Author | Yan Huiying
In the early summer of 2019, I flew to Paris with my daughter and niece to find the footprints of my grandfather Yan Keats who had studied and lived, and explored the road he took in his youth to study and save the country.
The Paris Quest is full of warm and wonderful sights and experiences. Nearly a century has passed, and the apartment where grandpa lived in 1923 when he was studying in Paris is still a student dormitory at the University of Paris; the dormitories are still clean and warm. At the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, I saw my grandfather's 1927 doctoral dissertation, and the cover of the dissertation was impressively written "Dedicated to Parents, Fiancée, and Mentors", which was intimate and touching.
What particularly excites and excites me is that in the Marie Curie laboratory at the University of Paris, I saw the original of my grandfather's cover letter and work card, as well as the correspondence between my grandfather and Marie Curie. Everything is as good as ever, as if falling into a tunnel of time, witnessing the deep friendship between Grandpa and Marie Curie.
In 1923, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Marie Curie's discovery of radium, the University of Paris held a commemorative assembly and announced the bill passed by all the members of the French Senate and the House of Representatives , to give Marie Curie a remuneration of 40,000 francs per year in the name of the state , expressing the highest respect of the French government and people for scientists. It was also in this year, far east, that a young student crossed the ocean to study in Paris, and later entered Marie Curie's laboratory.
Madame curie
Marie Curie's lab
Marie Curie's letter to Yan Keats
This oriental youth was my grandfather Yan Keats.
In October 1923, Grandpa boarded a ship from Shanghai and went to France. At the University of Paris, he was able to listen closely to the teachings of world-class scientists, full of ambition and spirit. On 14 February 1924, he wrote to his fiancée: "The scholars of today are all experts in their higher studies, and they are all the directors or research of a certain institute, such as astronomers, the director of the observatory, if they are the lean trachea electrification, Marie Curie, and the laboratory is also the Radium Institute." I have not yet begun to learn now, but I only think about the future, and every time I use my self-satisfaction, if I have the peace of mind to read the book for two years, I should be able to make up for the previous stumbling. (French Love Letters, p. 62, The Commercial Press, 2021) It can be seen that Grandpa already had the heart to study in Marie Curie's laboratory at this time.
With his brilliant talent and extraordinary efforts, Grandpa obtained three diplomas in only one year and obtained a master's degree from the University of Paris. This is unprecedented since the founding of the University of Paris, which has made him famous overnight. On July 8, 1925, he wrote to his fiancée to announce the good news: "Physics has been listed last night, and I have taken the fifth place in the first class (there are nine people, none of whom are the special class), the first three are high normal students, and the fourth is Lady Curène Curie, the daughter of Madame Curie Curie. (French Love Letters, p. 288, The Commercial Press, 2021) Obviously, the grandfather's joy is overflowing with the daughter of Marie Curie, who is on the same page.
The main examiner who presided over the physics oral examination was Professor Fabry, a famous French physicist. At the end of the examination, Professor Fabry praised the oriental youth to his face: "Mr. Yan, your examination paper is the best one. Later, Professor Fabbri invited this oriental young man to work in the optics laboratory of the University of Paris, which he presided over.
In October 1925, Grandpa entered Professor Fabry's laboratory. The research topic given to him by the professor was "Deformation of quartz under electric fields". This was a branch of the world-class puzzle at the time. The conundrum originated from the theoretical speculations of Pierre Curie and Marie Curie's instructor, Lippmann. My 25-year-old grandfather, who had just received his master's degree, took on this subject related to the Curie couple with the courage of a newborn calf who was not afraid of tigers.
Grandpa walked into the Institute of Radium, which Madame Curie presided over, and wanted to ask her for advice and borrow the quartz crystals that Pierre Curie had used in his early years. Marie Curie was doing experiments at the time, and when she saw the arrival of the Young Chinese man, she immediately put down her experiment, warmly received him, and took him to the small garden of the institute and sat on a bench on the lawn for a long talk. Grandpa asked Marie Curie many questions, and Marie Curie answered them in detail, and then solemnly gave him samples of quartz crystals used by her husband Pierre Curie for research materials. Since then, Marie Curie has repeatedly inquired about the progress of the subject experiment and provided some necessary help. At that time, Marie Curie had long been famous all over the world, and taking the initiative to take care of an oriental youth who had no meritorious name not only reflected the broad mind of a scientist, but also showed the delicate friendship between scientists.
Grandpa did not fail to live up to Marie Curie's care. He went into the lab, gave up all social interaction, and devoted all his time and energy to research. In more than a year, he not only completed the project handed over by Professor Fabry, but also further expanded and improved the content of Professor Fabry's original proposition, and wrote a paper "Experimental Study on the Deformation of Quartz under the Electric Field and the Change of Optical Properties" according to the experimental results.
On June 18, 1927, Grandpa passed the thesis defense, obtained a doctorate in science from the French state, and then boarded the ship back to China.
In November 1928, Grandpa received a grant from the China Education and Culture Fund and went to France again. Grandpa first went to the optical laboratory chaired by Professor Fabry to do research. On March 26, 1929, Grandpa sent a cover letter to Marie Curie's lab. On April 3, Marie Curie sent a handwritten reply, inviting my grandfather to her office on April 6 for an interview. In this way, Grandpa entered the radium laboratory led by Marie Curie. It just so happened that Marie Curie had just purchased a photometer and asked my grandfather to help with the installation and commissioning. Later, Grandpa also used this photometer to do some measurement work in research. During the two-year visit in France, Grandpa not only consulted and consulted Marie Curie in person, but also exchanged written correspondence with Marie Curie. Under the guidance of the giants, Grandpa conformed to the development trend of modern physics in the world at that time and clearly selected the future research direction.
