Chapter 460: Interview prospective doctoral students

Xu Qiu followed Wei Xingsi to 218, and then saw the interviewer standing at the door waiting.
The other party is a boy, about 175 in height, a bit mighty and majestic, estimated that the weight should be 170 kilograms upwards.
That's not bad. Now Xu Qiu has four girls under him. If they have some physical work, it is not easy for them to do it, but for boys, they are not too scrupulous.
In fact, in general, the tutors in the research group prefer to recruit boys. It is easy to use, and it is not prone to some problems, and there are few troubles.
For example, when a girl comes to her menstrual period, she can ask for leave openly, saying that she is not feeling well.
It is another matter for the instructor to approve or not, but they can use this reason.
For boys, if you say "I have come to my uncle and want to take a day off", see if the instructor will blow your head.
As for why Wei Xingsi’s research team recruited so many girls in the early stage, it was just because of pure coincidence or other reasons. Xu Qiu is not known. After all, before he came, Tian Qing, Chen Wanqing, and Wu Feifei were already there. Joined the group.
Wei Xingsi greeted the interviewer into the office very enthusiastically, pointed to the reception sofa next to him, and said, "Fan Wentang, right? Sit down and let's have a chat."
After that, Mr. Wei patted Xu Qiu on the shoulder again and introduced:
This is Xu Qiu from our research group. He is mainly engaged in organic photovoltaics. If Fan Wentang comes here, you will mainly focus on this direction. So first Let you get to know it."
"Hello, Teacher Wei, Xu Qiu... Hello, brother." Fan Wentang sat down on the sofa according to Yan, but he was a little restrained and only sat half of his ass.
In fact, as soon as Fan Wentang saw Xu Qiu, he recognized Xu Qiu's identity without waiting for Wei Xingsi's introduction.
Because he did a lot of homework before coming, including understanding the main research direction of the research group, and also looked at the research results in the group.
At that time, Fan Wentang discovered that the latest high-end articles such as "Nature Energy" and "Joule" published in Wei Xingsi's group, the first authors are all "QuXu", the following row of AM, JACS, NC level articles, also total You can see "QuXu" appearing in the position of the first or second game.
So, he flipped through the column of the main members of the research team website, compared the Chinese pinyin, and found the Chinese name "Xu Qiu" corresponding to "QuXu", and 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 did not graduate. He thought the photo was taken by P picture P or taken with a beauty camera.
After all, those who can do so many high-quality jobs are mostly senior doctoral students or post-doctors in the group, who are usually 25+, or even close to 30, and the person in the photo looks like they are only about 20 years old. Look like.
For girls, 20, 25, and 30 years old may not be able to distinguish them after putting on makeup, but for boys, they can be easily distinguished from their appearance after 5 years of age.
Especially in scientific research, there are almost no boys who can make up.
In fact, let alone boys, girls in the scientific research circle are usually plain-faced, at most they simply paint a light makeup and put on a double eyelid sticker.
There is no way. Those who are serious about scientific research are so busy that they don't have time to think about these "miscellaneous" things.
Moreover, as soon as I entered the laboratory and worked continuously for three or four hours, no matter how exquisite the makeup was, it was all spent.
On the other hand, in the resumes of the research team members on the website, Xu Qiu did not indicate that he was a direct Ph.D student, but only indicated the identity of a doctoral student. This also misled Fan Wentang and made Fan Wentang infer that Xu Qiu was mostly a PhD student. Senior doctoral students.
Therefore, even though Xu Qiu looked young, Fan Wentang still called "Brother", and couldn't help muttering in his heart, this "Brother" is not only young in the photos, but the real person is also quite young.
In fact, Xu Qiu's seniority in the research group is not considered high:
Duan Yun, Wu Feifei, Chen Wanqing, and Tian Qing who entered the group earlier than him are all higher than him;
Including the new postdoc, Wu Shengnan also has a higher seniority than him, so the postdoc status is detached;
Even the co-trained Mo Wenlin, as an orthodox doctoral student, is higher than Xu Qiu's first-year PhD student.
Although direct PhD students are counted as Ph.D when evaluating scholarships and placements, they are actually counted as master's degree by default in the first two years, which is closer in nature to the consecutive master and PhD students who are recommended in advance.
In this way, Han Jiaying and the four new undergraduates are lower than him.
However, a few undergraduates usually don't have much intersection with Xu Qiu.
Therefore, most of the time, "Senior Brother" is the name that Han Jiaying calls him exclusively.
Now, Xu Qiu was called by a prospective doctoral student who was three or four years older than him. He always felt a little strange.
However, Xu Qiu did not intend to correct the other party.
Fan Wentang may not come over yet. If he does come, he will correct it after he is familiar with it. It will be fine to call him by his name normally.
