"I like a free life."
Yan Ning
In 1977, Yan Ning was born in Laiwu, Shandong. Laiwu is a barren area, but also an old revolutionary area. The railway guerrillas' Zaozhuang and Menglianggu's Linyi were not far from there.
When she was a child, Yan Ning was very skinny, jumping up and down on the tree every day, not afraid of the sky, hot like a gust of wind.
But she also has a calm side, loves to read, likes to study all the beautiful things. From the four masterpieces to myths and legends, everything can give her enough space for the book, do not let go.
When reading Journey to the West, she imagined that Sun Wukong had changed seventy-two times, and if he could keep getting smaller, if he could become one nanometer high and ten nanometers tall, what would such a big world look like when he saw it?
"When I looked at the starry sky at that time, I always wanted to know what the outside of the universe was like, what the universe was infinite, what was called infinity, and whether the universe had a boundary."
It was this fanatical curiosity that laid the original foundation for her to become a scientist in the future.
But when she was a child, she aspired to become a journalist. Liberal arts are the first in the grade every time, and the goal is the Chinese Department of Peking University. The class teacher felt that the liberal arts were not as real as the sciences, so he pulled her back and persuaded her with old-fashioned words: "Learn mathematics, physics and chemistry well, you are not afraid to go all over the world, you have such good grades, you come to learn theory, why do you want to learn literature?" ”
Such a sentence changed the trajectory of her life.
Although reading science, Ke Yanning also has his own ideas. After successfully entering Tsinghua, she did not heed the advice of her teachers and parents to choose a medical major, and if her education was only for "good employment", it was not what she wanted.
She turned her head and firmly chose biology that was extremely unpopular at the time.
This is a very unpopular profession, but it has greatly stimulated Yan Ning's enthusiasm, she soaks in the laboratory for 13 hours a day, with almost no additional social activities. The only extra bit of time is also used to read novels.
Time passed quickly, and when the students began their internships and wanted to find an ideal job, Yan Ning was still immersed in his research.
The high number of difficult bites gave her a headache, and she even had nightmares at one point, thinking that she could not pass, and she would definitely hang up the section, and finally the ghost made the god send to 67 points to cross the level.
I didn't expect that defeating the heart demon was so simple, Yan Ning's confidence was doubled, so bad that it was even over, so it was obvious that there was nothing to be afraid of.
She became active in various school activities, playing ball, fitness, etc., and became the president of the student council in her sophomore year.
Fortunately, she was selected for her lab by the famous structural biologist Rao Zihe in her junior year. To tell the truth, even the opportunity for everyone to squeeze her head did not impress her at first.
Before following Rao Zihe, she always felt that the experiment was boring and boring. Unexpectedly, Teacher Rao's unique teaching method slowly opened the biological switch in her heart. She gradually fell in love with experimenting. While bragging to the brothers and sisters in the laboratory, while waiting with great anticipation for the unknown experimental results, it is particularly interesting.
Yan Ning, who was in his senior year, made a surprising move again. Novo Nordisk China Pharmaceutical Company issued an invitation letter to her, unexpectedly, this generous treatment, countless people dreamed of the opportunity, by her fluttering sentence: I like a free life, to refuse.
01
Fate seems to have been arranged.
One day, Shi Yigong, a well-known scholarly god, came to Tsinghua to give a lecture.
Unfortunately, Yan Ning was unwell that day and could not go to the scene, and the classmate returned to the dormitory and told her: "Princeton's Shi Yigong is a big bull!" Why don't you try applying to this school? ”
Yan Ning turned over and immediately wrote an English cover letter to Shi Yigong, with an arrogant tone:
"I feel that my abilities in all aspects have met the requirements of your school, and I hope to spend my time in more valuable places." But applying to go abroad is a waste of time and money, and if Princeton admits me, I won't have to spend any more energy applying to other schools..."
Such an arrogant student may have never been seen by Shi Yigong, and teacher Shi, who is full of curiosity, decided to interview Yan Ning in person. The two could really get along: "Okay! You're here in Princeton! ”
Don't look at the time Tsinghua University is already China's top, but its biological science major is still not comparable to the biological science major known as the ace major of the Ivy League, if there is no persistence and efforts different from ordinary people, it is also impossible to get through normal channels.
What impressed Yan Ning was a princeton professor and couple, both of whom were members of the National Academy of Sciences and whose husband was a Nobel Laureate.
"I'm a night owl, and many times at 11 p.m., I see the couple observing fruit flies under the microscope in their respective laboratories, and the calm and simple persistence is touching. I feel like I want to be like this in the future, and it's easy to do what I like. Yan Ning said.
After a year of rotating between the three laboratories, Yan Ning went to Shi Yigong's laboratory to do a doctoral thesis, first engaged in anti-tumor research; in 2005, he continued to do postdoctoral research, and transitioned to membrane protein research. He received the Young Scientist Award in North America as selected by Science magazine and GE Healthcare.
In just one year, she and her two brothers and sisters took just over a year to make the first membrane protein structure in the laboratory.
