Winning the Nobel Prize is an affirmation of a scientist, and the speech with Chinese at the award ceremony is undoubtedly an affirmation of China. In 1976, Ding Zhaozhong held the Nobel Prize in his hand and brought Chinese to the podium of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the first time, and this physicist born in the United States and grew up in the United States proved to the world that although he was an American, he had a Chinese heart.
Ding Zhaozhong
In 1935, a couple of lovers in Ann Arbor held a wedding in the United States, both were international students in the United States, they were in college, a year later his wife Wang Junying was pregnant with a child, and her husband Ding Guanhai was happy. But at this time, the motherland on the other side of the ocean was facing the invasion of the Japanese, as a Chinese, Ding Guanhai could not sit idly by but his wife was close to giving birth, and now returning to China could not guarantee safety. Finally, at the urging of his wife, Ding Guanhai first returned to Henan, China.
On January 27, 1936, Ding Zhaozhong was born in the American Hospital, Wang Junying could finally take his son back to China, and the family of three was reunited, but before they could enjoy it, a series of turmoil ensued.
When the July 7 Incident broke out in 1937, the Ding family fled all the way to Nanjing's relatives and friends for the safety of their lives, but the next day, the Japanese began to bomb Nanjing indiscriminately. Ding Guanhai could only flee to Wuhu, Anhui Province, with his young Ding Zhaozhong again, because of the tight pace of the Japanese Kou, they finally settled in Chongqing.
Ding Zhaozhong family portrait
Ding Guanhai and Wang Junying respectively taught at universities in the Sichuan-Chongqing region, and several years of exile made the young Ding Zhaozhong,India and India profound, because Japanese planes often bombed Chongqing, Ding Zhaozhong's courses were often interrupted, but under the guidance of his parents, he never gave up his studies, and with the passage of time Ding Zhaozhong gradually understood the greatness of the motherland and saw through Japan's wolf ambitions.
On August 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, and three years later, 12-year-old Ding Zhaozhong followed his parents to Taichung City, Taiwan, where everything was strange to the young Ding Zhaozhong, but he also understood that he was far behind the other students in his class.
He gave up the original play time and devoted himself to studying, and his parents saw that he was studying too hard, and he resolutely refused to play properly several times when he was advised. And in the tone of an adult, he said that "time is the most wasteful", no matter what you do, you must work hard and become a leader.
After nearly a year of hard study, in the autumn of 1949, Ding Zhaozhong was admitted to Taipei Chenggong Middle School with excellent results, because he ran away from war since he was a child, and Ding Zhaozhong's Chinese and English results were not ideal. Therefore, this young man was secretly determined to achieve something in the natural sciences that he was good at.
With the increase of age, the former "nerd" has long disappeared, at this time Ding Zhaozhong has understood that diligence does not mean to be desperate, hard but can not become dull. Because of his healthy learning style, Ding Zhaozhong scored far ahead in every exam in middle school.
In 1955, his high school era ended, Ding Zhaozhong graduated with a perfect score in mathematics and chemistry, and a score of 97 points in physics, and his parents were overjoyed to see his son so excellent, but Ding Zhaozhong was not satisfied with this, because he had a more grand long-cherished wish in his heart.
Being guaranteed because of his excellent grades is probably the envy of every student, but for Ding Zhaozhong at that time, he did not feel half a joy, because he was thinking of Taiwan University rather than a successful university. After obtaining his parents' consent, the stubborn young man decided to take the joint examination in the province, and was bound to return from the examination. But unexpectedly, because Venko pulled out the points of Ding Zhaozhong failed, he could not sleep at night since then.
But under the pressure of reality, he could only advance to the mechanical engineering department of Cheng Kung University with the ideal of the future, and in the first academic year's examination, he scored 91 points in physics and 95 points in calculus, and only engineering drawing had just passed. Because in Ding Zhaozhong's heart, mechanical engineering is not his dream, physics in natural science is.
Repeatedly deliberating on each law is his greatest pleasure in his daily life, and the ever-changing nature of the world makes him fascinated. He admired the contributions of physicists from all over the world, and he had read many biographies of physicists.
Ding Zhaozhong (second from left)
Inspired by the power of idols, Ding Zhaozhong brewed an amazing ambition: he wanted to become a "leader" in the physical world.
With a dream to put into action, Ding Zhaozhong resolutely decided to retake the Taiwan University to study physics, and after graduation, he went to the United States for further study and dedicated his life to physics. But before Ding Zhaozhong could put into the review, an accident occurred.
At that time, his parents had a good friend named Brown when they studied in the United States, he was already the dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Michigan in the United States, and although Ding Zhaozhong had a very short contact with him, he left a good impression on Brown. The mother, Wang Junying, seized the opportunity to mention to Brown that her son was going to study in the United States, and Brown immediately agreed without hesitation.
