bat365在线平台物理系1980级校友刘晓先生，是瑞典隆德大学博士，美国加州伯克利大学博士后，曾任位于加州硅谷的美国AXTI公司总裁和首席运营官、以及同在加州硅谷的Intematix 公司大中华总经理，现任美国Intematix公司/深圳格亮光电有限公司董事长总经理。他心系母校发展，在2021年厦大百年校庆之时捐资一百万元美元设立“刘晓教育基金”，于每年校庆期间评选颁发“刘晓数理电子科学奖”，面向优秀的数学、物理和电子学院的学生、教师和科研人员。
今年5月8日，刘晓先生和他当年的博导、瑞典皇家科学院院士、瑞典皇家工程院院士、瑞典隆德大学教授 Lars Samuelson 一同前来我校，参与“刘晓数理电子科学奖”颁奖典礼并开设“群贤大讲堂”。在颁奖典礼上，刘晓先生做了一场富有意义的演讲，为台下的青年教师与莘莘学子带来新的启迪。今天，我们来共同回顾他的精彩发言。
老师好，同学们好！
很高兴今天再次回到母校，和大家一起参加第二届数理电子科学奖的颁奖典礼。这次因为疫情原因，回来不易，多亏了张荣书记的大力支持，黄凯老师的精心安排。我对此深表感谢！另外，我要感谢数学科学学院、物理科学与技术学院和电子科学与技术学院的领导、老师和同学们为此次颁奖典礼所做的大量工作，感谢你们的辛苦付出！
这次回来，有两件事特别值得高兴：
第一件事是钟同德老师在厦大101年校庆的时候，荣获“厦大南强杰出贡献奖”！钟同德老师是我们数理电子科学奖里“同德数学奖”的人物原型，他一生心无旁骛，潜心数学，淡泊名利，一直是我学习的楷模！他今年已经有95岁高龄，作为同德数学奖的原型人物，更是当之无愧！再次祝贺、祝福钟老师！
第二件事是今天应张荣书记的邀请，来了一位很特别的嘉宾。他就是我35年前在瑞典求学时的博士生导师乐思教授。一个月前，我才惊讶地发现，去年10月份以来乐思教授就一直在深圳。他现在是深圳南方科技大学的首席客座教授，并担任南科大纳米研究院院长。乐思教授还是：瑞典皇家科学院和皇家工程院双院士，是瑞典皇家地文学会委员，诺贝尔物理学奖评审委员会委员。他同时也是美国、英国、日本的物理、应用物理和材料物理学协会委员。他在瑞典隆德大学创建了纳米研究中心，并且担任该中心主任25年多，2008年乐思教授还荣获中国科学院颁发的“爱因斯坦杰出贡献奖”。
应张荣书记和学校“群贤讲坛”邀请，乐思教授接下来还将做一个专题学术报告，题为《纳晶生光：瑞典皇家院士带你走进未来显示世界》。本次报告将系统介绍从瑞典隆德大学到深圳南科大的基础物理及应用的合作项目和研究成果，感兴趣的老师同学们可以留下来聆听乐思教授的分享。欢迎乐思教授! Welcome Lars! Welcome！
在去年百年校庆期间的第一届颁奖仪式上，我介绍了设立数理电子科学奖的初衷。因为国家的快速发展，在这个追求经济效益的年代，难免存在一些不均衡，特别是一些基础学科相对薄弱。但是我始终认为，如果没有扎实的基础，没有基础科学的突破，持续的技术进步必将衰竭，长期的应用发展也将受制于人！技术的每次进步和跨越，实际上，都得益于基础科学的突破。所以，我希望母校新兴学科蓬勃发展，更衷心祝愿传统优秀的基础学科后继有人，冷门空白的专业得以壮大。
基础科学的学习和研究需要良好的学术氛围，因为基础科学研究往往是艰辛漫长的，而且在某种意义上，是非常枯燥甚至会遭受冷遇。设立这一数理电子科学奖，就是希望抛砖引玉，激励大家的学习热情，培养矢志不渝的钻研精神，让从事基础研究的优秀老师和同学们，得到社会的更大认可。让母校在基础学科方面的发展得到更大重视，为祖国发现和培养更多人才。
有些基础科学的研究工作，在当时可能看不到有什么用处、或者有什么具体的实用价值，可是，基础科学的研究奠定了基础，铺好了台阶，只等有人登顶去摘取桂冠，有朝一日被工程技术人员加以利用，就能够创造出全新、划时代的产品。
这里，我想讲一个我听过的小故事：现在全球新冠病毒肆虐，但有不少西方国家，依靠mRNA疫苗很大程度地走出了疫情。mRNA，Messenger RNA，中文翻译过来应该是“信使核糖核酸”，它是把遗传信息从DNA传递到蛋白质的载体。mRNA疫苗，简单来说，就是让信使核糖核酸进入肌肉细胞并产生刺突蛋白质的无害片段，这种刺突蛋白一般存在于新冠病毒表面。这样，打过mRNA疫苗之后，我们的免疫系统就会识别出这种外来蛋白质，从而触发免疫系统产生抗体。形象一点来说就是在真正感染病毒之前，先让身体的免疫系统了解新冠病毒穿的是什么“衣服”，下次见到穿类似“衣服”的病毒，干掉就完了。
说到mRNA疫苗，那就不得不提到一个叫卡里科（Kati Kariko）的匈牙利人，二十多岁的时候，卡里科从匈牙利移民到美国攻读博士，当时匈牙利每位出国人员最多只允许携带100美元，无奈之下，她只好在小孩的小熊玩具里缝了1200美元进去，算是她当时的全部家当（但这比我当年出国只有几百美元，还是富有多了）。在美国拿到博士学位后，1989年，她到了宾州大学，担任实验室的助理研究员。在那里，卡里科开始钻研mRNA技术。
