International Developments
For a long time, the state has supported universities in carrying out scientific research activities, resulting in a simple employment relationship between the government and university scientists.
The government provides funding, and scientists are considered to have completed their task by inventing, applying for patents, and publishing articles.
After completing their work, scientists apply for the next round of government funding, then work on new inventions and creations, thus beginning a new cycle.
By 2005, the government realized that this approach was not feasible, as the patent conversion rate was only 5%. This was far behind not only the United States, but also Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, France, and Australia.
This led to the creation of China's version of the Bayh-Dole Act, the "Science Progress Act".
Shen Qi and his colleagues were doing similar things: inventing, applying for patents, and publishing articles.
But Shen Qi wouldn't just give up easily. After speaking with Principal Lu, he found Director Qi, the head of the Yanda Technology Transfer Center.
Director Qi is the head of the Yenching University Technology Transfer Center, but he is not from a technical background; he is a legal expert whom Yenching University brought back from the United States.
What is the purpose of the Yenching University Technology Transfer Center, a new department established more than five years ago?
Internally, they are a service department, providing professional legal services to Yenching University's scientists and research teams in areas such as patent applications, intellectual property protection, and technology transfer.
Externally, they represent Yenching University and rely on professional legal means to negotiate with enterprises, ultimately facilitating the transaction of patent development rights.
Scientists are not necessarily experts in patent law. In practice, frontline researchers often have a one-sided understanding of patents, and may even make some mistakes.
For example, if you don't understand the tricks of patent application and how to use patents to protect your innovative achievements, the patent applications you submit will generally have very narrow claims, often with only one independent claim.
Because of a lack of legal expertise, disputes and conflicts between patent inventors and companies were common in the past.
Companies often say that inventors are dishonest and that the patents they buy have no practical value.
The inventors complained that the company did not respect intellectual property rights, lacked credibility, and failed to pay the licensing fees they were entitled to according to sales commissions.
The lack of trust between buyers and sellers has resulted in China's patent conversion rate being only 5%.
Shen Qi knew very well that professional matters should be handled by professionals, so he approached Director Qi: "Director Qi, this is roughly the situation of my project. I'll leave the rest to you."
Director Qi graduate of Harvard Law School, confidently assured, "Academician Shen, please rest assured, our Technology Transfer Center will provide you with a one-stop service. Over the past five years, we have handled numerous successful cases, helping Yenching University transfer more than 250 scientific and technological achievements, generating a cumulative revenue of over 2.7 billion yuan for the university and inventors, with a complaint rate from inventors and companies both below 1%."
See, this is what professionalism is all about.
Director Qi's department is a highly professional intermediary service department. Their clients are scientists like Shen Qi, and their clients are external companies.
However, the Yenching University Technology Transfer Center, as an intermediary service department, does not charge intermediary fees; they serve scientists and enterprises with a sincere heart.
For an industry to develop healthily and rapidly, the most important indicators are its systems and talent.
There are advantages to Shen Qi staying at Yenching University. In terms of the system, Yenching University offers certain preferential treatment, and it has no shortage of professional talents in various fields.
With the professional expertise of the specialists, Shen Qi Team quickly obtained patent protection for their Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic.
Because the FASTER project is state-funded, the resulting intellectual property rights still belong to the state.
However, with the support of the provisions of the Law on Science Progress Act and the policy support of Yenching University, the patent development right, i. e. the commercial development right, of Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic belongs to the Yenching University invention team.
If the commercial development rights for Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic are sold, Shen Qi Team will have to pay a portion of the proceeds to the university.
Shen Qi could understand this rule, after all, Yenching University was a national university, not a private institution.
As for how much to contribute, that's an internal matter for Yenching University, and everything is negotiable.
As for writing papers, Shen Qi doesn't need to do it personally anymore. With so many PhDs under him, he can just grab one, have them write it, and send it out.
The research and preparation of Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic was written by Tang Yuan, who then attributed it to Shen Qi and sent it out.
The system is set up so that regardless of whether the paper was written by Shen Qi himself, as long as it is published and Shen Qi's name is on the author list, Shen Qi can get academic points.
The study on the preparation of Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic was published in Today's Physics, a journal sponsored by the American Physical Society.
Whether it's due to data manipulation or something else, the latest impact factor (IF) of Today's Physics is as high as 27.928, the highest among physics journals worldwide, more than double that of the renowned physics journal Physical Review Letters.
Physical Review Letters, also published by the American Physical Society, is abbreviated as PRL, Shen Qi is an old friend of this journal.
This time, Shen Qi chose his new friend, "Today's Physics," for one simple reason: its impact factor (IF) is high.
A high IF value means more academic points, and Shen Qi earned nearly 1.4 million academic points.
A high impact factor (IF) value also means that the journal is viewed and cited more often.