Speaking of it, there are some research groups that have a relatively heavy ethos of arranging seniority and seniority. In the group, there will be elder brother, second elder brother...senior sister, second elder sister, etc., and they will be ranked one by one.
In Wei Xingsi's group, the relationship between students is relatively good, usually by their first name, and the phenomenon of ranking seniority is almost non-existent.
Xu Qiu thinks that whether this sort of capitalization will happen is mainly related to the mentor.
If the instructor likes to divide the students into this kind of hierarchy, they always say: "Zhang San, you go and give this material to the senior brother Li Si in the group." Then the students below will naturally Will follow suit.
If the instructor doesn't like to do this, the students are generally less likely to come up with these things spontaneously.
Because whether it is an undergraduate, masters or doctoral student, if they have not entered the society and have experienced "bad beatings", their minds are still relatively simple, and it is difficult to spontaneously generate such "social" thoughts.
This phenomenon of arranging capital for seniority is more like the one in the system.
The ability of the students in Wei Xingsi's research group to maintain the current atmosphere may also be related to Wei Xingsi's long stay in a beautiful country.
Of course, this kind of domestic taxation of seniority 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, and the superiors have almost absolute control over the subordinates.
Xu Qiu learned a very interesting case before:
In a company in Neon Country, there is a document that needs to be stamped with four stamps, from the highest president to the lowest manager, in turn.
When the first president stamped his name, his name was upright;
In the second chapter, you need to tilt about 30 degrees from right to left to make a bow;
In the third chapter, the bow is greater than in the second chapter, such as tilting 60 degrees;
In the fourth chapter, you may have to bow 90 degrees, which is perpendicular to the first chapter.
In this way, bow down level by level.
Xu Qiu was wondering, if a document has more than a dozen chapters, in the next few chapters, is it necessary to flip forward...
After Fan Wentang settled down, Wei Xingsi said to him: "Let's make a simple introduction to yourself."
At the same time, Teacher Wei handed Fan Wentang's paper resume to Xu Qiu, and asked Xu Qiu to check it.
Although Fan Wentang looks a bit cautious, he is still relatively confident in communication, perhaps because he has made sufficient preparations in advance.
"I come from Dongfa University, majoring in materials science and engineering. During my master's period, my main research direction is optical functional materials, the controllable preparation and performance of ceramic composite microstructures. My tutor is Professor Pu Chengzhong..."
"During my master's degree, I have published two one-part articles, one is AFM, one is ACSAMI, and another two-part article was published on JMCA, and there are also three SCI second-zone three-part and four-part articles. ..."
Wei Xingsi nodded and said, "Briefly introduce the work you do."
Fan Wentang talked freely: "In AFM work, I have reviewed..."
Xu Qiu listened to Fan Wentang's introduction and looked 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 found that one of them was 10% of Tier 5, and most of the other skills were more than 50% of Tier 4.
During the master's degree, the proficiency can be brushed to the fifth level, indicating that there is a high probability that it is not a parallel import, like senior sister, cough...
Fan Wentang's content is also mentioned in his resume.
Xu Qiu glanced at the column of the other party's scientific research results.
In general, the work he does is quite complicated and has not formed a system.
AFM review is about optical functional materials, ACSAMI is doing research on the microstructure controllable preparation and performance of ceramic composite materials, and there is also a second JMCA about semiconductor fibers.
However, having said that, studying for a master's degree at Eastern Expedition University can achieve this kind of results, which is considered very good.
Moreover, Xu Qiu speculated that Fan Wentang’s master tutor Pu Chengzhong was mostly a bigwig.
Because if the instructor is not strong, it is almost impossible to post so many articles, it is still cross-disciplinary.
After all, most master's students are neither genius nor persecution. They have just entered the scientific research circle, and their eyes are blackened. They still rely on the help of their mentors.
In order to verify his guess, Xu Qiu took out his mobile phone and searched for "Pu Chengzhong" on the website of Eastern Expedition University.
I found that the other party is really a big man, the Chinese Academy of Sciences "Hundred Talents Program", and the hat of "Outstanding Youth", there are also many scientific research achievements and invention patents.
From the perspective of academic status and the output of academic achievements, Pu Chengzhong is almost equal to Professor Yu Bing, the instructor of the previous "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 Fan Wentang has already entered a master's degree in this kind of large research group, and his academic achievements are also good. If you want to continue your studies and follow the path of scientific research, it is a good choice to directly transfer to a Ph.D.
Because changing the research field requires cost, the master-doctoral continuous reading can be seamlessly connected, saving at least the time of familiarizing with the new field in the second half year.
In fact, this is also the reason why the length of study for a master-doctoral student or a direct doctoral student is one year less than that of a master's degree and a doctoral degree, because it saves the need to change the research field.
