Speaking of the goddess of China's academic community, Yan Ning, the youngest doctoral supervisor of Tsinghua University, is absolutely on the list. However, after returning from overseas studies, she accepted the olive branch thrown by Princeton University in the United States after teaching at Tsinghua University for 10 years, went to the United States as a professor of structural biology at the university, and was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences 2 years later!
Yan Ning's actions have attracted countless people's insults, and there is constant discussion on the Internet about her, some people say that "she is a white-eyed wolf, the motherland has cultivated her hard, and she still goes to serve the Americans", some people "fight unevenly for her, saying that she will choose to go to the United States because she has lost the Chinese academician many times and is discouraged", "Some people say that she just wants to continue to climb the peak of science, which is not wrong!" "So what kind of person is Yan Ning?" To know the answer, we naturally have to look for the answer from Yan Ning's life experience.
Yan Ning was born in 1977 in The village of Zhangqiupu jiboping in Shandong Province, China, to parents who were ordinary automobile factory workers, and when Yan Ning grew up to be 6 years old, the family moved to Beijing together. After Yan Ning went to primary school, her father began to have higher requirements for Yan Ning's studies, and the family hoped that Yan Ning could have a good job in the future. And Yan Ning also lived up to expectations, becoming a student bully early on, and naturally entered Tsinghua University after the college entrance examination.
However, when choosing a profession, the family had a disagreement, and Yan Ning's parents hoped that Yan Ning would choose a medical major and become an excellent doctor in the future. But Yan Ning not only studied well, but also began to have her own ideas when she grew up, and she felt that she could not even solve the small animals, and was not suitable for being a doctor. Resolutely chose biology, according to her words: student sex is similar to studying medicine, maybe my future research can help medicine? Yan Ning's parents saw that the child had their own idea, so they no longer demanded it.
We can see from here that Yan Ning is not a "well-behaved baby" who listens to her parents' arrangements, she has her own ambitions and is willing to put in effort for her own ideas.
In 1996, Yan Ning entered the Department of Biological Sciences and Technology of Tsinghua University as she wished. However, the students who can enter Tsinghua, which are not the "proud sons of heaven" in the hearts of schools and teachers, many people can quickly digest and absorb the knowledge they have learned, while Yan Ning, who is learning biology for the first time, has been fascinated, and even almost hung up the subject. But she quickly adjusted to her state, worked harder into her studies, and her grades slowly caught up.
In his junior year, Rao Zihe, a biologist in China, took a fancy to Yan Ning's talent and invited Yan Ning to join his research team. Yan Ning seemed to see a new world in the experiment and became more and more interested in biology. After that, Yan Ning completely dived into his heart and studied biological knowledge.
Soon, Yan Ning graduated and successfully obtained a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University, but she was not satisfied with it. The more Yan Ning learned, the more curious she became about the unknown world, and she wondered what kind of research results were available abroad.
Coincidentally, Shi Yigong, a Chinese who was far away from Princeton University in the United States, was responsible for the enrollment of Princeton University in the Chinese mainland, as a senior who had also studied at Tsinghua, Shi Yigong delivered a speech encouraging Tsinghua students to study abroad, Yan Ning was deeply touched, was attracted by the wider world, and volunteered to write a self-recommendation letter to Shi Yigong, so that Shi Yigong noticed the girl.
Shi Yigong
In 2000, Yan Ning successfully received an acceptance letter from Princeton University and went to the United States. After entering the university, she felt a different scientific research atmosphere, and a lot of knowledge she had never seen was deeply attracted to Yan Ning, and she was also happy to devote herself to a new field of knowledge.
However, just like in college, Yan Ning did not enter the state quickly, in a foreign country, although she studied day and night, but always lacked research results, watching colleagues publish papers one by one, she was anxious but could only sink her heart, continue to precipitate, and finally got the approval of her tutor on January 11, 2003.
After that, Yan Ning was on the road of scientific research, as if hanging up, in December 2004, Yan Ning successfully passed the doctoral defense, obtained a doctorate, and then continued to research as a postdoctoral fellow.
In 2006, Yan Ning successfully made the first membrane protein structure, which shocked the entire academic community, and many people could not believe that so many authoritative experts around the world had not studied the results in their lifetime, and they were actually studied by a Chinese who was less than 30 years old, and Yan Ning began to have a reputation.
In 2007, Yan Ning, who had achieved academic success, came to make a choice, whether to return to China or stay in the United States? At that time, Princeton University put generous conditions on her, hoping that she would stay and continue her research. But at this time, Yan Ning chose to return to China with Shi Yigong and launch a new scientific research path. Patriotic feelings are deeply engraved in the hearts of every Chinese, which is not something that foreigners can understand.
Returning to her alma mater, Yan Ning became the youngest professor and doctoral supervisor in tsinghua history, and she also established her own laboratory and team, and has trained 7 doctoral students for China. In 2009, Yan Ning's team analyzed the three-dimensional crystal structure of the human glucose transporter glut1 for the first time in the world, and in 2011, he won the National Natural Science Foundation of China Outstanding Youth Science Fund. In 2016, Yan Ning made great achievements in the field of life sciences and was named China's Science Star and Scientific Person of the Year.
Of course, Yan Ning has achieved far more achievements and honors than I mentioned, and these achievements fully demonstrate Yan Ning's talent in biology and her dedication to biological sciences. Perhaps it is precisely because of her dedication to scientific research that she has achieved today.
However, in the 2017 Chinese Academy of Sciences academician selection, Yan Ning was unexpectedly defeated, and what is even more unexpected is that in the same year of her defeat, she chose to return to Princeton University in the United States as a chair professor in the university.
In this regard, many people have caused heated discussion, and Yan Ning's response is that she has received excellent support from Tsinghua University and achieved achievements that even exceeded her expectations, but she wants to jump out of this comfort zone, wants to change a scientific research environment, and break through her current bottleneck. After losing the election to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, she wanted to thank the division commanders and friends who complained for her, but she did not feel sad and sad.
Whether she said this or not, it is undeniable that she is still shining on the road of scientific research. In 2019, she was elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Yan Ning, who won these titles, is not proud, she modestly said that she is only a newcomer in the field of scientific research, and she still has to constantly find her own meaning in life, which shows that she really does not care much about false names.
The selection of the Chinese Academy of Sciences should be considered from the aspects of professionalism, achievements, age, etc., and even the Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou has not been able to obtain the title of academician of our country. We don't have to be so disappointed in Yan Ning's defeat, and the truly capable people can be recorded in the long river of history. Honor is nothing more than an embellishment.
Tu Youyou
Many people may feel that her departure is a huge loss for our country, but what cannot be changed is that Yan Ning has always had Chinese nationality and is also a professor of biology at Tsinghua University in China. Every child wants to pursue their own ideals, the nature of being a mother will not stop her, but will bless her, the mother of the motherland is naturally the same, I believe that although Yan Ning is in the United States, but the heart is definitely still his own motherland, will not forget that he is a Chinese.
Now 44-year-old Yan Ning is not married, soaking in the laboratory every day, has shown that her love for scientific research trumps everything, why can't we add oil to Yan Ning who walks out of the comfortable environment and continues to climb to the peak of scientific research? Whether Yan Ning should go to the United States to develop, I believe that history will give the final answer, we will wait and see.
What do you think about Yan Ning? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area to communicate with me, but also look forward to your likes to pay attention to the collection and forwarding, we will see you in the next issue.