The Full List of Candidates for Academician
Professor Cui and Chairman Zhu recommended Shen Qi as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics. Shen Qi couldn't be stingy with the two gentlemen, so he treated the two Nobel laureates to a meal to express his gratitude.
Eating is secondary; the important thing is communication.
Mr. Cui and Mr. Zhu are quite old, but compared to the other four Chinese Nobel Prize in Physics, they are relatively young. They are in good health, have a good appetite, can chew steak, and can even drink some red wine.
The other four Nobel laureates, the youngest of whom is close to 90 years old, are enjoying their retirement at home and are not in the public eye.
Shen Qi won the Fields Medal in his twenties and will be aiming for the Nobel Prize next year. The two elders praised Shen Qi highly, saying that the Chinese Physics Community needs a successor to carry the banner of the new era, and they felt that Shen Qi was the most suitable candidate.
Grandpa Cui smokes; he's smoked his whole life and can't quit. He lit a cigarette and said, "I was born in the countryside and did farm work from a young age, but my studies didn't suffer. I often got full marks in Science and Engineering, chemistry, Chinese, and English. I've done farm work, so I'm good with my hands. I love doing physics experiments, and I've been doing them my whole life. Doing experiments is more addictive than smoking."
"Professor Cui is also a top student, impressive." Shen Qi and Professor Cui actually had some connection. When he was a mathematics professor at Princeton, Professor Cui was a Physics Department professor at Princeton University. They were alumni with Princeton University backgrounds.
Chairman Zhu, who once held a high-ranking position in the U. S. Department of Energy, was born in the United States. His whole family were scholars: his father and aunt were chemists, his mother was an economist, his brother was a medical scientist, and his younger brother was a political and legal scholar.
Schultz said his family lacked a mathematician, so he studied mathematics and won the Fields Medal.
Chairman Zhu's situation is similar to Schultz's; his family lacked a physicist, so he studied physics and won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Shen Qi said, "Chairman Zhu, I have a connection with you. When I was in high school, I did a physics competition problem that was adapted from your laser cooling experiment. It required me to calculate a physical parameter. I was the only one in our competition team who solved it. It was really difficult."
Chairman Zhu laughed and said, "That must be difficult. It was this experiment that won me the Nobel Prize. One year, the final question in the IPhO exam was about this experiment."
Shen Qi raised his wine glass. "I feel a connection with these two seniors. I'm getting married soon, and if you two are in China when I get married, I hope you will do me the honor of attending my wedding."
"Good thing."
"Congratulations."
The two gentlemen raised their glasses in congratulations, wishing Shen Qi a successful marriage and that he would win the heart of his beloved.
After having dinner with the two Nobel laureates, Shen Qi returned to his home in the apartment building.
Ou Ye was particularly diligent today; she cleaned the house spotless, made a soup, and prepared several side dishes.
The soup was alright, the dishes were just average, but it was all made with good intentions from Ou Ye.
Shen Qi poured himself two ounces of baijiu (Chinese liquor), picked up a piece of stir-fried sweet potato leaves with his chopsticks, and asked, "What day is it today that Madam Shen is cooking in person?"
"I'm not even your wife yet." Ou Ye ladled out a bowl of chicken soup and handed it to Shen Qi: "You really didn't know?"
Shen Qi: "Know what?"
"You've made the list, the list of newly elected academicians." Ou Ye handed her phone to Shen Qi so he could see the news.
According to mobile news reports, the Chinese Academy of Sciences) announced today that the peer review process for the election of new Chinese Academy of Sciences has been completed.
150 people were shortlisted for the initial candidate list. The youngest was Shen Qi, 26 years old, and the oldest was a medical professor, 86 years old.
The youngest candidate is 60 years older than the oldest, a full cycle of sixty years, an entire era.
Shen Qi has been nominated as a candidate for academician of the Department of Mathematical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After the peer review process is completed, a vote by all academicians of the division and a meeting review will be conducted.
The selection process involves three stages: peer review (first stage), election by all academicians of the division (second stage), and review by the conference (third stage).
The third option is simply raising your hand or clapping, which is just a formality. The most important option is the second one.
It is said that preparations for the second election have begun intensively after the results of the first election were announced, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences will announce the results of the second election soon.
"22 people were selected for the list of newly elected academicians of the Department of Mathematical Physics. Usually, more than half of them are not selected, and only one-third are ultimately elected as academicians. In other words, I need to get more than two-thirds of the votes of all academicians in the Department of Mathematical Physics to have a chance of being elected as an academician." Shen Qi quickly calculated the probability of winning the bid.
"You've already done a remarkable job to be selected as the youngest member of the 150-person list." Ou Ye quite admired Shen Qi, and she put a potato chip on his plate as encouragement.
"The election of academicians should be fair and just, right? There shouldn't be any shady dealings, right?" Shen Qi knew that there were 153 academicians in the Department of Mathematical Physics, which meant 153 valid votes. Among them, nearly 20 academicians were familiar with Shen Qi, and about 30 academicians had dealt with Shen Qi before.
Shen Qi was completely unfamiliar with the remaining 100 academicians in the fields of mathematics and physics, and didn't even have their contact information.
"I need more than 100 votes to be on the safe side," Shen Qi said as he called Academician Pan, but the phone was switched off.
Shen Qi called Academician Wang, Dean of the Big Mathematics Department at Yenching University, but the number you dialed is temporarily unavailable.
"This... the academicians were all locked up to vote, and their phones were confiscated?" Shen Qi felt inexplicably uneasy. He longed to become an academician, and if he couldn't be elected, he would be embarrassed to get married.
Ou Ye was more level-headed. "Even you can't get in touch with Academician Pan and Dean Wang, who are very familiar with you. This shows that the selection of academicians was fair."
The next day, Shen Qi went to work at Yenching University and discovered that all four academicians of the Chinese Academy of Mathematical Sciences had disappeared.
We also couldn't get in touch with several academicians from the Institute of Physics.
This situation lasted for three days, during which Shen Qi was absent-minded and distracted.
Although national regulations stipulate that non-academic factors must be strictly prohibited from interfering in the selection process of academicians, and officials at or above the division level must not be candidates, with all selection criteria based on academic achievements, contributions to the country and discipline, and future impact, Shen Qi was still worried. What if he wasn't selected?
On the fourth day, Shen Qi received a phone call.
"Hello, is this Professor Shen Qi?" The voice on the other end of the phone was a deep, steady male voice.
Hello, may I ask who you are?
"I am Bai Jinyuan, Executive Chairman of the Presidium of the Academic Divisions of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. I am hereby verbally informing Professor Shen that you should attend the announcement ceremony for the newly elected academicians at Conference Room 1 of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at 9:00 AM tomorrow. Please be punctual. The written notification will be delivered to you personally by the President of Yenching University in one to two hours. That's all, see you tomorrow." This leader of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was quite arrogant; he hung up the phone after giving the notification.
He was certainly impressive. Shen Qi knew that Chairman Bai's other identity was Dean Bai, the president of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"Dean Bai called personally, looks like there's hope." Shen Qi returned home and kissed his fiancée who was taking a nap.