I Have a Research Support System

Xu Qiu followed Wei Xingsi to 218, and saw the interviewer waiting at the door.

The other party is a boy, about 175 in height, with a somewhat mighty and majestic appearance. It is estimated that the weight should be above 170 catties.

It's not bad, now Xu Qiu has four girls under him, it's not easy for them to do some physical work, but for boys, they don't have too much scruples.

In fact, the tutors of the general research group prefer to recruit boys, which is easy to use, not prone to some problems, and less troublesome.

For example, when a girl is on her menstrual period, she can ask for leave openly, saying that she is not feeling well.

Whether the instructor approves or not is another matter, but they can use this reason.

For boys, if you say "I'm here as an uncle, I want to ask for a day off", see if the tutor will smash your head off.

As for why Wei Xingsi's research group recruited so many girls in the early stage, was it just a pure coincidence or some other reason, Xu Qiu didn't know. After all, before he came, Tian Qing, Chen Wanqing, Wu Feifei and the others had already Into the group.

Wei Xingsi enthusiastically greeted the interviewer into the office, pointed to the reception sofa next to him, and said, "Fan Wentang, right? Sit down and let's have a chat."

After finishing speaking, Teacher Wei patted Xu Qiu on the shoulder again, and introduced: "This is Xu Qiu from our research group, who mainly works in the field of organic photovoltaics. Let you get to know each other."

"Hello Teacher Wei, Xu Qiu...Senior brother." Fan Wentang sat down on the sofa as he said, but he was a little cautious, only sitting on half of his buttocks.

In fact, the moment Fan Wentang saw Xu Qiu, before Wei Xingsi introduced him, he recognized Xu Qiu's identity.

Because he did a lot of homework before coming here, including understanding the main research direction of the research group and looking at the research results of the group.

At that time, Fan Wentang discovered that the first author of the latest high-level articles such as "Nature·Energy" and "Joule" published by Wei Xingsi's group was "Qu Xu", and the row of AM, JACS, and NC-level articles below was also the same. You can always see "Qu Xu" appearing in the first or second work.

So, he flipped through the column of the main members of the research group's website, compared the Chinese pinyin, and found the Chinese name "Xu Qiu" corresponding to "Qu Xu", as well as a photo of Xu Qiu himself.

When Fan Wentang saw the photo, he felt that Xu Qiu was very young, a bit like a college student who had just graduated or hadn't graduated. He thought the photo was photoshopped or taken with a beauty camera.

After all, those who can do so much high-quality work are mostly senior doctoral students or postdoctoral fellows in the group. They are usually 25+, or even close to 30, and the people in the photos only look like they are about 20 years old. look.

For girls, 20 years old, 25 years old and 30 years old may not be able to tell the difference after putting on makeup, but for boys, it is easy to tell them apart from their appearance when they are 5 years old.

Especially for scientific research, there are almost no boys who can make up.

In fact, not to mention boys, girls in the scientific research circle are usually bare-faced. At most, they put on light makeup, put on double eyelid stickers and so on.

There is no way, serious scientific researchers are so busy that they have no time to think about these "miscellaneous" things.

Moreover, as soon as he entered the laboratory, he worked continuously for three or four hours, no matter how delicate the makeup was, it was all spent.

On the other hand, in the resumes of the members of the research group hanging on the website, Xu Qiu did not indicate that he was a direct doctoral student, but only marked his identity as a doctoral student. senior doctoral students.

Therefore, although Xu Qiu looked young, Fan Wentang still called "Senior Brother", and couldn't help muttering in his heart, this "Senior Brother" not only looks young in the photo, but also looks young in real life.

In fact, Xu Qiu's seniority in the research group is not high:

Duan Yun, Wu Feifei, Chen Wanqing and Tian Qing who entered the group earlier than him are all higher in seniority than him;

Including the new post-doctorate, Wu Shengnan is also higher than him, so the post-doctoral status is supernatural;

Even Mo Wenlin, who was co-trained, as an orthodox doctoral student, was higher in seniority than Xu Qiu, a first-year direct doctoral student.