February 1st has passed, and the process of nominating candidates for this year's Nobel Prize will conclude on December 10th.
From now until mid-October, the Nobel Prize selection committee will conduct a rigorous review of the nominated candidates who meet the criteria.
The review process is confidential, and the results will be announced in mid-October.
The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences pays close attention to authoritative international academic journals; I'm not entirely sure how exactly they do so, but that's the gist of it.
Today's Physics reported on Shen Qi Team's research and preparation of Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic. Combined with Shen Qi's previously proposed Condensed Matter Physics theory and the news that Shen Qi is a Nobel Prize candidate, Shen Qi has become a hot topic in the international Physics Community.
In 2005, a team from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, first reported on this novel Amorphous Materials Metallic Plastic, in PRL.
In the same year, the British journal Nature partially cited the article by the Chinese team published in PRL, commenting on this new research finding under the title "Softening".
This year, Nature was among the first to cite, in part, the article "Research and Preparation of Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic" by Shen Qi Team published in Today's Physics, and also published a commentary.
"The China Key was created and verified independently; the author proposed the theory and then verified it. This article published in * Today's Physics * demonstrates the broad commercial potential of Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic."
Shen Qi carefully put away the latest issues of Today's Physics and Nature. These top journals from the United States and the United Kingdom have stated that the research results our team has achieved in the laboratory have broad commercial prospects.
"Tang Yuan, give 'Today's Physics' and 'Nature' to Director Qi of the Technology Transfer Center. He's a legal expert and probably doesn't read non-legal professional journals much." Shen Qi instructed Tang Yuan to do this.
Not long after, Tang Yuan returned with the two journals. "Director Qi has a team entirely composed of technical professionals who read the world's top ten journals in physics, chemistry, medicine, biology, Computer Science, and engineering. * Today's Physics * and Nature are among their regular reading materials."
"Truly professional!" Shen Qi praised Director Qi, now completely trusting the professional competence and standards of Director Qi's team.
"Wait a minute, don't they read math journals?" Shen Qi asked. But thinking about it, it made sense. The difficulty in translating Mathematical Research results into practical applications is too great. Reading a math paper takes much longer than reading a physics, chemistry, or biology paper. Technical personnel who are not math majors might not even understand highly specialized mathematical articles.
A few days later, the American Chemical Society journal Chemical Reviews commented on the article published by Shen Qi Team in the physics journal Today's Physics.
The impact factor (IF) of * Chemical Reviews * is as high as 47.251, which is higher than that of Nature and Science.
As its name suggests, * Chemical Reviews * does not publish original articles; it only publishes commentary.
"Shen Qi Team has for the first time synthesized a Ce-Al-Cu Metallic Plastic doped with Ge and Sn. The specific composition ratios and detailed experimental preparation techniques are unknown, but from the performance data and physical images, we can see that this Amorphous Alloy has good application prospects."
After reading this report in Chemical Reviews, Shen Qi was stunned. "Are the American Chemical Society just bored out of their minds? What are they doing causing trouble?"
Indeed, Condensed Matter Physics is highly interdisciplinary, especially in the subfield of the synthesis and preparation of Amorphous Materials, where it is difficult to clearly distinguish between physics and chemistry.
But what Chemical Reviews did easily reminded Shen Qi of Rutherford.
If you find any information about Rutherford in any source, it is usually written according to this template: Rutherford, a famous British physicist, the father of nuclear physics. He is widely recognized in academia as the greatest experimental physicist after Faraday.
Rutherford was a true physics genius, even a physics fanatic. His famous quote was. "Science is either physics or stamp collecting."
In that particular era, Rutherford didn't care about mathematics, chemistry, or biology at all; physics was all he cared about.
However, in the cool autumn of 1908, Rutherford, the greatest experimental physicist after Faraday, was awarded the Nobel Chemistry Prize.
In recognition of the significant contributions of the outstanding physicist Rutherford to the field of chemistry, the international chemical community named element number 104 Rutherfordium.
The translation of this element into Chinese is a gold character next to a Lu.
Until his death, Rutherford never received the Nobel Prize in Physics that he had dreamed of and fought for his entire life.
There is a similar figure in contemporary times, namely Shen Qi's physics mentor, the renowned physicist Edward Witten, who won the Fields Medal.
Historical records show that in late 1907 and the first half of 1908, the chemistry community went wild in supporting Rutherford, which may have been an important factor in Rutherford ultimately winning the Nobel Chemistry Prize.
The Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences pays close attention to the latest developments in the international academic community, especially journals like Chemical Reviews, which has an impact factor of 47.251 and is known in the international academic circle for its incisive commentary style.
Shen Qi drank a cup of coffee to calm his nerves. He hadn't thought about winning the Nobel Chemistry Prize; his only goal recently was the Nobel Prize in Physics.