Chapter 525: Professor At Alma Mater

Around two months ago, when Lu Zhou’s research was at its busiest, he often thought that when he had more free time, he would go outside and do something he normally wouldn’t.

However, when he had free time, he found out that he wasn’t interested in the plans he made anymore.

No matter where he went, it wasn’t as comfortable as being in his own home, especially in his own study room.

This was the only room in the mansion where he could feel relaxed and at peace.

However, the only downside was that whenever he was here, his mind would inadvertently drift to the unsolved research project topics.

Even though the process of creating knowledge was enjoyable, if he was studying these problems during his vacation, then there would be no point in having a vacation in the first place.

Lu Zhou recently discovered how important it was to have a hobby not related to research.

Lu Zhou thought back to how he relaxed when he was in Princeton. On the second day of his holiday, Lu Zhou was feeling cabin fever, so he sat in Wang Peng’s car and came to Jin Ling University.

Lu Zhou originally just wanted to walk around the campus. He didn’t expect to run into Principal Xu, who invited him to his office.

Principal Xu asked his assistant to make two cups of tea. He sat on the sofa and began to chat.

“How is it? Are you used to being here?”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Why are you putting it like that? You sound like I haven’t been here in a long time.”

Professor Xu smiled and said, “I didn’t ask about your personal life, I meant the research side. You’re living in Zhongshan International now. All the professors at Jin Ling University worship you, are you not satisfied?”

He paused for a second and said, “There must be a difference between the Chinese and international research institute environment.”

Lu Zhou said, “There is definitely a difference, but I think it’s whatever.”

At the very least, Lu Zhou was pretty satisfied with his own Institute for Advanced Study.

“Speaking of which, how is your controllable fusion project going?” Principal Xu suddenly remembered something and added, “Ah, if you can’t tell me, just pretend like I didn’t ask.”

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “There are no secrets, the research is available to the public anyway. Everything is being done step by step. The eyes, brain, and two legs are all in place. There are only some small problems, like the torso that needs to be created.”

The “eye” was the He3 atom probe technology, the head was Xiao Ai’s supercomputer, the legs were the outer field coil, made from SG-1 superconducting material, while the torso was the reactor itself.

Strictly speaking, there were also two “arms”, which were the ferrofluid electric generators, but that was handled by the China National Nuclear Corporation.

Principal Xu sat up straight in surprise and said, “Does this mean there’s hope?”

Lu Zhou sighed and said, “It’s difficult, the torso is probably the most difficult.”

From the carbon fiber composite to the first wall liquid lithium neutron recovery system, there were way more problems than he had anticipated.

The only fortunate thing was that he had a rough feasible idea on how to solve these problems.

All he had to do now was to follow these ideas and solve any other problems along the way.

Lu Zhou picked up the teacup on the table and diverted the conversation.

“Let’s not talk about nuclear fusion anymore. I’m on holiday now, and the reason I came here was to get away from the research project.”

Principal Xu smiled and said, “If you really wanted to relax, you should have gone fishing or hiking, why are you at a college? Oh yeah, school is starting in September. If you aren’t busy, how about you say a couple of words at the opening ceremony?”

Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly and said, “I’m not busy, but I don’t have anything to say.”

Principal Xu smiled and said, “I’m not asking you to speak for long, just say a couple of words. Even just one sentence is fine. If anything, most of the students at Jin Ling University this year applied here because of you.”

“I’ll see. If I’m free, I’ll definitely come.” Lu Zhou suddenly remembered something, and he smiled and said, “Oh yeah, last time you said I would become a tenured professor here. It’s been half a year since I’ve been back, so where is my offer?”

Professor Xu said, “You want to become a professor at Jin Ling University?”

Lu Zhou joked, “Does my alma mater not welcome me?”

“Not at all, why didn’t you mention this earlier!” Principal Xu slapped his thigh and laughed. He said, “The reason why I never brought this up was that I didn’t want to waste your time. If you really want to come back and teach, you can become the dean of any department you wish for; chemistry, physics, mathematics, whatever you want!”

Originally, Principal Xu wanted to bring this matter up, but he didn’t expect the situation to suddenly change. After Lu Zhou returned to China, Lu Zhou immediately became the chief designer on the Chinese project and an academic leader in the controllable nuclear fusion field.

Normally speaking, even if the school offered millions in research funding, not many people would be willing to teach undergraduate students.

Anyone at the academician level that controlled a few dozen projects, not only were they bored at teaching undergraduate students, but they often ignored their PhD students as well.

