Brilliant physicists share successful experiences with youth in Taiwan

Written by changthai11 on Sunday, October 12th, 2008

World-class physicists Yang Chen-ning and Paul Chu reflected on their own scientific careers Saturday and encouraged young people to maintain their passion for whatever they do and not to fear failure.

At a workshop titled “The Allure of Physics” held by the Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation, Chu and Yang shared their successful experience with the audience, saying that passion and curiousity are the most important forces that compel students to persist with their studies.

“If you fall down, you will at least have a handful of sand, ” said Chu at the workshop, stressing that opportunities can be created out of failure and young people should know their qualities and limits.

Yang also reminded the audience that if they take failure as a hardship, they may have little chance of success, as hope and the desire to persevere as well as having passion for one’s vocation are the real driving forces.

He further said that if one can find a flaw in something that everyone believe’s to be true, that person’s contribution to the world is even more important.

Yang also noted that people will have to face more complicated and serious problems in the coming decades, and encouraged the students to develop a broader perspective and vision to serve society.

Those interest in scientific careers will also need a healthy dose of patience, Yang said.

Though China and Taiwan have invested a huge amount of money in scientific research, the 86-year-old Yang indicated that neither country should be anxious to have a Nobel Prize laureate, as “scientific research needs long-term development.”

Born in 1922, Yang received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957 for his contribution to the theory of the nonconservation of parity in weak interactions.

The 67-year-old Chu, who is currently the president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the executive director of Texas Center for Superconductivity, has pioneered developments in the field of superconductivity.

He was selected “Best Researcher” in the United States by U.S. News and World Report in 1990.

Asked about his plans after leaving his post, Chu said that he will try to hook up with international scientists to discover a room temperature superconductor.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials at very low temperatures, featuring zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field.

The workshop was hosted by the renowned writer Lung Ying-tai and Li Chia-wei, a professor in the Department of Life Sciences at National Tsing Hua University and also editor in chief of the Chinese version of Scientific American.

The foundation, established in 2005, organizes regular workshops featuring international intellectuals in different fields in an effort to broaden the vision of young citizens.