Wen | Chen Huanhuan, reporter of China Science Daily
After 11 years of "drifting" abroad, the 32-year-old Sun Jing returned to China after finishing her second postdoctoral work.
She chose the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Geochemistry) to become a researcher and doctoral supervisor. Many people have asked her a question: Why did she choose the western research institute as soon as she returned to China?
In Sun Jing's own view, all this is logical.
She hopes that she will settle down in Guiyang for a period of time and achieve better results.
Faced with the transition from postdoctoral fellow to independent researcher, Sun Jing described her efforts to master the skills of clowns — throwing three bottles into the sky at the same time, and all three can catch.
Does this state of "there's always a bottle flying in the sky" create anxiety? "If anxiety is useful, I'm willing to be anxious, but the point is that I don't think it's useful, so I'm not anxious." Sun Jing told China Science Daily.
Sun Jing Courtesy of the interviewee
Amazing West
Why choose the Western Institute? In Sun Jing's view, this is almost the result of "favorable times and places".
The Institute of Geochemistry has the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, which in Sun Jing's view is the best platform for the study of environmental geochemistry in the country.
Moreover, the special karst landforms of the southwest region, although there are great challenges to her main groundwater research, can carry out some unique research.
The visit to the Institute in July 2016, which lasted more than a month, was very pleasant to Sun Jing.com.
At that time, she had just returned to China from her first postdoctoral work in the United States for a vacation, first returned to her hometown of Hefei at 36 °C, and then came to Guiyang at 26 °C.
"The weather is good, the scenery is beautiful, and I get along well with the teachers and students of the Institute of Geochemistry, I think it should be very smooth to work here, and in the end, it proves that I did not come wrong."
When she first returned to China, Sun Jing frankly said that her fund book was written about "what a ghost", fortunately, she got the guidance of many leaders and colleagues to help her revise it over and over again, and quickly crossed this hurdle.
In order to attract talents, the Institute of Localization has also made great efforts.
One of the most attractive things for Sun Jing is that she has obtained a senior title and doctoral supervisor qualification after joining the company, which allows her to quickly establish an independent team and carry out her work.
In September this year, Sun Jing's research group will have more than 10 members, and there will be full-time scientific research assistants and financial assistants.
Sun Jing is committed to the research of groundwater pollution mechanism and remediation technology, but instead of focusing on artificial discharges such as industry and agriculture, it is a global problem for inferior groundwater produced by natural sources, such as high arsenic groundwater.
The surface-subsurface high connectivity of the southwest karst landform of the continent makes the rapid conversion of atmospheric precipitation, surface water and groundwater, which greatly increases the difficulty of research.
"Compared to the atmosphere, surface water and soil, groundwater is invisible to the public, but because water is circulating, pollutants are also connected. I studied the release of harmful elements from aquifer minerals and how to inhibit or reverse this process. She said.
At present, Sun Jing has presided over and participated in a number of scientific research projects at home and abroad, taking the formation and migration law of native high arsenic and high fluorine groundwater as the core, using experimental and numerical simulation methods, and achieved a series of innovative achievements, and has won the title of "Hou Defeng Young Scientist Award for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry" and "Youth May Fourth Medal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences".
Sun Jing hopes to improve the drinking water safety of scattered high arsenic exposure populations in rural mainland China through her own research.
Mentor who is also a mentor and a friend
In Sun Jing's study experience, from studying abroad in 2008 to graduating with a doctorate in 2015, it took her 7 years to publish her first paper.
But that doesn't stop her from taking the prize and getting it soft. She has received the Dartmouth Graduate Award from the School of Earth Sciences, the Outstanding Research Award from Columbia University's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and has authored a report that has won the Best Student Report at the American Soil Society Annual Meeting and the Best Student Report at the Two American Superfund Annual Meetings.
"The key is to see if the research you do makes sense, and whether this scientific question is worth studying." Sun Jing concluded.
Of course, this is also inseparable from the guidance of the two mentors, Benjamín Bostick and Steven Chillrud.