After all, there weren’t many people that would think that teaching was a fun and interesting thing.

Therefore, the principal didn’t mention this matter.

However, he didn’t expect Lu Zhou to bring up this matter, making this was a wonderful surprise.

“Forget about becoming a dean, I can’t handle an administrative position. Just give me a mathematics department office.” Principal Xu looked eager, so Lu Zhou looked at him and said, “If I can’t teach the classes well, it’ll only affect the students’ final exam marks. If I do a bad job at being the department dean, I’ll ruin the students’ futures.”

For Lu Zhou, thinking about simple problems outside of research relaxed his tight brain, and it also gave him inspiration.

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Not to mention, research couldn’t be done by one person alone. If he could train a couple of talented students, it would make his life much easier.

He would pass on doing administrative work.

After all, he didn’t have any desire for things like power.

“Okay then, if you don’t want to work a management role, we won’t force you. It’s decided!” Principal Xu smiled and said, “From now on, our Jin Ling University is a Nobel Prize level school.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “Hasn’t it always been?”

Principal Xu: “There’s a big difference between an honorary professor and a working professor. I’ll ask someone to handle the procedure for you. In a few days’ time, when you’re free, go pick up your stuff at the administrative office. If you don’t have time, I can find someone to send it to you. Purple Mountain is closeby anyway.”

Lu Zhou: “I’ll pick them up myself…”

Suddenly, they heard a knocking sound from the office door.

A respectful yet unfamiliar voice traveled through the office door.

“Is Professor Lu there?”

…

Europe.

Wendelstein 7-X research institute.

The equipment was slowly shutting down, Professor Millek, president of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres, stared straight at the device. He spoke with a poker-face.

“What’s the result like?”

Professor Keriber took a deep breath and replied, “We’ve tried to improve the control scheme. There is a slight increase in the plasma confinement time, but we’re still quite a long way from one hour.”

Millek: “Be more specific.”

Keriber looked at his assistant next to him as his mouth twitched bitterly.

“… We increased it by 102 seconds.”

If this were a few months ago, an increased confinement time measured in seconds would be an exciting achievement. It could even be counted as an in-progress result, with press conferences and media reports.

But now, the improvement measured in seconds had lost its meaning…

Professor Millek nodded and didn’t say anything.

He was the only one that came here; he wasn’t accompanied by government officials. As a scholar himself, he knew he shouldn’t put all of the blame on Keriber.

Any research project had its own development speed; impatience would only cause trouble.

Millek went silent for a while before he suddenly said, “The Americans are planning to kick China out of the ITER organization.”

Professor Keriber’s heart was shocked when he heard this, and he gasped in disbelief, “Why?!”

“The reason is intellectual property… Or rather, the excuse. After all, there are a lot of specifics that aren’t clear to me.”

Keriber: “… Will the ITER Council agree?”

Professor Millek replied, “If they have to, they will.”

Keriber had a complicated expression on his face as he said, “What about the funds that come from China? Just looking at it from the monetary perspective alone…”

Professor Millek: “The United States promises to cover the funding.”

Keriber complained, “Another promise? They’ve never even fulfilled their past funding promises!”

“There’s no point for us to discuss this. After all, we haven’t fulfilled our own promises.” Professor Millek looked at Keriber, who was triggered. He then added, “Also, I’m just giving you the facts.”

Keriber took a deep breath and calmed down. He quietly muttered, “I don’t understand, why don’t they leave themselves?”

Ten years ago, the Americans had been yelling about leaving ITER. Now, not only were they not leaving, but they were kicking other people out of ITER.

Professor Millek went silent for a while. He pretended like he didn’t hear anything and sighed.

“ITER is considering to adjust the planned tokamak demonstration reactor to a stellarator demonstration reactor. Fortunately, the tokamak project hasn’t started yet, so the loss isn’t too big. I’m guessing after the next conference, the relevant official documents will be released. The Wendelstein 7-X, which is you guys, will play an important role in this.”

Professor Keriber smiled bitterly and said, “So you’re saying, you want us to ‘go toe-to-toe’ with Professor Lu?”

This is asinine.

Scientific research isn’t a boxing match.

Instead of having a winner and loser, it’d be better to cooperate and form a win-win situation.

Especially for research regarding mankind’s future, cooperation is far more meaningful than a competition.

As if Professor Millek understood what Professor Keriber was thinking, without expressing his own opinions, he gently nodded.

“You can think of it like this, we have to be ahead of China.”