当时，研究mRNA是被边缘化的，甚至完全不被看好。在学校，她没有自己的实验室，也没有多少科研经费，更没有终身教职，她甚至还被宾州大学减薪和降职，说白了，她当时就是学校一名临时工。在学术界，她是孤独的，她很少出学术论文，世界主要期刊大多都拒绝刊登她的论文，即便有少数被勉强登出来的论文，也没能引起太大关注。所以，卡里科默默无闻，一直都不被人重视和理解。岁月沧桑，寒来暑往，她从一个二十来岁的小女生，到今天一个70岁左右的老人，几十年在美国，卡里科的日子其实是很艰难的，她收入拮据，年收入从来没有超过6万美元！但就是在这艰难困苦的条件下，她一直持之以恒，孜孜不倦，像着魔似的坚持自己的研究。
直到有一天，德国的BioNTech和美国的莫德纳注意到了她的研究，并很快研发出了mRNA疫苗，从而掀起了一场革命。mRNA 疫苗本身就是一场革命，新冠疫情发生后，一拿到新冠病毒的基因排序，这两家公司很快就研制出了效率高达94%的新冠疫苗。现在所有的大型药企都认识到这个 mRNA 技术，除了新冠，mRNA还有能对抗各种癌症等疾病的疫苗，许多难以克服的病毒未来都有可能被攻克。Kariko 几十年漫长、孤寂的研究，为 mRNA 疫苗奠定了坚实的基础。特斯拉CEO马斯克曾高度评价这一技术：“利用 mRNA，基本上可以预防或治疗一切(疾病)……”这话虽然有些夸张，但从一个侧面反映了科技界对mRNA 技术的高度认可。不出预料的话，卡里科迟早会荣获诺贝尔医学奖。这是一个我认为非常励志的故事，我们再看一下周边的世界：现代科技发展日新月异，特别是移动互联网和人工智能的飞速发展，给人一种应接不暇的感觉，但是我觉得，当下应用技术的繁荣表象，难以掩饰基础科学停滞不前的事实。比如，卫星导航定位虽然已经可以精确到厘米的量级，但指导其运行的科学理论，仍然是一百年前的牛顿力学、理论力学。还有，“芯片”——这项互联网和人工智能的核心，已经发展到7纳米的商业应用阶段，实验室已经可以做到 3 纳米，甚至更小，但其基础科学理论依然是上世纪的量子力学。而且，人们感觉芯片已经走到理论极限，往下如何突破？暂时没有答案，我由衷希望不久的将来，答案将来自于在座的老师和同学们！所以我认为，今天虽然应用技术五花八门、日新月异，众多的科技公司，“大众创业”也好、“万众创新”也好，都是将技术红利发挥到了极致，在这些技术红利被榨干的背后，隐藏着人类社会长时间没有取得基础科学新的重大突破的状态。有人说，人类物理学最近百年都没有重大突破，人类社会正在进入一个“内卷”的状态。怎么将人类社会推向一种更为高级模式，走出内卷化，我相信这更需要基础科学的重大突破，唯有这样，才能开辟出人类社会发展的新天地。
在这样的大背景下，我觉得成立这一针对基础科学，特别是数学、物理、电子科学的教育基金，特别有意义。当然，我只是尽了个人绵薄之力，意在抛砖引玉，要看到效果，可能需要很长时间，甚至几代人的不懈奋斗，但是，今天通过大家的共同努力，我们成功迈出了这一小步！
老师同学们，这里我特别想强调的是，是你们的坚持不懈和取得的杰出成绩，为这一奖项赋予了强大的生命力，所以我首先要感谢你们！也祝贺你们，祝贺你们取得的优异成绩！最后，我想说：基础科学的学习、研究和探索，要勇于提出“不可靠”的思想，无论是对还是错，希望大家热爱和坚持自己的基础科学研究，在基础科学的广阔天空中快乐、自由地翱翔。谢谢！谢谢各位老师，谢谢同学们！
Mr. Xiao Gordon Liu, is a 1980 alumnus of the Department of Physics of Xiamen University. He is a Ph.D. at Lund University in Sweden, and a postdoc at University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Liu was the president and Chief Operating Officer of American Xtal Technology (NASDAQ: AXTI) in Silicon Valley, California. He was also the General Manager of China Operation of Intematix Corp., also in Silicon Valley, California. Currently, he is the Chairman and General Manager of Shenzhen Grandlux Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. Mr. Liu always holds the development of his alma mater in heart. In 2021, at the 100-year anniversary of Xiamen University, he donated 1 million US dollars to establish an “Educational Fund", and set up a scholarship in Mathematics, Physics and Electronic Department for students, teachers, and researchers.
