Text/Lei Gang
Source: Smart Car Reference (ID: AI4Auto)
The highest honor of american engineers, Na Xin.
Just now, the National Academy of Engineering announced a new list of 111 academicians and 22 foreign academicians.
One of the most interesting is the selection of Elon Musk.
Musk, one of the most influential global innovation leaders after Jobs, at the helm of innovation companies in many cutting-edge fields, including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and many other cutting-edge innovation companies, is also the richest man on the planet.
But to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering is still impressive.
Like other countries, the National Academy of Engineering is the highest academic community in the U.S. engineering community and one of the four national academic institutions in the United States...
However, although Musk has made frequent achievements in the field of industry, in some critics, he has repeatedly deviated from the past, and his ideas and practices are often out of line, including speculation, social network talk, etc. are not in line with the "right way".
Even Musk's highest degree is only an undergraduate degree.
But in any case, from now on, Musk has one more identity: American academician!
And in this list, there are also many industry people. Including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple's hardware engineering VP Kathleen Bergeron...
There are also a number of Chinese shortlisted. For example, Professor Fang Daining of Beijing Institute of Technology and Dr. Zhang Hongjiang, Chairman of Zhiyuan Research Institute.
Why was Musk elected to the U.S. Academician?
This time Musk was selected, and the core of the reason was recognized as an achievement of SpaceX.
As the CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX, Musk is believed to have achieved breakthroughs in the reusability of rockets and the design and manufacture of new energy systems.
Musk, Elon Reeve, founder, chief executive officer, and chief engineer, SpaceX, Hawthorne, Calif. For breakthroughs in the design, engineering, manufacturing, and operation of reusable launch vehicles and sustainable transportation and energy systems.
There is no doubt that SpaceX is also the most concerned one of Musk's many careers.
Founded in 2002, SpaceX is a new chapter that Musk has opened after achieving financial freedom in X.com/Paypal entrepreneurship.
Because Musk firmly believes that humanity should quickly master and achieve interstellar travel and multi-planetary survival in "peacetime".
In Musk's view, the universe is not calm, the earth is not always safe, such as asteroid impact and other events are not without probability, human beings should take the initiative into their own hands.
So Musk began to study across fields and enter the aerospace field. Before Musk, aerospace was not a "private commercial" field, and no one would choose to start a business in this field.
At first, Musk hoped to buy a ready-made rocket, but the cost was really high, and then he had to develop his own rocket to build and launch, and after repeated failures, finally achieved the successful launch of the rocket, and more importantly, repeated reuse.
So far, SpaceX has created the feat of continuous launch and recovery of 11 hands of rockets, achieved the record of manned spaceflight of private rocket companies, and achieved the record of total launches exceeding that of other organizations...
However, SpaceX's development has not been smooth.
In addition to repeated setbacks in the research and development process, it constantly "explodes". SpceX also faced a cooking crisis and was once on the verge of bankruptcy.
And Musk not only invested all the wealth obtained from the first venture into SpaceX, but also used Tesla to transfuse blood for SpaceX and tear down the western wall to make up for the eastern wall.
But in the end, after a few years of purgatory, Musk's multi-line advance was a huge success.
SpaceX is now fully mastered with the technology of repeat rocket launches and manned entry into the space station, and the next goal is to land on Mars.
And in spaceX's brave climbing, it also laid the golden egg of "satellite Internet" such as Starlink along the way, adding a subversive commercial landing model, prompting SpaceX to become one of the world's most highly valued unlisted companies.
Tesla is also on the right track after the capacity problem was solved, production capacity, sales, stock price and market value soared, and now it is the world's highest market capitalization car company, Musk has become the world's richest man, and even the richest person on the earth ever.
In addition, there are a number of innovative companies under Musk that are advancing at the same time.
For example, solar energy company SolarCity, tunnel company Boring, hyperloop company Hyperloop, brain-computer interface company Neuralink.
Musk has become the world's most innovative representative after Jobs.
But Musk is not without controversy.
