In September 2015, the name of Zhuang Xiaoying, a Chinese female scientist, appeared honorably on the list of winners of the "Sofia Kovarevskaya Prize" of the Humboldt Foundation in Germany. Perhaps many people are not very familiar with this award, the Sophia Prize is a scientific research award established in Germany in 2002, and it is one of the highest prizes in the german scientific research award.
According to statistics, the winner can receive up to 1.65 million euros, which is equivalent to 11 million yuan. The original purpose of the award was to support and attract outstanding young scientists under the age of 35 from all over the world to conduct research in Germany for up to five years, and at the same time to create and lead their own research teams and create their own laboratories.
Even ordinary people like us don't care what these awards mean to the scientific community. But we all know what scientists and scientists mean to the country. Ancient kings often said: A thousand armies are easy to obtain, but one will be difficult to find. In the new era, world scientists are like good generals. Germany also set up the Sophia Prize for another purpose, that is, to absorb younger scientists for Germany.
Sophia is known to present it every two years, and about two-thirds of scientists choose to stay in Germany after receiving the award. They stayed not only because of the high prize money, but also because of the very high-quality scientific institutions in Germany and the highly paid positions after the research. In fact, not only Germany, but many countries in the world are using this method to absorb talents.
But not all scientific and technological talents will choose the path of fame and fortune. The beautiful scientist we want to talk about today, Zhuang Xiaoying, is like this. Just as the so-called omniscient and clear and beautiful, Zhuang Xiaoying is also a person as his name suggests. Many people will feel that this is a girl who combines talent and beauty when they see Zhuang Xiaoying or see her photos.
Zhuang Xiaoying's beauty is not vulgar, giving people the feeling of a sister next door, and laughing is extremely gentle. It is such a woman who won Sophia's 1.65 million euros award for her research on nanocomposites, the seventh person in China to receive this award, and she is the first person to receive this award in the field of engineering.
Zhuang Xiaoying was born in Shanghai in 1983. Her family is just an ordinary rural family. When Zhuang Xiaoying was in elementary school, her teachers never imagined that she would become a scientist in the future and receive many awards. Because at that time, although Zhuang Xiaoying's results were not too bad, they were also unremarkable.
Although Zhuang Xiaoying's academic performance in elementary school was not good, she was very smart. And it's very playful. Every time the teacher went to Zhuang Xiaoying's home to visit, he would hate the iron and say, "Xiaoying is both smart and beautiful, but she is too greedy." Every day I go to class and I want when I want to leave class. She was able to play a lesson with a pencil all the time. ”
per
Hearing the teacher say this, her mother was very angry and threatened to teach Zhuang Xiaoying a lesson. Every time at this time, Zhuang Xiaoying would run to find her father. Her father would say to her mother, "Don't be angry, don't blame the child, she's the age of playfulness, and my daughter is not yet enlightened." ”
And her mother would pretend to be angry and say to Zhuang Xiaoying's father, "Just get used to her." Although her mother would say that she would teach Zhuang Xiaoying a lesson every time, she did not do it every time, and she told Zhuang Xiaoying bitterly: Only by studying well can there be a big way out.
But at that time, Zhuang Xiaoying did not listen to what her mother said, and parents always thought that their children would grow up quickly. Later, after going to junior high school, Zhuang Xiaoying's grades were even worse. Not only that, but there is also a serious phenomenon of partiality, especially the history and geography are simply a mess. The teacher repeatedly talked to Zhuang Xiaoying and told her that she was likely to fail to pass the ordinary high school with such results.
At that time, Zhuang Xiaoying also slowly felt the pressure, and her father watched her daughter grow up day by day, so he discussed with his family to go to the city to work, and it was likely that he would not be at home for a long time. Zhuang Xiaoying, who learned of this news, was very sad, so she made a big fuss and hoped that her father would be able to work in the rural hometown as before, but his father refused her.
Zhuang Xiaoying, who was rejected, ran back to her room in a gamble and did not even eat dinner. Then her parents went to her room together to comfort Zhuang Xiaoying. Zhuang Xiaoying will never forget the gentle mother that day, although her parents are both rural families, they keep all the tenderness and love to themselves.