On May 8 this year, Mr. Liu and Professor Lars Samuelson came to our university. Prof. Samuelson was Mr. Liu’s advisor of Doctor Degree at Lund University of Sweden about 35 years ago, and currently a dual academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering. They participated in the scholarship’s award ceremony this year. At the ceremony, Mr. Liu gave a wonderful speech, sharing the ideas behind his establishment of the Educational Fund and the Scholarship. His speech also pointed out the importance of fundamental scientific study, and greatly inspired the teachers, researchers, and students at the event. Here below is his speech.
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Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen!
It's my great pleasure to once again return to my beloved university, and be here today together with you to present for the second year the Mathematics, Physics and Electronic Engineering Award. It's not easy to come back to the school this time due to Covid-19. But eventually I made it, thanks to the strong support of Secretary General Zhang Rong of the university, and Prof. Huang Kai's careful arrangements. I would like to thank here the leaders, teachers and fellow students of the Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Electronic Engineering for your hard and excellent work in preparation for this award. Thank you! Thank you very much!
Today, there are two other things which make me especially happy:
Firstly, Mr. Zhong Tongde, who won the Nanqiang Outstanding Contribution Award of Xiamen University on the 101st anniversary of Xiamen University last month, will join us later today. Prof. Zhong Tongde is the prototype character of the "Tongde Mathematics Award" in our Mathematics, Physics and Electronic Engineering Award. Prof. Zhong is 95 years old today. With his indifference to fame and wealth, he has devoted his whole life to mathematics research. He deeply loves his research, and has made great contributions to the world of mathematics. He is my idol, and that’s why I named Tongde Mathematics Award after him. I truly believe that he fully deserves the reputations, and let’s here once again give our congratulations and our best blessing to Prof. Zhong!
