Chapter 433: Professor Lazerson’s Decision

While Lu Zhou and Professor Green were reaching an agreement, a strange person appeared outside his office at Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

The person hesitated before knocking and walking into the office.

“Is this Professor Lu Zhou’s office?”

Vera stopped writing and said, “Yes, why do you want to find Professor Lu?”

The old man looked around the office as he said, “I need to talk to him… Is he taking time off today?”

“Nope,” Vera shook her head and said, “but he left in the morning.”

The old man asked, “Then can you tell me where I can find him?”

“He’s been doing research at the John von Neumann Center these days, so you can go there if you want to find him.”

The old man nodded and said, “The supercomputer center? Okay… Thank you.” He turned around and was about to leave the office.

However, suddenly, the office door was pushed open.

Lu Zhou came back from the John von Neumann Center with the new data.

When he saw Lazerson, he was stunned.

At first, he thought he had misrecognized him.

Ever since the end of last year, Professor Lazerson had been visiting the Germany Wendelstein 7-X laboratory, and the two had been communicating through email.

Lu Zhou didn’t know Lazerson was coming back.

“Lazerson? My dear friend, you came back from Germany? When did you come back?”

Lazerson looked at his watch.

“I got off the plane five hours ago…”

Lu Zhou laughed and said, “In any case, welcome back! Actually, I was about to email you a piece of good news. Come, I’ll show you a piece of treasure.”

When Professor Lazerson saw how excited Lu Zhou was, he hesitated for a moment. However, he still followed Lu Zhou to his computer.

Lu Zhou switched on his laptop and plugged in his USB. He then quickly opened the simulation software.

When Professor Lazerson saw the intersecting green, red, and yellow lines on the computer screen, he had a surprised look on his face.

“Unbelievable… You actually did it?”

“There’s still one more step I need to do. I need to use a supercomputer and test the model, and it might take a few days. But the mathematical model is basically finished,” Lu Zhou said with a smirk. “Isn’t it magical?”

“Yeah…” Lazerson was hesitant. He coughed and said, “Congratulations! This mathematical model alone is worthy of a physics award. Also, the main reason I came back was to tell you something. I hope you won’t be too surprised.”

Lu Zhou looked at Professor Lazerson’s serious demeanor and asked, “What’s up?”

Lazerson: “I plan on resigning.”

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Actually, Lazerson could have said something worse. Still, Lu Zhou didn’t expect to hear this.

Lu Zhou looked at Lazerson in disbelief and said, “Resign?”

“Yes.” Professor Lazerson nodded and said, “The He3 atom probe is a fantastic plasma diagnostic technology. I have a feeling that it might become a staple of every plasma research institute. If every He3 atom probe has to be designed and constructed by my group of engineers, it would be way too cumbersome. So I want to design a standardized device that can be disassembled or installed; the kind that works by plugging it into an electric outlet.”

Lu Zhou didn’t know how to react.

He went silent for around five seconds before he said, “You’re already the head of the project team, and you might become the PPPL director in a few years… Is this really the right choice?”

“There’s nothing right or wrong about this. In my opinion, distributing the He3 probe technology is more important than any position at the PPPL. Not to mention, why would I want to be the PPPL director? I would rather have a few million in funds to do my own research than to manage hundreds of millions and have none of the money.”

Lu Zhou: “But… My dear Professor Lazerson, how many plasma research institutes can afford your equipment? Or how many are willing to order it?”

“That’s not a problem, and I’m not worried about sales.” Professor Lazerson smiled and said in a relaxed tone, “I know you don’t think this is much money. After all, you rejected a million-dollar Millennium Award prize.”

Lu Zhou said, “I didn’t reject it, I only postponed it!”

“Fine, you postponed it, but that’s not the main point.” Professor Lazerson said, “Back to what we just said, although my company is still in its early stages, we’ve already signed two 8-figure contracts.”

Whether it was in China or America, jumping from academia to business was not an unusual thing.

Especially for technical engineers like Professor Lazerson, they were much better at transforming a piece of technology into a product than normal scientists.

Not just that, but with his academia connections, Lazerson could easily sign contracts with major plasma physics research institutes. As for the people in the plasma physics community, as long as Lazerson’s prices were reasonable, they were happy to do business with him.

But this wasn’t good news for Lu Zhou.

Not because Lu Zhou wouldn’t receive any profits.

He never intended to make money on the He3 probe technology, nor did he want to register a patent. The probe’s main purpose was to facilitate his own research. In fact, he was happy to see other people commercialized the product as it would save him a lot of trouble.

However, he didn’t expect Lazerson to be the one to do this.

If Professor Lazerson resigned, Lu Zhou would undoubtedly lose an excellent research partner.

Lu Zhou tried to convince him, “You’re already fifty years old, I suggest you think carefully before making decisions.”

Professor Lazerson shook his head and said, “Fifty years old isn’t that old. Plus I’ve thought about this for a long time. The reason I came here was to bid you farewell.”

Lu Zhou looked at how determined Professor Lazerson was, and he knew he couldn’t persuade him.

After a while, Lu Zhou sighed and said, “I wish you the best… If there’s anything I can help, feel free to contact me.”

Although this was unfortunate, everyone had to make their own choices.

Professor Lazerson was his research partner, not his employee. He didn’t have a right to interfere with Lazerson’s choices.

Professor Lazerson’s eyes lit up when he heard Lu Zhou.

“Really? You’re willing to help me?”

When Lu Zhou saw how delighted Professor Lazerson was, he said, “Of course… But It depends on what it is.”

“Oh, here’s the deal… Although I’ve already raised some money, we’re still lacking in the financing department. Of course, I’ve thought about borrowing from the banks, but it’s not easy for a start-up to secure funding, you know?” Professor Lazerson coughed and seemed embarrassed as he said, “Are you interested in investing?”

Lu Zhou: “…”