Born in South Africa in 1971, Musk immigrated to Canada at the age of 17 to escape military service, first attending Queen's University, and later transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics and physics.
In 1995, Musk moved to California and was offered admission to Stanford University for a master's and doctoral degree in materials science, but a few days after enrollment, he chose to drop out of school and join the tide of Internet entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley.
Musk founded the first web software company, Zip2, which was acquired by Compaq in 1999 for $300 million.
Musk then founded an online payment company X.com, which was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion after merging with Confinity to form PayPal.
Musk has also achieved personal wealth freedom so far.
Since 2002, he has founded SpaceX and has held several positions as CEO, CTO and chief engineer.
In 2004, he entered Tesla as an investor, purged the original founder, personally served as CEO, and promoted Tesla to complete the real 0 to 1 and go public.
Musk's controversy, on the one hand, lies in his "eclecticism." Including Tesla's early days, as well as the use of Tesla to transfuse blood for SpaceX, and other behaviors, as well as the propulsion route of autonomous driving, it is considered too radical, contrary to common sense, and lack of humanistic spirit.
On the other hand, Musk's attitude and views on many things have also repeatedly aroused controversy. Including after the start of the new crown epidemic, in order to ensure the production of factory workers forced to start work, the use of public opinion influence to weaken the seriousness of the new crown, and tesla does not engage in trade unions, etc.
Musk has also been repeatedly accused of "big mouth", including the 2018 time and space mouth tweet that he privatized Tesla, causing sharp fluctuations in stock prices, and also letting him suffer charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and lose his chairmanship. But musk doesn't seem to have effectively converged on issues like tweeting since then.
In short, no dispute about Musk. Admirers see him as a savior in the field of innovation, and his critics see him as too indifferent to individual life in the face of technological applications.
Interestingly, probably no one would have expected that the controversial Musk would be elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Some netizens even joked that his highest education is only a bachelor's degree.
Other well-known figures who were elected academicians in the same batch
In addition to Musk, the 133 newly promoted academicians shortlisted this time are also well-known figures from well-known companies.
For example, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, he was selected for cloud computing, and Nadella played an important role in the process of cloud computing becoming infrastructure.
Kathleen Bergeron, Apple's hardware engineering VP, has built new hardware products, including Homepod, and is a well-known female technical representative within Apple.
In addition, Jim Yurko, a prominent engineer in Apple materials, was also elected as an academician.
On the Chinese side, including Professor Fang Daining of Beijing Institute of Technology and Dr. Zhang Hongjiang, Chairman of Zhiyuan Research Institute, were elected as foreign academicians.
Characteristics of members of the National Academy of Engineering
Finally, I would like to introduce the importance of this academician honor again.
The National College of Engineering is the highest academic body in the U.S. engineering community and one of the four major national academic institutions in the United States, alongside the National Academy of Sciences, the National College of Medicine, and the National Scientific Research Council.
Since its founding in 1964, being elected a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering has become one of the highest professional honors for engineers in the United States and around the world.
The "standard" of the us national academy of engineering academicians is also very direct -
Recognize "individuals who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education."
Together with the 111 American academicians and 22 foreign academicians who were just elected this year, the total number of academicians has reached 2388, and the number of foreign academician members has reached 310.
It is worth noting that this year's shortlist also has the following characteristics.
Focus on the basic areas. Including materials, earth sciences and other related basic fields, many experts have been selected.
Focus on space exploration, life sciences and other fields. Including Musk, virgin galactic orbit company CEO and other members of the selection, as well as the new crown epidemic in the hot Pfizer company also has a number of members selected.
Finally, engineers are not only academically educated.
This time, if the newly promoted academicians are strictly divided according to "industry and education", the industrial field occupies an overwhelming proportion, and there are only a few schools or scientific research institutions.
Well-known industrial fields, including Musk and Nadella, do not have "doctoral" degrees.
As the highest academic redundancy in the most developed countries, it is also worth lamenting that it can not only have academic qualifications, but also advocate practical innovation.