Secondly, I am very happy today, since there is a very special guest joining us for the award ceremony. He is my doctoral supervisor in Sweden about 35 years ago, Professor Lars Samuelson. I was so surprised to find out about a month ago that Professor Samuelson has joined Shenzhen Southern University of Science and Technology since October last year. He is now the Distinguished Chair Professor of SUStech and the Director of “Institute of Nanoscience and Applications” of the University. Besides those, Prof. Samuelson is also dual Academician of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering. He is a Member of the Royal Physiographic Society, and a committee member of the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Physics of the UK, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the Japanese Society of Applied Physics. Professor Samuelson founded the Nano Research Center at Lund University in Sweden and served as its director for over 25 years. In 2008, Professor Samuelson was awarded the Einstein Professorship Award by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Well, the list is too long for me to go through here today. To know more about Prof. Samuelson, at the invitation of our Univ Secretary General Zhang Rong and the Committee of Univ. Qunxian Forum, Professor Samuelson will give an invited speech after this ceremony: “Light from Naromaterials: Future Display Technology introduced by Swedish Academician”, introducing the science research in Sweden, the Nobel Prize in Physics, the Naro research in Lund Univ., and the cooperation between Lund University and SUStech. Those interested are welcome to stay and participate in Prof. Samuelson’s presentation later.
Let’s give our warmest welcome to Prof. Lars Samuelson! Welcome Lars! Welcome!
Last year, at the first ceremony of the Mathematics, Physics and Electronic Engineering Award, I spoke about the original thoughts behind, for the establishment of my Foundation at the University and this Award:
Due to the rapid development of the country, and in this era of pursuing economic benefits, it is inevitable that there are some imbalances, especially the relative weakness in the basic study and research of fundamental science. However, I believe that continuous technological progress will eventually reach a bottleneck, and long-term application developments will also run out of steam without a solid foundation of basic science. In fact, every significant progress and leap forward of technology, benefits from a breakthrough of fundamental science. Therefore, I hope that new and popular subjects and departments of my alma mater will flourish, but I also hope that there will be no lack of strong successors to carry on the basic study and research of traditional fundamental science, such as Mathematics, Physics and Electronic Engineering, which are getting somewhat unpopular these days.
The study and research of fundamental science, which most of the time are difficult, require long-term commitments, and in a sense boring and unpopular, requires a good academic atmosphere. The establishment of this Mathematics, Physics and Electronic Engineering Award is my hope to inspire and stimulate the enthusiasm for learning, studying, and researching in basic science. It’s also my hope to attract more good teachers and students, and to cultivate more talents engaging in fundamental science. I understand that my limited efforts and ability will not accomplish the goal I would like to reach, but it will at least arouse the attention of more people, the university and government authority, as well as the whole society. By throwing a sprat to catch a whale, (in Chinese) casting a brick to attract jade, Together, I believe we will eventually make great contributions in reaching this goal!
Basic scientific research work, at the time of studying, may not seem useful or has specific practical value. However, the research laid the foundation and paved the steps, just waiting for someone to climb to the top to take the laurel. One day, smart engineers or technicians, making good use of these scientific achievements, can create a new generation of epoch-making products.
This reminds me of a short story, which is happening now around all of us. With the coronavirus rampant everywhere in the world, many western countries are, to a large extent, getting out of the epidemic, with the help of mRNA vaccines. As you may know, mRNA, namely messenger RNA, messenger ribonucleic acid, is the carrier for transmitting genetic information from DNA to protein. The mRNA vaccine, in short, allows mRNA to enter muscle cells and produce harmless fragments of the spike protein, which generally exists on the surface of COVID-19. In this way, our immune system will recognize this foreign protein and trigger the immune system to produce antibodies. Put it this way, mRNA vaccines let the body's immune system know what "clothes" the coronavirus is wearing before human body is really infected. And, the next time you see something wearing the "clothes", just kill it.