Moreover, if you really want to develop in the direction of scientific research during the postgraduate period, instead of just mixing up a diploma, 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 there is a tendency for scientific research resources to concentrate on the head, this trend is based on the head researchers or research team, not the head school.
It is also impossible for the state to assign all the bigwigs to one or several schools, so there must be no fights.
Put a few here and a few there.
In other words, if the top Qingbei University in China has 10 big cow groups, Magic University may have about 8 big cow groups, and other ordinary 985 and 211 universities, each school is estimated to account for about 5. Big cow group.
At the same time, from the perspective of research funding, the differences between different schools are not that big.
If the top Qingbei University in the country is 100, there may be about 80 in the Mordu Comprehensive University, and other ordinary 985 and 211 universities, each school is estimated to account for about 50.
Although the resources are inclined, they are relatively even.
Moreover, although the top universities have a lot of resources, they are also under pressure from competition.
As a result, most of the teachers who can get involved are very powerful characters, and they are generally reluctant to subdue to others.
In the end, there will be a relatively small number of large research groups, mainly small research groups.
For example, in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Magic University, there are only a few large research groups, and dozens of other research groups are a single teacher and a group, each fighting each other. Even some associate professors with little achievements are not willing to rely on others, but choose Bring your own master student research.
Some ordinary 985 and 211 colleges and universities have some green peppers with not so strong scientific research capabilities, so they will more pragmatically choose to rely on "Jieqing", "Yangtze River" or academicians, and form a very large group of subjects to specialize in a field. , And basically can be the top in the country.
This model is somewhat similar to a specialized research institute. An academician brings a few "Yangtze Rivers" and "Outstanding Youths", and then some ordinary researchers (at the same level as professors) to form a very large research group, specializing in A certain large area, such as the Magic City Silicate Institute.
This kind of "institute" structure of the large research group, because there are big leaders, so the group is usually richer in resources, for example, can apply for major projects with tens of millions of funds, and the student benefits are generally relatively high.
Even the wages of students can exceed the minimum wage standard of the magic city, reaching 5000 or 6000, which is difficult for the research groups of ordinary colleges and universities.
Of course, everything has advantages and disadvantages, and the research institute also has many disadvantages.
On the one hand, entering the research institute is closer to employment within the system to a certain extent, rather than further education. The internal management of the research institute is usually more bureaucratic than that of the university.
A research institute is a "small kingdom" with its own system, and the discipline leaders in the institute can almost do it in one word, level by level, and "crush people to the top level."
On the other hand, entering the research institute is equivalent to basically binding the road of scientific research, and it will be more difficult to change careers in the future.
Fresh graduate students from Mordu University, even if they majored in materials, have the opportunity to switch careers to major Internet companies such as Nanshan Pizza Hut and Hangzhou City Bus for non-technical positions.
And the research came out, basically there is no chance, maybe at most they can only switch to the industry.
Fan Wentang introduced several of his main works one by one, and the content was very clear, indicating that these works are most likely to be done by him, even if the idea is not proposed by him, at least he is the main experimental participant and article writer. .
For a master's student, this is enough.
There is no big problem in the work, the next step is the English.
Wei Xingsi printed a few more "Nature·Energy" articles at the conference before, but they were not exhausted.
So he picked up a copy and handed it to Fan Wentang: "Read the abstract in English and translate it again." This can be regarded as a more conventional means of testing English in scientific research circles.
Fan Wentang did his homework in advance, and this assessment was not difficult for him.
He first read it in fluent English, and then translated it into Chinese: "Recently, based on the non-fullerene system of ITIC derivatives, it broke the world record of the organic photovoltaic binary single junction system and shook the traditional fullerene system. Dominance for 20 years. In order to further improve the performance of the device, we have 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 more satisfied.
In all respects, Fan Wentang did a lot better than the previous applications.
Some people came to apply for a Ph.D. They didn't even post their resumes.
This time, Wei Xingsi called Fan Wentang over, mainly to check whether he had faked his resume.
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 brought up the previous doubts: "I want to ask, why didn't you directly transfer to the original research group? I think your tutor's conditions are not bad. The difficulty should not be high, why do you want to come here?"
"..." Fan Wentang hesitated for a moment and responded: "Because I feel that the original research group has limited room for further development, I want to come over and seek breakthroughs in scientific research."
"Well, I have no problem." Xu Qiu nodded.
The other party's reply was quite satisfactory, and most of it was not the truth, but it didn't matter.
Whether it was to gild my resume, or really to seek better development opportunities, or something unpleasant happened in the original research group, or for other reasons, this has nothing to do with Xu Qiu.
What he has to do is to find a suitable person to take the senior sister's class. As for the deep-seated purpose and reason, it is not important.