She continued to study for more than ten hours a day, and Yan Ning, who was at the tipping point of the explosion every day, lost 30 pounds during those days.
In the end, in just 4 years, Yan Ning obtained a doctorate in molecular biology that other colleagues needed to struggle for 7 years to obtain. And her subsequent move was once again unbelievable:
He returned to China to teach.
Yan Ning, who had just returned to China, had just turned 30 years old, but at that time she was already well-known in the world biological science community. She chose to return to tsinghua's alma mater to teach, becoming the youngest professor ever.
She is ambitious. At that time, the field of Chinese biology was the tail of the crane in the world, and after Yan Ning returned to China, in order to ensure that her scientific research could be carried out smoothly, advanced instruments were finally introduced.
On January 17, 2014, at 10:30 p.m., the data results were finalized. The student Deng Dong was very excited, he ran to the office of his mentor Yan Ning to tell her the results of the experiment, and Yan Ning, at that time, looked at Deng Dong calmly and did not say a word.
After more than two years of concentrated research and nearly half a year of full research, Yan Ning's research team finally cracked another frontier research in life sciences:
The crystal structure and working mechanism of the human glucose transporter GLUT1 were successfully resolved.
This is a problem that in the past few decades, many of the world's top laboratories such as the United States, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom have made or are working hard to solve this problem, but they have never been able to successfully solve it.
A crucial step in the human journey to understand and treat cancer and diabetes.
On this basis, she has published 40 consecutive academic papers, which have been included in top journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell, and her results have twice been selected as the top ten annual progresses selected by Science.
This is unprecedented in China's biological research community.
Even so, some people still do not buy Yan Ning's scientific research results, believing that she only relies on the world's advanced equipment, not her own ability.
Yan Ning did not take this kind of statement from the outside world to heart, she only cared about scientific research, and the gossip of others could not affect her at all.
In 2016, Yan Ning won the title of "China's Scientific Research Star", a huge honor that finally "smashed" into her.
02
Yan Ning has many labels that have always been talked about: Tsinghua beauty xueba, Shi Yigong's proud protégé, 30-year-old Tsinghua Zheng professor, publishing articles on CNS is like irrigation.
Although Yan Ning is a proper bully, the flexible and cute side of her personality is the reason why she is really liked by the public.
Like everyone, chasing dramas and stars is one of her biggest daily hobbies. She is also a fan of Hu Ge, Li Jian, and Zhou Xingchi, and often organizes students to watch movies, play killing games, sing K, and ski together. Life is richer than anyone else.
Seeing the part where she and Rao Yi fight each other, fans also call out capital letters. Yan Ning said: "Fighting with Professor Rao Yi, I have never lost. ”
At the academic lecture meeting of the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a male student stood up and asked, "Teacher Yan, what is your daily work and rest time?" ”
Yan Ning immediately replied, "It's a matter of your hair." ”
A reporter from China News Weekly asked Yan Ning, "How do you think you are different from the mainstream scientists in the public impression?" She came up with another god answer: "Am I not a mainstream scientist?" ”
Even Sabine, who has always been slippery-mouthed, can only concede defeat when he encounters her. In the scene of the "Talking" program, as soon as Yan Ning appeared, Sabine made a joke that is very common in China: you should be called "Yan Yan", not Yan Ning.
Yan Ning did not hesitate to give him back: "Ning" will send you.
In a word, it generously dissolves the public's stereotype of beautiful scientists. When Sabine called her "female scientist" again, Yan Ning, who was originally silent, "fought back": "I reject the word female scientist. ”
Sabine now realized that the title "female scientist" may mean "less respectful".
And Yan Ning said directly: "It really can't, this is called discrimination." "She didn't keep silent about women being gender-disrupted in various fields. Instead, she spoke frankly and bravely, speaking the voice of women.
After that show, everyone said that Yan Ning had taught Sabine a lesson.
As a woman, she knows enough about what kind of life she wants to live. Once, when interviewing a doctoral student at the college, a male colleague asked a female student who took the test, "Now that you have reached a certain age, how will you balance family and scientific research in the future?" ”
Yan Ning immediately interjected, "You can not answer this question." This is a gender-discriminatory issue. Why don't you ever ask men how to balance family and work? ”
Yan Ning has always been single, but she does not respond to such topics.
"I'm not married, and I don't owe anyone an explanation."
She always felt that society needed successful women to stand up and speak bravely for women. She also hopes to make parents, elders and people with "traditional ideas" change slowly, little by little. Of course, she knew it would be a long process. However, Yan Ning said she would continue to work hard.
Seeing that women can also succeed and live the life they want is her little wish.
On the first day of the May Day holiday 3 years ago, 41-year-old Yan Ning was once again on Weibo's hot search.
When she woke up, Yan Ning was stunned by the overwhelming number of text messages and emails: it turned out that she had been elected a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, along with the Nobel Laureates.
Behind the miracle is her ten years of perseverance. She is Yan Ning, a frank, pure woman.