Sun Jing recalled that before each academic conference, the two tutors would take her to rehearse in advance in the conference room, and during her speech, each person took a small book to write down the deficiencies, and then told her how to strengthen and improve.
This kind of training continued throughout the early stages of Sun Jing's doctoral career, until she grew into a qualified speaker, and the supervisor stopped opening her small stove.
Nowadays, when cultivating students, Sun Jing also attaches great importance to cultivating students' expression and writing skills.
At the group meeting, she will tell students the key points that each page of PPT needs to express and how to express; She may change a student's first article 20 times.
Sun Jing mentioned that when she was a child, she wrote the essay "My Ideal" to aspire to be a scientist, but she did not expect to really embark on this road later. She believes that "interest still accounts for a large part".
When recruiting students, Sun Jing is also more concerned about whether they are really interested in scientific research.
Her method is to send the first page of 10 of her own articles to the students who contact her, and if the students find the paper themselves and contact her after reading it, they will communicate further.
In the United States for 8 years, Sun Jing followed her mentor Ben from Dartmouth College to Columbia University, from master's degree to postdoctoral fellow, and also a mentor and friend.
When Ben got married and went to the city hall to get a permit, Sun Jing was a witness, and his name appeared on the relevant documents.
When ben's family came to China to visit, they also went to Hefei and stayed in the hotel next door to Sun Jing's house.
Although we haven't seen each other for a long time because of the epidemic, Sun Jing will still email Ben to listen to the teacher's advice if there is any problem.
"I hope that my students will continue to work in scientific research after graduation, and that we will always communicate and cooperate like friends."
Brave output of the female PI
Today's Sun Jing has grown from an only child who is "spoiled and habitual" to a female PI who "can adapt to it no matter which country she loses".
Sun Jing said: "Ben told me that the most important thing in doing scientific research is to ask scientific questions, he only gives directions, as for how to answer this scientific question, I need to design and complete it myself." ”
The mentor never criticized her, including the rejection of the article also felt very normal, learn from the experience and continue to work hard. This makes Sun Jing less afraid of failure and less prone to anxiety.
In 2016, Sun Jing refused to be retained by her mentor and came to the University of Western Australia and the Australian Federal Science and Industry Organization to learn numerical simulation techniques. She said she wanted to learn something different.
After joining the Institute of Localization in 2019, Sun Jing summarized two essential qualities of independent PI: First, maintain enthusiasm, continuous learning, and keep up with the forefront of field development; The second is to train multi-tasking capabilities and make good use of fragmented time.
"After becoming an independent researcher, what I learned the most was how to use fragmented time, for example, now that I only have half an hour, I must change an article and never rub it." She said.
Along the way, Sun Jing has a lot of female role models around her, so that she has never felt the professional ceiling.
For example, Robin Bell, president of the American Geophysical Union, Maureen Raymo, director of the Earth Observation Institute at Columbia University, and Jane Coram, director of research at the Department of Water and Soil of the Australian Federal Science and Industry Organization, are all women.
But she also admitted that after scientific researchers obtained senior titles, the ratio of men to women was very different.
Therefore, Sun Jing actively participates in and organizes various activities for women scientists, such as participating in the first Young Women Scientists Forum of the China Association for Science and Technology as one of the executive chairmen in 2020, participating in the 2020 International Young Women Scientists Forum, and opening the Geoscience Young Women Scientists Salon during the Youth Geoscience Forum in 2021 as one of the executive chairmen.
She advises female researchers to join relevant organizations and take the initiative to seek help when they have problems and difficulties.
"I don't have children now, and my parents and significant other are very supportive of my work. But for female scientists with children, policy support is really needed. Sun Jing said that in addition to the policy first, women themselves must seize the opportunity and dare to challenge.
She suggested that female researchers boldly export their ideas to colleagues, peers, and the public, so that people can understand that women can actually do a lot of things. "When you go your own way, you'll suddenly be enlightened."