Three moments in my time at Tsinghua University
- Remarks at the 2024 Graduate Graduation Ceremony
Chen Qiang, a 2019 doctoral student in the Department of Chemical Engineering
Distinguished teachers, distinguished guests, dear students, good morning!
I am Chen Qiang, a Ph.D. graduate from the Department of Chemical Engineering, and I am honored to speak here as a student representative. First of all, on behalf of all the 2024 graduates, please allow me to thank my alma mater for their meticulous care and care, teachers and teachers for their dedicated training and guidance, and peers for their sincere and warm encouragement and companionship.
Time flies, and when we first entered the campus, we still have novelty and expectations, and now we are about to say goodbye to the garden. Here, we have left too many memories - we can't forget the countless closing bells in the library, the congestion on the school road where "cycling is not as fast" as "cycling is not as fast", Qingfen's roast duck, Dongcao's night run, Lover's slope's romance and the bright lights of the late-night laboratory. Today, I would like to share with you three moments from my time at Tsinghua University, which tell stories of growth, perseverance, and choice.
The first moment established my ambition to do scientific research from the sky. I still remember the first day I came to the Department of Chemical Engineering, I was deeply attracted by the statue of Mr. Wang Jiading at the entrance of the museum. When I participated in the life of the freshman party organization, I heard the story of Mr. Wang Jiading for the first time. In order to break through the technological blockade at that time, he led the students of Tsinghua University to start by checking the data, learning the basic theory little by little, and finally successfully researching a new "extraction method", which raised the mainland nuclear fuel treatment technology to the international advanced level. At that moment, the spirit of the older generation of scientists in responding to the country's need for scientific research deeply moved me, and also made me make up my mind: I must do academic research that stands up to the sky. When I was a sophomore in my Ph.D., I realized that pharmaceutical production in mainland China is still facing problems such as low resource utilization and high energy consumption costs. Through the coupling of light and enzymes, a large number of energy-consuming, inefficient and highly toxic chemical reaction processes can be replaced. Therefore, I decided to enter the "no man's land" in the field of interdisciplinary research of light and enzymes to explore the scientific problems of microscale photoenzyme cascade catalysis, so as to promote pollution reduction, energy conservation and carbon reduction in the chemical industry, and serve the implementation of the national "double carbon" strategy.
The second moment tempered my courage to overcome difficulties. As my research progressed, I encountered an important problem: I wanted to further explore the atomic-level structure of the enzyme after it was immobilized, but I was stuck in the difficult problem of structural elucidation. When I was at a loss, my supervisor, Mr. Wang Yujun, suggested that I try cryo-EM technology, but many teachers reminded me that the influencing factors of this kind of research are very complex, the failure rate is high, the time is extremely long, and the possibility of delay is very high, so you should consider it carefully. For this reason, I was very hesitant and hesitant. The tutor knew about my confusion and talked to me specifically. We walked from the museum to the Lotus Garden in 20 minutes, but his encouragement still motivates me to this day: "It would be a pity if our five-year research was a flat line." In the face of problems, we must solve them as if we were climbing a peak! This sentence strengthened my determination, and I decided to continue exploring this unfamiliar territory. During the research phase, I often worked from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m., 16 hours a day. The 1.6-kilometer journey from the Gongwu Museum to the School of Life has witnessed my countless exhaustions and the excitement of my success. In the end, I was able to complete the experiment in one year, which would have taken me two years to complete, and successfully cracked the delicate structure of the enzyme molecule.
The third moment strengthened my belief in teaching and educating people. During my Ph.D., I served as a teaching assistant for three consecutive years and six semesters, serving more than 1,200 students. As the elder brother of the research group, I am often happy to discuss research solutions with my younger brothers and sisters. Once, when my mentor's research hit a bottleneck, I suggested that he try the latest method. In the middle of the night, my junior brother, who had been fighting for several months, suddenly broke into the laboratory in a rage and said to me excitedly, "It's done!" At this moment, I also jumped up excitedly, and a different sense of accomplishment suddenly surged in my heart. Every time I see the growth of my classmates and the progress of my younger siblings in scientific research, I feel more satisfied than I have achieved scientific research achievements, and I feel as if I have taken over the baton of teaching and educating people. There are also many "big gentlemen" in the Department of Chemical Engineering who have also set an example for me to devote myself to teaching and research. Their enthusiastic teaching and powerful lessons inspire me to follow in their footsteps, step onto the podium, become a teacher, and strive to be a model for students to learn, to do things, and to be people.
After graduation, I will go to Southwest University to engage in teaching and scientific research, and return to Chongqing to build my hometown. My hometown, Chongqing, is a city full of fireworks and innovative vitality, and is an important strategic fulcrum for the large-scale development of the western region in the new era and a comprehensive hub for inland opening-up. I firmly believe that the vast world of Chongqing will be a promising stage for my life in the future, and I am determined to contribute my spark to the development of higher education and science and technology in the western part of the motherland.
Tsinghua educates me, I love Tsinghua! Dear students, let us remember the beauty of this moment and cherish each other with our teachers and fellow teachers! Let us practice the slogan of "start from me, start from now", and strive to shine where the party and the people need it!
Thank you!
Source | Tsinghua University WeChat public account
Photography: Li Pai
Typesetting & Editor|Yuan Jie
Audit|Xu Liang
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Selected from previous issues
Tsinghua University's 2024 undergraduate graduation ceremony was held
President Li Luming's speech at the 2024 undergraduate graduation ceremony|Illuminate life with faith and write youth with action
Speech by Cui Jiajun, the representative of the graduates, at the 2024 undergraduate graduation ceremony|Strengthen the foundation of growth and take on the mission of the times