In August 1956, Ding Zhaozhong bid farewell to his relatives and classmates and boarded a flight to the United States with only one hundred dollars. After getting off the plane, Ding Zhaozhong came to the University of Michigan alone, but instead of accepting the housing that Brown had prepared for him, he rented a dormitory with other classmates. In this way, Ding Zhaozhong's university life began.
In college, Ding Zhaozhong made full use of his strengths and avoided his weaknesses, focusing on the study of mathematics and physics, and achieved excellent results. With Brown's assistance, he applied for a scholarship and transferred to his beloved physics department. Talent and hard work make Ding Zhaozhong physically proficient. By the time he graduated from the University of Michigan, he had earned degrees in both physics and mathematics, and had consecutive double degrees, which was rare for college students at the time.
In April 1960, Ding Zhaozhong, a graduate, came to the Berkeley Experimental Center in California to carry out experimental work on π meson and proton impacts. In his experimental work, he was deeply loved by professors, who believed that Ding Zhaozhong's future had great development. However, just when his career was booming, his mother Wang Junying unfortunately passed away due to ineffective treatment for bowel cancer. This made the twenty-four-year-old Ding Zhaozhong grief-stricken, he was once in misery, but Ding Zhaozhong did not sink there.
He remembered his mother's encouragement to him, this strong enterprising heart beat again, he continued to climb the peak of physics, and finally received a doctorate in philosophy in 1962, and also made some achievements in physics research, fighting for his nation.
In 1964, Ding Zhaozhong was appointed as a lecturer in physics at Columbia University, and with the help of his predecessor Professor Liedmann, he spent only half a year to develop the "hydrogen-resistant isotope", a discovery that was highly respected by the United States at that time. Newsweek and The New York Times scrambled to publish articles about it, and Ding Zhaozhong's path to physics officially began.
Yang Zhenning (first from left) Ding Zhaozhong (first from right)
As a scientist, Ding Zhaozhong's consistent belief is that there is no equation for success, that the experience and formulas of predecessors need to be borrowed and used, but cannot be regarded as unchanging things, he is more important than thinking and understanding, and never superstitious books and authorities. He once said that something does not exist unless it is measured, unless it has been experimentally proven.
Under such a concept, Ding Zhaozhong continued to exert his strength, first confirming the correctness of "quantum electrodynamics", and then came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an associate professor of physics, he carefully selected talents, personally led the battle, strictly controlled the experimental process, and handled everything carefully.
The intense work caused Ding Zhaozhong to suffer from severe neurasthenia, but the experimental work needed him, how could he let it go. Under the leadership of Ding Zhaozhong, the experimental team began to search for new particles, they refused the persuasion of others, faced the sneers of academic power, and worked day and night.
Ding Zhaozhong (middle)
Finally, one day in August 1974, the electrons in the accelerator suddenly increased, and this was the precursor to the emergence of new particles. The staff in the laboratory were all nervous, the protons in the high-energy accelerator continued to collide, Ding Zhaozhong's pulse was also beating sharply, and suddenly the world fell silent because a new particle appeared.
At this moment, all the tension turned into excitement, because a new era of nuclear physics in the world had arrived, because this new particle produced positive and negative electrons when decomposing, and the "J" of the English letter usually represented the current, so Ding Zhaozhong named it "J particle". The emergence of new particles broke the stagnant international physics community In the United States, Newsweek wrote an article commenting: "This is a major breakthrough in elementary particle science."
For nearly half a century, physicists have worked hard to analyze the basic structure of the natural world, which has great significance and contribution, and even the president of the United States at that time sent congratulatory letters, and Ding Zhaozhong's name entered the halls of the Nobel Prize.
On October 18, 1976, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences sent a telegram to Ding Zhaozhong informing him that he had won the 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics. According to the custom, the laureates were to give a speech in Chinese language at the award ceremony, but Ding Zhaozhong broke the convention by writing a letter to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, requesting that the speech must be delivered in Chinese and then repeated in English.
He wanted the voice of China to spread throughout the hall to express his deep love for the motherland and his pride as the Chinese nation. This not only embarrassed the Royal Academy of Sciences, but also was tried to obstruct by the US government at that time, but Ding Zhaozhong was very firm, if he could not use Chinese speech he would not accept this award, under Ding Zhaozhong's tough attitude, the United States chose to compromise.
On December 10, 1976, in the award hall in Stockholm, Ding Zhaozhong delivered his acceptance speech in Chinese with great excitement, and the applause was thunderous for a while. At this moment, the whole world heard the voice of China, and Ding Zhaozhong never forgot the motherland after winning the award, and in the second year after the discovery of the J particle, he came to Beijing and visited many places to witness the growth of new China.
He once wrote in his autobiography: "China is a country with a long history and far-reaching scientific discoveries, and I believe that with stability and continuous encouragement and support for scientific undertakings, China will certainly make many very important contributions to science in the coming years."
This physicist, who has dedicated his life to science, has never forgotten who he is, and he has always loved his homeland deeply in his own unique way.