Chapter 260: Post 《Nature》

Although not as famous as physics and mathematics, Princeton's chemistry major also ranks 5th in the world. If it is accurate to the organic field, the ranking still has to move forward a little bit.
In particular, the Frick Chemical Laboratory, which was built after the year, is one of the top chemical laboratories in North America. Although the big players in the field are not as good as MIT of TP, the hardware conditions will not lag too far behind.
Many people think that Princeton does not have a great laboratory, but it is just a beautiful misunderstanding. Among Ivy League schools, Princeton's alumni associations are definitely rich and generous. This can be seen from Lu Zhou's annual salary of $ 400,000.
Under the introduction of Witten, Lu Zhou met Professor Paul jhirik of Princeton University.
Although this professor looks very young, he is definitely a big cow in the field of organic chemistry. And just this year (year), he just won the US President's Green Chemistry Challenge Award for a paper in "siene".
Goldbach's "" conjecture is famous in number theory, and similar problems exist in organic synthesis, such as the famous "22" problem.
The olefin cycloaddition reaction is very common in organic synthesis. The well-known diels-alder [4π2π] cycloaddition reaction is a six-membered ring formed by diene (4π) and olefin (2π) under thermal conditions.
However, another seemingly simpler reaction of [2π2π] olefin cycloaddition to form a cyclobutane ring is not so easy. Due to the limitation of orbital symmetry, this reaction often requires photochemical reaction conditions to activate, but this reaction pathway is often inefficient and poor in specificity.
And Professor Chirick, who contributed the article "siene" in 5 years, proposed a new method to solve this problem-using iron catalysts to convert simple feedstock olefins into cyclobutane structures under mild heating conditions.
It is reported that the industry is full of interest in this technology, and related patents have brought millions of dollars in return to the professor.
Upon learning that Lu Zhou was interested in computational materials science, Professor Chirick immediately expressed a strong interest in him and invited him to his laboratory.
In this magical place of Princeton, there may be historians who have been attracted to mathematics or physics in the past, but few mathematics professors at the top of the subject despise chain are willing to run to study other things, even if many things are more expensive than mathematics.
"Although the status of the emerging discipline of computing materials is on the rise, many people who have studied this area have finally gone to Silicon Valley for graphics processing. Why are you interested in this direction?" He gave Lu Zhou a cup of coffee. After Professor Rick invited him to sit down, he asked curiously.
"Because mathematics is an interesting thing, I intend to try to make it shine in a wider field, not just the ivory tower of number theory." Lu Zhou said with a smile.
"Your point of view is unique," Chiric leaned back in his chair, laughing and teasing. "Every time I argue with a professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies, they will tell me with a stern expression that mathematics should be pure. "
"They are right. Mathematics is indeed pure. But in my personal opinion, the tools developed from pure research do not necessarily have to be used to solve pure problems," Lu Zhou said with a smile. After my own point of view, I paused and continued, "In fact, before I went to North America, I participated in similar projects, but I was too busy to continue. In order to complete my research, I wanted to borrow some experimental equipment. "
In fact, the main purpose is to write a dissertation. He has already registered a patent for the design method of the target product. Even similar experiments have been completed in Jinda's laboratory.
However, he is now a professor at Princeton. In order to be credible, he must do the experiment again. Materials science papers are different from mathematics, and must be marked with experimental location and experimental equipment number in the paper.
If he uses data from a year ago, and is still on the other side of the Pacific, he is likely to be suspected of fabricating the data and failing the review. Because the academic editor responsible for peer review is not responsible for "repeated experiments", it can only be strictly controlled in these details.
After all, you can't ask others to take the time to review your manuscript and help you do the experiment again at your own expense.
All review work is based on the assumption that contributors are completely honest with the data they provide, and are guaranteed by their academic reputation. Therefore, occasionally, some papers have been published, made a sensation, attracted more attention from peers, and ended up being retracted by the journal.
This situation is most common in the biological field, because many biological experiments are really random.
Looking at Luzhou's list of equipment, Professor Chirick opened the drawer generously.
Because the experimental equipment and materials listed in the list were not dangerous things, after learning that Lu Zhou had the experimental experience, he was comfortable throwing the key in his hands.
"No problem! Use it, but remember to be careful when doing experiments."
Putting the key in his pocket, Lu Zhou said with a smile: "I promise what the equipment you lent me will look like before the experiment and what it will look like after the experiment."
"No, I mean, don't break yourself," Chiric joked. "I'd rather have a problem with the instrument than you with a problem, otherwise the people at the Institute of Higher Education will tear me. Now. "
Lu Zhou laughed, leaving a sentence "definitely not," and got up to leave him.
...
Relevant experiments have been done once by Lu Zhou, and repeating it is just a matter of familiarity.
Design test procedures, collect data, label material numbers, and even test locations and times.
Strictly speaking, this is Lu Zhou's first attempt to write a material science thesis.
Although the si of calculating materials has been issued before, it is strictly a paper on applied mathematics in the strict sense. It is only a mathematical model about the mixing ratio of cement materials and carbon nanotube materials. It does not involve specific details. Experimental part.
However, many things are actually connected.
As long as the format is learned, writing a dissertation is not difficult for Lu Zhou.
It took two days to stay up late and did two sets of experiments. On the third day, Lu Zhou fell asleep until noon. After getting up, he sat at his desk and began to edit a paper to the computer.
Looking at the beginning of the paper ~ EbookFREE.me ~ Lu Zhou nodded with satisfaction.
Although with the sensational effect of this invention, he can write more exaggerated points, but the cowhide is too big, and it is easy to leave a bad impression on reviewers.
What's more, he is still new in the field of materials science, and people who do materials research do not necessarily know him.
After writing the title and abstract, Lu Zhou began to write the text.
This is not the same as writing a mathematical paper that is still frowning. When the proof process of mathematical problems is input into the computer, Lu Zhou occasionally re-thinks whether the "obvious" problems are "obvious". of.
But the thesis of materials science and the experimental process are well known to him, and the data are also immutable. Writing naturally flows.
After spending three full days, Lu Zhou finally finished writing the dissertation and checked it from beginning to end to confirm that there were no major problems.
As for the selection of the journals to be submitted, after careful consideration, he finally selected "ry" (nature), a sub-journal of "nature", as the submission target, with an influence factor of 2587.
Compared to a science-oriented main journal, this professional article is more appropriate to be published in a sub-journal.
According to the legend, the rejection rate of "Nature" is as high as 90%, and only one of the ten submissions can be successfully published.
Even at this rejection rate, Lu Zhou felt that he also needed to challenge it.
Log in to the submission site, fill in your personal information, and click Upload.
Thinking of the more than twenty impact factors, Lu Zhou's mouth could not help but evoke a smile.
There is no doubt that this is the highest impact factor of all the journals he has submitted.
But soon, Lu Zhou's brow could not help but frown slightly.
I don't know if it is an illusion, he always feels ...
He seems to be losing money?