She remembers that day her mother gently touched her head and told her: "Xiaoying, you are now an adolescent child, you know many things, but you are reluctant to do it." But Dad is for us to be happier, people can't live in the present all their lives. You have to grow up and go to college, and mom and dad want to give you the best like other parents. ”
"But we don't make a lot of money like other parents, and all we can do is plan a little more for you a little bit earlier." Zhuang Xiaoying listened to these words that she understood but her mother had never said before. She knew what her parents had done, but she was still sad to think of not seeing her father for a long time. In addition, the recent test results have just come down, and the teacher said that she has regressed a lot, and she is afraid to show the test paper to her parents.
But looking at the gentle mother, Zhuang Xiaoying asked: "Mom, what if my grades have been bad?" Mom gently told her, "It doesn't matter, you just have to work hard." Listening to the comforting words of her parents, Zhuang Xiaoying made a fuss about sleeping with her mother. And she got her mother's consent as she wished.
The next day, Zhuang Xiaoying came to the school early and began to work hard. However, at that time, the second year of junior high school was nearing the end, and Zhuang Xiaoying's efforts did not achieve significant success. With the arrival of the third year of junior high school, Zhuang Xiaoying's pressure became greater and greater. But she never gave up, and after a year of hard work, she was successfully admitted to high school.
After arriving in high school, Zhuang Xiaoying was thoroughly enlightened in this aspect of learning. But compared to science, her liberal arts are still much worse. So in the sophomore year of high school, she resolutely chose to major in science, and her results in physics and chemistry were at the top of her class. Everything went well, and she worked harder, because after she divided the arts and sciences, she set herself a very important goal, that is, Tongji University in Shanghai. This is a comprehensive university, and it is a 985 and 211 university.
Knowing that her target parents were very supportive, the teacher also gave her great help. For the goal in her heart, Zhuang Xiaoying worked harder. Finally, the college entrance examination ended, and her score also reached the admission score of Tongji University. However, when applying for the volunteer examination, Zhuang Xiaoying fell into confusion and also had an argument with her parents.
As parents, we all hope that their children will be able to find a stable job in the future. If you can, it is best to work, especially girls should find a secure job. Therefore, Zhuang Xiaoying's parents hope that she can apply for the medical profession, of course, in addition to this one reason, there is also a reason that the medical profession is the best major in Tongji University.
But Zhuang Xiaoying did not want to study medicine, so she rejected her parents' advice. At this time, although she was a little confused, she still had a choice in her heart, that is, civil construction engineering. Because after the end of the college entrance examination, Zhuang Xiaoying relaxed with her friends for a few days and went to Shanghai downtown.
She saw the Nanpu Bridge under construction and saw the magnificent and beautiful buildings in the city. Maybe in the eyes of ordinary people, those are just beautiful houses, but in Zhuang Xiaoying's eyes, this is a miracle after another, she is very envious of these engineers, can draw their dreams with their hands into a map, he let more people see. Every building has the concept of an engineer, and the building presented by different concepts is also different.
Therefore, Zhuang Xiaoying also wants to be like these engineers, presenting her ideas in the buildings she designs. At the same time, she also hopes that through her own efforts, she can dedicate her own contribution to the construction of her hometown and the construction of her beloved motherland. So she ignored her parents' objections and hesitated to embark on the road of Tongji civil construction projects.
But at a young age, she thought everything too perfectly. Just entering the class, she was shocked by the sight in front of her, and at first glance she looked at all boys, and searched carefully to find a few girls. And the real civil construction project was not as easy as she thought. But she didn't want to give up, and every time she looked up at the building outside the classroom window, she cheered herself on. Not only that, she also used her spare time to visit the streets of Shanghai, the bustling new streets, and the old streets with stories. Whenever this time Zhuang Xiaoying is like a balloon full of air, spreading its wings and flying high on this road.
But something sad for her happened, and the few girls in the class turned away two more. But at this time, she will never cry her nose like when she was a child. They said goodbye in a friendly and polite manner and started a new journey. But at that time, Zhuang Xiaoying was still facing a lot of pressure.