Although direct doctoral students are counted as doctoral students when evaluating scholarships and class placements, they are actually calculated as master's students by default in the first two years, which is closer in nature to combined master's and doctoral students recommended in advance.

Calculated in this way, only Han Jiaying and the four new undergraduates were lower than him.

And the few undergraduates usually don't have much interaction with Xu Qiu.

Therefore, most of the time, "senior brother" is the exclusive name Han Jiaying calls him.

Now, Xu Qiu was called senior brother by a prospective doctoral student who was three or four years older than him, and he always felt a little weird.

However, Xu Qiu had no intention of correcting the other party.

Fan Wentang may not come over yet, if he does come over, after he gets familiar with it, he will correct it and call him by his name normally.

Speaking of which, in some research groups there is a strong ethos of seniority ranking, and there will be senior senior brothers, second senior brothers... senior sisters, second senior sisters... and other titles in the groups, and they will be ranked one by one.

In Wei Xingsi's group, the relationship between students is relatively good, they usually call them by their first names, and the phenomenon of seniority ranking is almost non-existent.

Xu Qiu feels that whether this kind of seniority ranking will happen or not is mainly related to the mentor.

If the instructor likes to make this kind of hierarchy to divide the students, he always says in normal communication: "Zhang San, you go and hand this material to the big brother Li Si in the group." Then the following students will naturally Will follow this up.

If the instructor doesn't like to do this, the students are generally less likely to come up with these things spontaneously.

Because no matter if you are an undergraduate, master or doctoral student, if you have not entered the society and experienced "beating", your mind is always relatively simple, and it is difficult to spontaneously produce such "social" thoughts.

This phenomenon of seniority ranking is more like the one in the system.

The current atmosphere among the students in Wei Xingsi's research group may also have something to do with Wei Xingsi staying in the beautiful country all year round.

Of course, this kind of seniority ranking situation in China is actually not too serious.

The more serious ones are the Neon Country and the Kimchi Country. They like to divide the hierarchy very much, and the hierarchy is strict. The superior has almost absolute control over the subordinates.

Xu Qiu learned of a very interesting case before:

A company in Neon Country has a document that needs to be stamped with four stamps, from the highest president to the lowest manager.

When the first president was stamped, his name was in an upright state;

In the second chapter, you need to tilt about 30 degrees from right to left, making a bow;

In the third chapter, the range of bowing is larger than that in the second chapter, such as tilting 60 degrees;

By the time of the fourth chapter, it may be necessary to bow 90 degrees, which is perpendicular to the first chapter.

In this way, bowed and bowed step by step.

Xu Qiu was thinking, if a document had to cover more than a dozen chapters, would it be necessary to do somersaults in the next few chapters...

After Fan Wentang sat down, Wei Xingsi said to him, "Let me introduce myself first."

At the same time, Teacher Wei handed Fan Wentang's paper resume to Xu Qiu and motioned Xu Qiu to check it.

Although Fan Wentang looked a little stiff, he was quite confident when communicating, probably because he had made sufficient preparations in advance.

"I am from Dongfa University, majoring in materials science and engineering. During my master's degree, my main research direction is optical functional materials, controllable preparation and performance research of ceramic composite microstructures, and my supervisor is Professor Pu Chengzhong..."

"I published two first-authored articles during my master's degree, one was AFM, one was ACSAMI, and one second-authored article was published on JMCA, and there were three third-authored and fourth-authored articles in the second area of ​​SCI ..."

Wei Xingsi nodded and said, "Tell me briefly about the work you do."

Fan Wentang talked eloquently: "In the work of AFM, I have summarized..."

Xu Qiu listened to Fan Wentang's introduction while looking at the other party's resume. By the way, he also used the system to scan Fan Wentang's proficiency in various skills.

Then, Xu Qiu discovered that one of them was 10% of the fifth level, and most of the other skills were above 50% of the fourth level.

Those who can improve their proficiency to the fifth level during the master's degree show that there is a high probability that they are not parallel importers, like senior sisters, cough...

What Fan Wentang said was also mentioned in his resume.