In December 1930, Grandpa returned to Beiping (now Beijing) from Paris and went to the Beiping Research Institute to prepare for the establishment of the Institute of Physics at the invitation of President Li Shizeng. Before leaving Paris, Marie Curie told my grandfather that she would give him some radioactive lead chloride to support his radiological research in China. Therefore, according to Madame Curie's advice, Grandpa made a proposal to the Peking Research Institute, hoping to establish the Radium Research Institute. This proposal was supported by Li Shizeng. So my grandfather became the director of the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Radium Science at the Peking Research Institute.
In order to prepare for the establishment of the Radium Research Institute, Grandpa and Marie Curie had more correspondence.
This is a letter dated 31 March 1931 to Marie Curie: "Dear teacher: ... I ask you to promise to provide us with a sample of a radium-containing salt (radium-containing barium oxide carbonate) ... Before I returned to China, my teacher had expressed his willingness to provide us with a small amount of radioactive lead, can you send it to me now, along with radium-containing barium oxide carbonate? ...... The National Peking Institute attaches importance to radium and radioactivity research for scientific and humanitarian purposes, and we intend to establish a radium institute dedicated to this goal later..." (French Love Letters, pp. 309, 310, The Commercial Press, 2021) In this letter, Grandpa also gave a detailed consultation and report to Marie Curie on how to carry out radium and radioactivity research.
On 27 July, Marie Curie wrote back: "Dear Mr. Yan, I believe you have received samples of the kind of radium-containing salt and radioactive lead chloride that I sent you on June 1. This is what you asked for in your letter of March 31st... I am very happy to receive the good news of the establishment of the Radioactivity Laboratory of the National Peking Research Institute. I wish your laboratory a successful start to its work and to become an important radium institute in the near future..." (French Love Letter, p. 311, The Commercial Press, 2021) In this letter, Marie Curie also gives specific instructions and guidance on the conditions of use and measurement of radium.
Marie Curie not only enthusiastically guided his grandfather to create a career in physics and radium in China, but also helped him cultivate a group of young scientific talents for China. In the autumn of 1929, Grandpa wrote to Marie Curie recommending Zheng Dazhang, who was studying in France, to Madame Curie's laboratory. Marie Curie gladly accepted and carefully guided. Under Marie Curie's guidance, Zheng Received his Doctor of Science degree from the French State in 1933. After returning to China, Zheng Dazhang became one of the main scientists of the Institute of Radium Studies of the Peking Research Institute and the founder of Chinese radiochemistry.
Unfortunately, just as Grandpa was making a big splash, Marie Curie passed away on July 4, 1934. When the bad news came, Grandpa tearfully wrote a tribute of more than 4,000 words ,"Mourning Madame Curie", deeply recalling Madame Curie's life of "preparing for hard work" and "amazing great deeds", and highly praising the Curie couple for "close cooperation and complementarity" and "seeking progress for science and creating happiness for mankind". Marie Curie "the discovery of radium opened a new era in science" and "the merits are stored in Uchi". "Her important discovery, the great personality, will never go with its form, is a model that will remain on earth forever." (French Love Letters, pp. 349-355, The Commercial Press, 2021) At the same time, Grandpa also initiated and organized a grand memorial service for Marie Curie held by the Peking Academia on August 13, 1934. At the memorial service, Grandpa personally delivered a eulogy and could not cry.
On August 13, 1934, the Peking Academic Community mourned Madame Curie. (Second row, second from right, Yan Keats)
After Marie Curie's death, Grandpa maintained more contact and interaction with her daughter Irena Jolio-Curie and son-in-law Jean Frederick Jolioz Curie.
Marie Curie had two daughters, the eldest daughter, Irena (my grandfather translated "Iren"), born in 1897, and the second daughter, Eve, born in 1904 (later a musician known in the Parisian art world). Irena studied physics with her mother from an early age, received her doctorate in 1924 as an assistant professor at the Institute of Radium Studies, and married her colleague Joliot in 1927. Grandpa said that the Irenas "have the old style of the Curies, and they have worked together to discover artificial radioactivity in recent months, which is a new way for physics." Lady Irun, The Lady of the Khoshao, is worthy of the daughter of a famous man, and he is the one who continues to be a lady of the day, and he is a Slovak." (French Love Letters, p. 355, The Commercial Press, 2021) Sure enough, both Irena and her husband later won the Nobel Prize, becoming another brilliant couple of scientists.
In 1935, Grandpa and Marie Curie's son-in-law, Joliot Curie, were elected to the French Physical Society.
In 1956, Grandpa and Marie Curie's son-in-law, Joliot Curie, met again, and the topic between the two was naturally inseparable from the memory of Marie Curie. Joliot Curie said: "Your teacher did not even accept his own children, but accepted you, a young Chinese, as a student." "Yes, Grandpa was fortunate to have the opportunity to study under the world-famous Marie Curie; Grandpa was even more excellent, able to get Marie Curie's cultivation and guidance, and became the pioneer of modern Physics and Radium in China.
In order to remember the interaction with Marie Curie and her daughter and son-in-law, grandpa wrote a popular book in his later years, "Curie and Marie Curie" (Science and Technology Literature Publishing House, 1989), praising the noble virtues and great contributions of the Curies for their dedication to science. How pure and precious the friendship between Grandpa and Marie Curie and her family members is, is the envy and admiration of our descendants.
Yan Keats, "Curie and Madame Curie" Courtesy of Yan Huiying
(The author is a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a member of the 14th Central Committee of the Jiusan Society)