature" was
.
This is the case now, and the same is true in the United States.
Good results are still published in "Nature" and "Science", and then they are rejected and then submitted to other journals
.
And now there is too much literature, so you can read these authoritative journals
.
Can't say 100%, the vast majority of good results are in these journals, which saves you time
.

　　Another point, what I want to talk about is to actively participate in academic reports, not to work behind closed doors
.
I think our teachers should also reflect on this.
Teachers have a lot of things to do, but there should be time to listen to the report.
Academic reports are a good opportunity for communication.
We need to gradually improve in this regard
.
If you are a classmate, you need to participate, because the teacher has many communication channels, and the students are very good
.
Especially for some masters, if you ask questions and chat with others, it will also be very helpful for you in the future
.
For example, if you want to go to him for a postdoctoral study, or for a network that is very important for you to do research independently in the future, the network is built slowly in this way, not all at once
.
Therefore, you need to seize the opportunity to chat with others.
There are always some people, and you will find that others have a good impression of you.
In this way, when you encounter difficulties, others are very willing to help you
.

　　I think a very important point in scientific research papers is drawing.
The role of drawing is very large, especially for good journals.
Some people abroad pay for drawing
.
When we are reviewing the paper now, when we get the paper, look at the picture first.
Sometimes the picture is ugly at first glance, and it will give you a very bad impression
.
Our native language is not English, and good journals are basically in English.
We emphasize the use of logical rigor to conquer editors and reviewers.
There should be no grammatical errors.
Of course, beautiful language is better
.
Regarding language training, here is a method recommended by Shi Yigong of Tsinghua University
.
He recalled that when he was a graduate student, his English was very poor.
In order to improve his English, he read news reports or articles in English every day for at least half an hour
.
Later, he trained English as a graduate student, and he found this method very useful
.
When you first start writing a paper, you can imitate others, but don't plagiarize.
According to the English definition, six consecutive words that are the same are considered plagiarism, so everyone must pay attention
.
Writing an article must be enthusiastic and recognize its importance.
It is as important as doing an experiment.
Of course, the article needs to be revised.
Lu Xun said it well, "a good article needs to be revised 20 times
.
" I think 20 times It is completely necessary.
You must be satisfied with the article yourself.
It is impossible to satisfy the reviewers if you are not satisfied
.
In addition, everyone must learn to make academic reports.
Academic reports must be logical and pay attention to the audience's reaction.
Slides should try to use pictures to illustrate the problem, and use a small number of keywords to emphasize; If there is no enthusiasm, the audience will definitely be more lethargic, and of course body language, etc.
I highly respect Premier Zhou Enlai in this regard, and this picture with Nixon can be seen more clearly
.
I'm not very good in this aspect myself, but I can't change it.
I haven't developed a good habit
.

　　Finally, talk about writing the graduation thesis
.
To quote Mao Zedong: "The article should be accurate, clear, and vivid
.
" He has an introduction on how to make the article accurate, clear, and vivid, and you can read it
.
There is one more point, don't say empty words, any point of view must be supported by materials
.
It’s the same with writing recommendation letters, and empty words are definitely a bad recommendation letter
.
This is a sentence from Tao Xingzhi.
When we write academic papers, we do not say that we want to let the mother understand, at least colleagues should understand it at a glance
.

　　I have noticed that the preface and acknowledgements of the graduation thesis are copied here and there.
I think this is a bad habit.
Don’t pursue length and express what you want to express in your own words
.
Regarding thanks, there are many templates on the Internet.
Generally, the first paragraph is to thank Mr.
XX Gao Fengliangjie.
I have benefited a lot in my life.
Teachers who put it in ABCD can apply.
Next, I would like to thank my classmate ABCDE.
Anyone can take it and change the name.
Okay, that doesn't make much sense
.
Acknowledgment is to say what you want to say, if you have it, you have it, if you don't have it, you don't have it, and you can say as much as you have
.
Here I give you an example of thanks to former US President Clinton:

　　To my mother, who gave me a love of life

　　To Hillary, who gave me a life of love To Chelsea, who gave joy and meaning to it all

　　And to the memory of my grandfather, who taught me

　　to look up to people others looked down on, because we are not so different after all

　　—Bill Clinton

　　This acknowledgment is very targeted
.
He thanked his mother, who gave him the love of life; he thanked his wife, who gave him the love of his life; he thanked his daughter, who gave him the joy and meaning of life; and he especially thanked his maternal grandfather, because he His grandfather taught him one thing, and that is to respect those who are despised, because in essence no one is much higher than the other, and all people are equal
.
The content is very clear and the language is beautiful
.
The following is my translation, I try to keep his original meaning, not necessarily correct, for your reference
.
So, no matter what you write, use your own words and don't copy others.
Chinese people have this problem, and so do
I.

　　In the end I hope I don't see a scenario like this:

　　I found this from "Nature".
He has a PhD and has been a postdoctoral fellow for 3 years.
I counted at least 11 years and only published 6 articles in 11 years, so he can only work for food.
This is a comparison Poor, I hope that our graduate students will work for fun in the future, and you will do it when you are enjoying it, so that you can do your best
.
So I hope to see the real certificate many years later.
What kind of certificate is this? The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2005 was awarded to Robert H.
Grubbs, and I hope to see the real certificate here
.
How many years will it be after so many years? I hope not 10,000 years
.
thank you all!