Xu Qiu roughly glanced at the column of the other party's scientific research results.

Generally speaking, the work he did was quite complicated and did not form a system.

The AFM review is about optical functional materials, ACSAMI is about the microstructure controllable preparation and performance research of ceramic composite materials, and the second JMCA is about semiconductor fibers.

However, having said that, studying for a master's degree at Dongfa University, it is already considered very good to be able to achieve such results.

Moreover, Xu Qiu speculated that Pu Chengzhong, Fan Wentang's master tutor, was probably a big boss.

Because if the mentor is not strong, it is almost impossible to publish so many articles, which is still cross-field.

After all, most master students are neither geniuses nor obsessive. They have just entered the scientific research circle, their eyes are dim, and they still rely on the help of their tutors.

In order to verify his guess, Xu Qiu took out his mobile phone and searched for "Pu Chengzhong" on the Dongfa University website.

It turns out that the other party is really a big boss, the "Hundred Talents Program" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the hat of "Jie Qing", and there are many scientific research achievements and invention patents.

In terms of academic status and output of academic achievements, Pu Chengzhong is almost on par with Professor Yu Bing, the previous teacher of the "Inorganic Functional Materials" course.

Seeing this, Xu Qiu suddenly wondered why Fan Wentang chose to leave the original research group.

It stands to reason that in such a large research group, Fan Wentang has already entered for a master's degree, and his academic achievements are also good. If he wants to continue his studies and take the road of scientific research, it is a good choice to directly transfer to a Ph.D.

Because changing the field of research requires cost, the continuous master-doctoral study can be seamlessly connected, saving at least half a year of time to get familiar with the new field.

This is actually the reason why the number of years of study for combined master and doctoral students or direct doctoral students is one year shorter than that of first master's degree and then doctoral degree, because it saves the need to change the research field.

Moreover, during the postgraduate period, if you really want to develop in the direction of scientific research instead of just mixing up a diploma, then the most important thing is to see if you can publish enough articles.

At this time, the importance of the tutor's scientific research ability is far higher than that of the school.

Because although scientific research resources tend to be concentrated at the head, this trend is based on the researchers or research teams at the head, not the schools at the head.

It is also impossible for the country to assign all the bosses to one or a few schools, so there must be no fights.

Put a few here and a few there.

In other words, if Qingbei University, the top domestic university, has 10 big teams, Magic City Comprehensive University may have about 8 big teams, and other ordinary 985 and 211 universities, each school can probably account for about 5 Big Bull Group.

At the same time, from the perspective of scientific research funding, the differences between different schools are not so great.

If the top Qingbei University in China is 100, the Shanghai University of Shanghai may have about 80, and other ordinary 985 and 211 universities, each school is estimated to account for about 50.

Although there is some inclination between resources, they are relatively even.

Moreover, although top colleges and universities have many resources, they are also under great competitive pressure.

This has led to the fact that most of the teachers who can get involved are very powerful people, and they are generally not willing to be inferior to others.

In the end, there will be a relatively small number of large research groups, mainly small research groups.

For example, in the Materials Department of Shanghai Comprehensive University, there are only a few large research groups, and the other dozens of research groups are each with a single teacher and a group. Bring your own master's research.

Some ordinary 985 and 211 universities, they have some green peppers with not so strong scientific research ability, they will be more pragmatic and choose to attach to "Jieqing", "Yangtze River" or academicians, and form a very large research group to specialize in a field , and can basically be the top in the country.

This model is somewhat similar to a specialized research institute. An academician brings a few "Yangtze River" and "Jieqing" together with some ordinary researchers (same level as professors) to form a very large research group, specializing in A certain large field, such as the Modu Silicate Institute.

This kind of "research institute" structure of large research groups is usually rich in resources because there are big bosses leading the team. For example, for major projects that can apply for tens of millions of dollars in funding, the students' treatment is generally relatively high.

Even the salary of students can exceed the minimum salary standard in Shanghai, reaching more than 5,000 or 6,000, which is difficult for the research groups of ordinary universities.

Of course, everything has advantages and disadvantages, and the research institute also has many disadvantages.