Everyone has their own interests.
Xu Qiu was just curious, so he asked casually, not going to get to the bottom of it.
Then, Wei Xingsi did not evade Fan Wentang, and asked directly: "Xu Qiu, how do you feel about Fan Wentang?"
Xu Qiu raised her brows and said in her heart: "It's so direct."
But if you think about it carefully, it's better to be straightforward. The result in person is better than dragging the other party for a week and a half. Anyway, if it is not appropriate, then you will be a stranger afterwards, and there is no entanglement.
Moreover, from this look, Wei Xingsi is mostly satisfied with Fan Wentang.
On the contrary, Xu Qiu knows more information here, knowing that Fan Wentang's experimental skills are not bad.
He was also satisfied with Fan Wentang, so Xu Qiu said without hesitation, "I think Fan Wentang is very good."
Seeing that Xu Qiu didn't have any comments, Wei Xingsi immediately finalized the matter: "Fan Wentang, you are not busy in the near future. If you are not busy, it is best to come here in advance to familiarize yourself with the environment here."
Although you may encounter better applicants in the future, the sooner you settle down, the sooner you can turn them into tangible scientific research output.
Moreover, to be honest, although there are differences between 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 much sense to entangle whether it is 1.1 or 1.15.
Besides, things like growth value are invisible to the naked eye.
Fan Wentang's eyes lit up. He understood Wei Xingsi's subtext. He 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 Magic City Jiaotong University and several teachers from Tongji University. As a preliminary plan, it has been approved here, and there is no need to apply.
So Fan Wentang said hurriedly: "I'm not busy lately. The graduation thesis has already been written, so I need to go back and deal with it when I defend and handover the work."
Wei Xingsi nodded: "Then you see when you can come over next week, first come to adapt. You are here to replace Chen Wanqing's class in the group, which means that Xu Qiu will manage it afterwards."
"Okay," Fan Wentang said, "I'll go back and prepare, and I will call the teacher when I'm ready."
"That's all right, let's do that for today." Wei Xingsi took out a box of honey grapefruit tea from the refrigerator and handed it over, which was regarded as a visitor.
Fan Wentang hesitated and accepted Wei Xingsi's gift, and then said, "Ms. Wei, Brother Xu Qiu, goodbye."
After Fan Wentang left, Wei Xingsi and Xu Qiu exchanged: "I saw Fan Wentang not bad, quite reliable, let him come over and do it first, and then observe and observe. If I am sure that it is possible, I will talk to the deputy head of the department in advance. Guangwu said hello."
Xu Qiu said, "When the size of the research group becomes larger, it is not only the instructor who decides to accept new members. It usually depends on whether the other party and the other small partners in the group can get along."
Like some large foreign research groups, 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 stay.
However, although there are 13 people in the group, 5 undergraduates, 2 PhD students who are about to graduate, and 1 co-trained are excluded.
In fact, the real structure is five people, two doctoral students, Xu Qiu and Wu Feifei, two master students Sun Wo and Tian Qing, and one postdoc, Wu Shengnan.
It looks huge, but in fact it is still a small research group.
Therefore, basically newcomers only need Wei Xingsi and Xu Qiu, or Wei Xingsi and Wu Feifei if they think they can, they can join the organic photovoltaic team or the perovskite team respectively.
When will the small boss be attracted, the research team will grow.
However, it is very difficult for a small boss to come and join Mordu Comprehensive University.
Teachers who come in from outside basically can't count on it, because now they are getting more and more enrolled, and those who can come in will probably not be worse than Wei Xingsi in academic achievement.
On-campus self-cultivation takes a very long time. After graduating from a Ph.D., the post-doctorate generally takes two years. At this time, even a post-doctorate who has returned to China will generally not be able to return to Magic University, and most of them will have to stay abroad. In the next year, or when you return to China, you can find an ordinary book for transition, UU reading www.uukanshu.com and make some achievements, and then you can jump to Magic University.
However, for people like Xu Qiu with fruitful results, the school or department may make an exception to graduate and stay on campus, and then go abroad as a visiting scholar to make up for his overseas experience, but he is only in the first year of his Ph.D. He has not yet graduated.
Even if you apply for early graduation, it is generally a year early. Graduation two years early is extremely rare. Graduating three years early is only theoretical, but it does not exist in reality, let alone graduated four or four and a half years early. .
Wei Xingsi continued to add: "Oh, yes, you have to arrange a place for him. Can you still rent the house you rented during the summer vacation?"
"No way," Xu Qiu shook his head: "They were only for summer vacation. They rented out for a short time and might 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 on both sides. Now it is more convenient for the Modu subway. And he may also have some things on the school, and he lives directly. We are also in trouble here."
High-speed text hand typing I have a list of chapters of the scientific research assistance system