Rising to Fame

Facing Yanjing University's strategy of poaching talent, Jiang University had no other option besides playing the alma mater card. As the top university in the country, Yanjing University's status in China was something Jiang University couldn't shake. Dean Shu was well aware that Chen Yuanguang was not from Jiang City.

If Chen Yuanguang were from Jiang City, with the alma mater card plus the hometown card, he would be confident in keeping Chen Yuanguang at Jiang University.

While he was dealing with the poaching strategies of various universities, even more universities, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies from the American side came knocking.

"Hello, Dr. Chen. Although you haven't received your doctorate yet, I heard from Professor Prather that you can get your doctorate after completing your dissertation and staying for three years. I think this will be easy for you, so it's not strange to call you 'Doctor' in advance.

At the same time, I want to express my admiration and congratulations for your outstanding contributions to fighting the virus. With this achievement, you will become a globally renowned scientist.

Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Trevor Mondale, President of the Global Health Program at the Gates Foundation. We hope to invite you to join the Gates Foundation and become the Chief Scientist of our Global Health Program."

Since achieving the results, Chen Yuanguang had successively spoken with chemistry professors from top American universities like MIT, Harvard, and Stanford. The Professor Prather that Trevor just mentioned was a professor in the chemistry department at MIT.

Being approached by the Gates Foundation surprised Chen Yuanguang. In his impression, the Gates Foundation was a charitable organization and didn't seem to have its own direct research institutions.

He nodded briefly in the video, politely acknowledging this unexpected guest who, apart from his skin color being black, had the same demeanor and speaking style as the senior white people he had met: "Hello, sir. I have heard of the Gates Foundation.

I know Bill Gates and generally understand that the Gates Foundation is a charitable organization, but I don't quite understand what I could do if I joined the Gates Foundation?

You don't seem to be a research institution?"

Trevor waved his hands in front of his chest, a standard posture for a press conference speech, with his palms facing inwards relative to each other. "Before joining the Gates Foundation, I was the Global Head of Development at Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Our vision is to be dedicated to global health.

We hope to bring significant positive changes to the health of people worldwide through the Gates Foundation.

Currently, we mainly help improve the physical health of people in underdeveloped areas through a series of initiatives such as public health projects, vaccine projects, family planning, malaria prevention and control, and adolescent nutrition programs.

Because both the vaccine projects and malaria prevention and control require top scientists to join, we collaborate with many research institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and universities globally, but we have always lacked a theoretical leader, a helmsman for all these projects, until your appearance.

After discussions with Mr. Chris Elias and Mr. Alan Gausston, we believe you are the best candidate for the Chief Scientist of the Gates Foundation's Global Health Program. After we sent your achievements to Mr. Gates, he also expressed high recognition for them.

Because the abilities you have demonstrated are already sufficient to match this position, and you are also so young with unlimited room for growth, with your joining, we can make even more significant contributions to global health in the future." Trevor's answer was very persuasive.

Chen Yuanguang didn't know if it was an illusion, but among white elites, there were geek types who were not good with words, while black elites, without exception, were particularly good at public speaking.

After listening, he didn't feel much emotional fluctuation. As a former online novel author, in many conspiracy theories he had read, Bill Gates was a villain, and the Gates Foundation and Global Health Program he led were products aimed at controlling and eliminating the population.

Whether the truth was like this, Chen Yuanguang didn't know, nor did he care, whether Gates truly wanted to change the world in a positive direction, or if the conspiracy theories were true, using charity as a facade to cover up the real purpose of population control.

Before, he felt this was too far away from him, but now he didn't expect it to be so close.

As Trevor spoke, Chen Yuanguang thought to himself that if he accepted this offer, he would probably become an important supporting character with some screen time in the conspiracy theories.

"Sir, I probably won't consider this position. I don't think I have the ability to control the overall situation, and it's not within my scope of ability," Chen Yuanguang said.

His plan was to refuse all offers except for teaching positions, without exception, including offers from pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Merck, and AstraZeneca.

The Gates Foundation was different in form, but the work was probably similar.

Trevor didn't expect the rejection to be so quick. He thought it was because Chen Yuanguang didn't understand the value of the position, so he quickly said, "Dr. Chen, the basic salary for the Chief Scientist at the Gates Foundation is 5 million US dollars a year, with additional bonuses based on your research contributions."

Chen Yuanguang cursed inwardly. This amount was too exaggerated. The highest salary offered by pharmaceutical companies before was only 600,000 to 800,000 US dollars. The Gates Foundation was directly doubling and more than doubling that.

They don't really want me to join the population control plan, do they? he thought.

Seeing that Chen Yuanguang didn't speak, Trevor continued, "Besides what I've said, we have a certain degree of confidence in helping you win next year's Nobel Prize in Biology."

In the future, the Nobel Prize, like human governments, had dissipated into the dust of history, but it was undeniable that this thing was still attractive to Chen Yuanguang now.

Chen Yuanguang said, "Sir, I understand the sincerity of the Gates Foundation. You need to give me time to consider. I still have two years until graduation, and I need to think."

Trevor showed his white teeth. "No problem, Dr. Chen. I look forward to your good news."

Only then did Chen Yuanguang realize that the person on the other side of the video call was Black, because compared to his skin color, his teeth appeared too white.

Having spent two years in America, Chen Yuanguang increasingly realized that racial divisions only existed at the bottom here. At the top, there was no essential difference between White and Black people. Even if the old money looked down on Black people, their way of thinking was already the same.

Trevor merely reinforced this impression for him.

The influx of various organizations during this period made Chen Yuanguang realize how impressive his achievements were and that it was no exaggeration to describe his reputation in academia as thunderous. Among ordinary people, his achievements were also publicized to the point of being widely known.

After the paper was published in Science, top Western media outlets such as the New York Times, Time Magazine, and The Times rushed to report on it. Chinese media, which typically picked up the scraps left by Western media, reprinted it extensively.