On the one hand, entering a research institute is, to some extent, closer to employment within the system than to further education. The internal management of research institutes is usually more bureaucratic than that of universities.

A research institute is a "small kingdom" with its own system. The academic leaders who lead the team in the institute can almost speak for themselves, and they are graded layer by layer.

On the other hand, entering a research institute is basically bound to the road of scientific research, and it will be more difficult to change careers in the future.

Fresh graduates who graduated from Magic University, even if they major in materials, have the opportunity to switch careers and jump to major Internet companies such as Nanshan Pizza Hut and Hangzhou Baba to work in non-technical positions.

Those who come out of the research institute basically have no chance, and may at most have to switch to the industry.

Fan Wentang finished introducing several of his main works one by one, expressing the content very clearly, indicating that most of these works were done by himself, even if the idea was not proposed by him, at least he was the main experiment participant and article writer .

For a master student, this is enough.

There is no big problem in work, and the next thing is English.

Wei Xingsi printed a few more copies of "Natural Energy" articles at the previous conference, and they did not consume them all.

So, he picked up a copy and handed it to Fan Wentang: "Read the abstract in English and translate it." This is also a relatively common method of testing English in the scientific research circle.

Fan Wentang did his homework in advance, this assessment is not difficult for him.

He first read it in fluent English, and then translated it into Chinese: "Recently, based on the ITIC derivative non-fullerene system, it broke the world record of the organic photovoltaic binary single-junction system, shaking the traditional fullerene system. 20 years of dominance. In order to further improve device performance, we developed a non-fullerene acceptor material called IDIC-4F..."

Wei Xingsi nodded, and passed the English test.

In fact, after reading Fan Wentang's resume, Wei Xingsi was quite satisfied.

In every aspect, what Fan Wentang has done is much better than those who applied for it before.

Some people come to apply for Ph.D. without even sending out their resumes.

This time, Wei Xingsi called Fan Wentang over, mainly to check whether he had falsified his resume.

Now it seems that there is no problem.

After chatting for a few more words, Wei Xingsi turned his head and said, "I have no problem, Xu Qiu, do you have anything to add?"

"Hmm..." Xu Qiu thought for a while, and raised his previous doubts: "I want to ask, why didn't you just transfer to the blog in the original research group? I think your supervisor's qualifications are not bad. The difficulty should not be high, why did you come here?"

"..." Fan Wentang hesitated for a moment, and responded: "Because I feel that the original research group has limited space for further development, so I want to come here to seek breakthroughs in scientific research."

"Well, I have no problem." Xu Qiu nodded.

The other party's answer was quite satisfactory, and most of it was not the truth, but it didn't matter.

Whether it's to gilt his resume, or to seek better development opportunities, or something unpleasant happened in the original research group, or any other reason, it has nothing to do with Xu Qiu.

All he had to do was to find a suitable person to take over from the senior sister's class. As for the deep purpose and reason, it didn't matter.

Everyone has their own interests.

Xu Qiu was just curious, so he asked casually, not intending to get to the bottom of it.

Then, Wei Xingsi did not shy away from Fan Wentang, and asked directly: "Xu Qiu, how do you feel about Fan Wentang?"

Xu Qiu raised his eyebrows and thought, "It's so straightforward."

But if you think about it carefully, it’s better to be straightforward, and the result is better than dragging the other party for a week and a half. Anyway, if it’s not suitable, then you will be a stranger afterwards, and there is no entanglement relationship.

Moreover, looking at it like this, Wei Xingsi was probably quite satisfied with Fan Wentang.

On the contrary, Xu Qiu learned more information, knowing that Fan Wentang's experimental skills are not bad.

He was also quite satisfied with Fan Wentang, so Xu Qiu said without much hesitation: "I think Fan Wentang is very good."

Seeing that Xu Qiu didn't have any objections, Wei Xingsi immediately finalized the matter: "Fan Wentang, you are not busy recently. If you are not busy, it is best to come here in advance to familiarize yourself with the environment here."

Although better applicants may be encountered in the future, the sooner people are settled, the sooner they can be transformed into real scientific research output.