When we talk about the mRNA vaccine, we have to mention a Hungarian named Kati Kariko. When she was in her twenties, Kariko emigrated from Hungary to the US to study for a doctorate. At that time, Hungarians who went abroad were only allowed to carry up to maximum of US$100, so she had to sew $1,200 in her daughter's Teddy Bear, which was almost everything she had when landed in the US. (Well, that was actually better than me, since I only had US$500 when I landed in Sweden joining Prof. Samuelson.) After receiving her doctor degree in the US in 1989, Kariko got her job in the University of Pennsylvania as an assistant researcher. There, Kariko began her study and research of mRNA technology.
At that time, however, the study of mRNA was marginalized and not considered optimistic at all. She didn't have her own lab, had very limited research funds, not to mention a tenure position in the university. She was even once demoted and got her pay cut by the university. Well, she was really just a temporary worker there. In academia, she was also quite lonely and rarely published scientific papers. Her papers were rejected by major journals in the world. People refused to publish them since no one believed in mRNA. Even some papers were reluctantly published, they did not attract much attention. Kariko has never been understood for the longest time. From a young girl in her twenties to an old lady about 70 years old today, Kariko’s life in the United States has been very difficult for decades, and her annual income has never exceeded US$60,000! But even under such circumstances, her faith in mRNA never changed, and her research persisted like she was enchanted.
Until one day, BioNTech in Germany and Moderna in the US noticed her research. These companies quickly developed an mRNA vaccine, which set off a revolution. The mRNA vaccine is indeed a revolution. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, as soon as the companies got the genetic sequencing of COVID-19, they quickly developed a COVID-19 vaccine with an efficacy up to 94%. Now all major pharmaceutical companies have realized the mRNA technology. In addition to COVID-19, people are developing vaccines that can fight various cancers and other diseases. Many insurmountable viruses before may now be conquered in the future. Kariko's research has laid a solid theoretical foundation for the mRNA technology. Tesla’s CEO Musk once highly praised this technology: "mRNA can basically prevent or treat all diseases ....." That is obviously a little exaggerated, but I basically believe that Kariko would sooner or later be getting the Nobel Prize in Medicine.That is a very inspiring story to me. Now let's take a look at the world surrounding us. We are so overwhelmed by the rapid development of modern technology, especially in the field of Internet and artificial intelligence. However, rapid technology development is in no way to really hide the stagnation of basic science research. Let’s look at a few examples. For instance, satellite navigation can be accurate to the level of centimeters, the theory guiding its operation is still Newtonian mechanics and theoretical mechanics more than one hundred years ago. Also, "IC chips", the core of the Internet and AI, is commercially available in the scale of 7nm. The successful ICs in laboratory have reach 3nm or even smaller. However, the science behind is basically still quantum mechanics of last century. And now with the ICs reaching almost the theoretical limit, how can we break through? I hope the answers will come from someone sitting in this hall!
If we look at all the companies today, as diverse as they can be, most of them are technology application companies exploring the “technical dividends” of the previous fundamental scientific research. The government’s call on "Mass entrepreneurship and Innovation", with no exception, only squeezes out the dividends to an extreme. Some people say that there has been no major breakthrough in Physics in the past 100 years, and unfortunately I may have to agree with that. I may even want to say that the human society is now in a state of "Involution". How to transform human society into a more advanced model and get out of the involution? I believe that requires a breakthrough in basic science in order to start a new era of revolution.
With this background in mind, I think it is extremely meaningful to establish this educational fund for basic sciences, especially mathematics, physics and electronic engineering. Of course, as I said, this is just casting a brick to attract jade. It may take a long time and a lot more efforts, to see the effects, or even the unremitting struggle of generations. But, with our efforts here together today, I am proud that we have initiated and taken a small step forward!
Ladies and gentlemen, it is your perseverance and outstanding achievements, which have given this award a strong vitality. So first and foremost, I would have to thank you for your outstanding work! And, of course, congratulations! I want to congratulate on your achievements and your receiving of the Award! Last but not the least, I would like to say this to all my dear schoolfellows: Let’s not worry about unreliable thoughts in fundamental science research. Regardless of ideas right or wrong, I hope you will love and enjoy your basic research, and let your thoughts soaring high, happily and freely, in the sky of science!
Thank you, Thank you all very much!
（来源/“厦大物理”公众号）