For example, parents' doubts: Isn't learning that one not like building a house? Relatives do not understand: can girls learn that well? and academic pressures. But Zhuang Xiaoying still endured the pressure to survive to her senior year. For seniors, they are faced with two choices: graduation and graduate school.
But Zhuang Xiaoying realized a long time ago that the field of study she studied has developed very maturely in our country, especially in her school years, and her discovery in the motherland is growing day by day. This means that she has less room for personal development. Watching the classmates around them one after another, they all determined their next path, but they were still in a confused state.
At this time, she began to wonder whether the knowledge she had worked so hard to learn was really going to be buried. In fact, at that time, Zhuang Xiaoying had already received a letter from the school, because of her excellent grades, the school decided to guarantee her to study for a master's degree at the school. Faced with the confusion of the future, she chose to continue to protect the research.
Zhuang Xiaoying felt that since the road ahead was very blurry, she chose to walk slowly to improve herself. Fortunately, Zhuang Xiaoying met a very good mentor during her master's degree, and he told Zhuang Xiaoying: "You are not a genius, but you are very smart. You now have a big misunderstanding that your vision is too narrow, and your research horizon is not very broad. This profession is not only engineers, it has many branches, and these branches have a lot of engineering projects, and you need to broaden your research horizons and not always be limited to a very close field of vision. Isn't research the courage to innovate and dare to try boldly? ”
Hearing these words, Zhuang Xiaoying began to be bold, she applied the methods used in mathematics to the stability analysis of engineering materials, which was initially only a simple attempt, but fortunately, her simple attempt opened up her research path for the next ten years. He also published his master's thesis "Stability Analysis of Joint Rock Slope Based on Meshless Method".
After graduating with her master's degree, she received an acceptance letter from Durham University in the UNITED Kingdom and received a full scholarship. During her PhD studies in the UK, her thesis was praised by her teachers and nominated by the European Union. He also won the Uk Prize for Outstanding Paper in the Field of Computing. After she was about to graduate, many british companies threw high-paying olive branches to her, and her leaders also tried to persuade her to stay in britain. But the beautiful girl still has the motherland in her heart and the Nanpu Bridge in her hometown.
So after returning from her studies, she chose to return to her alma mater to continue her scientific research work and became an associate professor at Tongji University. In 2015, he won the Sophia Prize for the development of new nanocomposites and their applications in civil engineering, and continued his research at the University of Hannover in Germany with the help of the Sophia Prize.
According to Zhuang Xiaoying's thoughts, the results of this research should be to improve the application effect of materials in electronic products and civil engineering, such as strengthening the strength of materials. Resistance to cold and heat cycling, electrical conductivity, etc. But Zhuang Xiaoying returned to her motherland after a year in Germany, because at this time she felt that she had obtained the scientific research results she wanted, and all she had to do now was to bring them back to her homeland.
Although returning to China means starting from scratch, she does not feel that she started from scratch with a foundation. The German side was shocked by Zhuang Xiaoying's choice, and they tried their best to keep Zhuang Xiaoying, after all, a good-looking and very intelligent female scientist, who did not want to leave her in their country.
But Zhuang Xiaoying said: "Compared with Germany, which has a large number of scientists, my country needs young scientists more." Seeing that she had decided to go, Germany said: "The door of the country is always open to Zhuang Xiaoying, and she is welcome to return at any time." But Zhuang Xiaoying, who returned to the motherland, never wanted to go back. In 2016, she was successfully promoted to a full professor at Tongji University, teaching while engaging in her favorite scientific research.
Her classmates are always very happy, because Zhuang Xiaoying knows that civil engineering is boring, and these students are easy to give up because they can't learn it, but civil engineering is not as simple as they think, so Zhuang Xiaoying will do her best to make a class interesting, and at the same time let the students learn about the extracurricular knowledge while learning the content of the textbook.
Since ancient China, the most important thing is the daughter Lang who "does not love red clothes and loves arms", and Zhuang Xiaoying's achievements are not only so, she once won the Marie Curie Scholarship, her research has also contributed to the continent's aviation, semiconductors, automobiles and other fields, not only this beautiful scientist, but also to cultivate the next generation of young scientists to contribute. In her I saw that the sons and daughters of China had dedicated everything to the motherland.