Moreover, to be honest, although there are differences among doctoral students, they are generally not too different. If there is someone who can reach Xu Qiu's level, most of them will not come to him.

Just like recruiting generals, Xu Qiu's growth value is 2, and most doctoral students are around 1. It doesn't make sense to struggle with whether it is 1.1 or 1.15.

Besides, such things as growth value cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Fan Wentang's eyes lit up, he understood Wei Xingsi's subtext, he had passed the test, he thought it was a protracted battle, but he didn't expect it to be so clean and neat.

He originally planned to apply for doctoral students from Shanghai Jiaotong University and several teachers from Tongji University as a preliminary plan. Now that it has been passed here, there is no need to apply again.

Therefore, Fan Wentang hurriedly said: "I'm not busy recently, the graduation thesis has been written, but I need to go back and deal with it later when I defend and hand over work."

Wei Xingsi nodded: "Then see when you can come over next week. Let's get used to it first. You are here to take over from Chen Wanqing's class in the group, which means Xu Qiu will mainly manage it from now on."

"Okay," Fan Wentang said, "I'll go back and get ready, and I'll call the teacher when I'm ready."

"That's fine, let's do that for today." Wei Xingsi took out a box of honey grapefruit tea from the refrigerator, and handed it over, as a farewell to the guests.

Fan Wentang hesitated for a moment, but still accepted Wei Xingsi's gift, and then said, "Mr. Wei, Senior Brother Xu Qiu, goodbye."

After Fan Wentang left, Wei Xingsi communicated with Xu Qiu: "I think Fan Wentang is not bad, quite reliable, let him come over and do it first, and then observe and observe. If he is sure, I will talk to the deputy director of the department in advance. Say hello to Guangwu."

Xu Qiu said "hmm". When the scale of the research group becomes larger, the decision to accept new members is not only determined by the supervisor, but also depends on whether the other party and other small partners in the group can get along well.

Like some large research groups abroad, after they come to a newcomer, they will ask each member of the research group to give an evaluation of the newcomer, which will directly affect the person's fate.

However, although there are 13 people in the group now, 5 undergraduates, 2 doctoral students who are about to graduate, and 1 joint training are excluded.

In fact, the real structure is 5 people, two doctoral students, Xu Qiu and Wu Feifei, two master students Sun Wo and Tian Qing, and a postdoctoral fellow, Wu Shengnan.

It looks huge, but it is actually a small research group.

Therefore, basically newcomers only need Wei Xingsi and Xu Qiu, or Wei Xingsi and Wu Feifei think it is okay, and they can join the organic photovoltaic team or the perovskite team respectively.

When can attract small bosses, the research group will grow.

However, it is very difficult for the Shanghai Comprehensive University to have a small boss come to join him.

Teachers who come in from outside can basically not be counted on, because they are getting more and more knowledgeable now, and those who can come in will have a high probability of academic achievement that will not be worse than Wei Xingsi.

However, self-cultivation in the school takes a very long time. After graduating with a Ph.D., it usually takes two years for a post-doc. Years, or go back to China and find an ordinary book to make a transition, make some achievements, and then jump to Shanghai Comprehensive University.

However, for someone like Xu Qiu who has a lot of achievements, the school or department may make an exception and stay in school directly after graduation, and then go abroad as a visiting scholar to make up for overseas experience, but he is only in the first year of his doctorate, and he has not graduated yet.

Even if you apply for early graduation, it is usually one year early. Those who graduate two years early are extremely rare, and graduation three years early only exists in theory and does not exist in reality, let alone graduate four or four and a half years earlier. .

Wei Xingsi continued to add: "Oh, right, we still have to arrange a place for him. Can you still rent the house you rented during the summer vacation?"

"It can't be done," Xu Qiu shook his head: "They were only renting out for short-term during the summer vacation before, and they may need to find a new house."

"It's okay, let's talk about it..." Wei Xing thought for a while, and said: "It's really not possible, let him run at both ends first, and the subway in Shanghai is more convenient now. And he may have some things on the school side, so he lives directly We're in trouble here too."