材料科学考研，材料考研
导语
创新能力的培养离不开科学知识的积累和创新性思维的建构。青少年有机会与世界顶尖学术大师交流对话，对于激发他们的学习兴趣、拓宽全球视野、培养创新精神、开发科研潜能、提高综合素质都大有裨益。
广东顺德德胜学校（国际）重磅打造“科研的力量”栏目，为广大学子提供与全球顶尖学术大师交流对话的平台，领略世界级专家学者的科研风采与学术精神，了解各学科领域的前沿研究并获得专业指导。学校特别邀请10位来自哈佛大学、剑桥大学、牛津大学、康奈尔大学、卡耐基梅隆大学的知名教授与德胜学子展开10场主题交流，让思想的碰撞点燃科研热情，让科研的力量助力创新人才培养。
提及科研，我们会想到许许多多的关键词和学科专业，这些与“创新”和“科学技术”相关的知识犹如一支支画笔，为我们勾勒出一个光怪陆离的科研世界，这个世界包含着万千神秘的物质，其中，可持续利用的人工物质被称为“材料”。
为什么是“材料”？
“材料”是早已存在的名词，但材料科学的提出则是在20世纪60年代。随着前苏联人造地球卫星的成功发射，科技界逐渐认识到先进材料对于高技术发展的重要性，于是一些大学相继成立了十余个材料科学研究中心，从此，材料科学这一名词开始被人们广泛地引用。
材料科学的形成是科学技术发展的结果。这是一门跨学科的专业，是一门集物理学、化学、材料学等多科学领域于一身的专业。同时，它也是一门与工程技术密不可分的应用科学。材料科学专业也是大学理工专业中的几个热门专业之一。美国的大多数大学将该专业归于工程学院内，包括MIT和斯坦福在内的很多名校都有设立材料科学专业。
材料科学的就业前景十分广泛，走学术路线的学生可以从事材料相关的科研工作或是研究院工作，学习应用类的材料科学的学生也可以进入军工、航天航空和金属等相关企业，或是涂料、玻璃、家电等行业。
在首期“科研的力量”栏目中，多位对自然科学和化学专业感兴趣的德胜学子们与剑桥大学材料科学教授Manish Chhowalla展开对话，围绕“材料领域”的前沿理论、学科发展、技术创新、实践应用等众多话题展开讨论和思考。
以下内容为本次访谈原文，英文版本附在文末。
嘉宾介绍
Manish Chhowalla
剑桥大学材料科学教授
Chhowalla教授目前的研究方向与二维材料相关，他已有数百个出版物分布在相关领域并且引用次数过数万。Chhowalla教授还带领了一支由博士后研究人员和博士生与研究生组成的优秀科研团队，主要研究攻克关于合成二维材料的方法，并在包括设备、电催化和电池在内的一系列应用中使用它们。今年1月，他还被任命为剑桥材料创新中心的主任，被资助720万英镑用于锂基能源解决方案研究。
访谈亮点
科研的力量旨在通过与学科领域内最负盛名的科学家深入对话，使科研的种子能够在未来生根发芽，转变为推动世界进步的力量，“材料”是早已存在的名词，材料也是人类一切工具与技术进步的基础之一。
德胜学子在与Chhowalla教授的访谈中，围绕“材料领域”的科研创新、技术应用等热门话题展开热烈讨论，从“新材料的发现与应用”、“创新与未来如何相关联”、“跨学科的技能学习”等专业领域的话题延伸至“如何选择自己的专业”以及“如何平衡生活与学业”。
不是只有发现新材料才叫【创新】
德胜学子与Chhowalla教授的交流从“新材料”的发现开始，“新材料的发现或应用”是否有更多的可能性？德胜学子的首个问题是对于材料科学创新的思考，Chhowalla教授通过结合自身及其学生的科研实践解答了问题，并用石墨烯材料的发现与应用、著名数学家保罗·狄拉克、物理学家薛定谔的研究为例说明材料科学有很多不同的阶段来解决问题，它并不总是关于创新和发现新材料。他告诉德胜学子：“你不需要去发现新材料，你只需要找到可能已经存在的材料。”
想法是创新的“源头”
德胜学子与Chhowalla教授交流的第二个问题更加让学生们理解了“想法是创新的‘源头’ ”，学生们将新材料的话题深入到“如何将我们想象的材料创造出来”，教授以史蒂夫·乔布斯为了解决iPhone的屏幕碎裂问题，而使得康宁公司做出了Gorilla glass从而帮助苹果解决问题，也成就了自身的故事为案例，让学生们明白：有时候只需要有一个很聪明的想法就可以借助已有的科技手段来实现这些新概念。
创新需要跨学科的横向思考
“创新需要跨学科的横向思考”是Chhowalla教授在回答德胜同学们关于编程和材料科学之间的关联这一问题而提出的观点。德胜学子们尚处在探索未知和积累技能的阶段，对不同学科之间的关联性充满了求知欲。教授也用剑桥前辈发明杜比环绕音和无线电波等故事为同学们生动地解答了计算机科学与自然科学的相关性，并提出了“横向思维”这个概念，告诉学生们：不同的技术和不同的知识之间都需要大量的交叉与融合，在剑桥大学这样的顶尖名校，跨学科尝试来源于一种打破常规的思考。
独立选择，持续热爱
随着对“跨学科的横向思维”的讨论不断深入，德胜的同学们也提出了自己在专业选择方向的困惑。对此，Chhowalla教授不仅解读了英美本科专业选择上的优劣势，还用自己的过往经验和同事孩子的例子告诉同学们无论选择什么专业，一定是自己想要做的，“我的那些真正获得了成功的学生，对材料科学或他们正在研究的学科充满热情并真正享受其中”。
必须有工作，也必须有生活
在专业探讨之外，德胜同学们与教授所探讨的话题也延伸到如何平衡生活与学业的话题上，希望参考与学习教授在平衡工作与生活方面的经验。Chhowalla教授分享了自己陪伴孩子后利用其他时间工作的经历，并告诉了同学们“必须有工作，也必须有生活”。同时，教授也把自己叮嘱学生们的话传授给了德胜的同学们， 他说“请享受在实验室之外的生活，因为这会让你们在实验室里的表现得更好。”
在本次访谈中，来自德胜的几位同学收获颇丰，通过与教授的交流，同学们对材料科学也有了新的认识，更新了“材料科学就是在不断地开发探索新材料”的原有认知，也通过教授分享的多个案例了解到：很多创新科学概念的产生并非是因为发现新物质，而是用打破常规的横向思考能力来融合现有的知识和技术进行创新。
同时，那些在本科学习方向方面有困惑的德胜同学们也在本次访谈中有了新的认识，了解不同国家的学校制度有利于让他们做出适合自身发展的选择，并且，只要能够发现自己的热情所在，无论未来在哪一个领域，都可以获得成功。
下面，让我们透过文字，一同穿越回访谈时刻，在德胜学子的带领下，走进材料科学的世界，在学子们与教授的对话中见证思想碰撞的火花，感受科研与创新的魅力。
访谈全文
不是发现新材料才叫【创新】
Q
材料总是涉及到新的设计发现或材料的应用，但是否只有这两种方式可以实现目标呢？
A
其实它并不总是关于发现新材料，而是经常以一种新的和创新的方式利用现有的材料。
举一个我学生的例子。他发现制造晶体管的材料也可以用来催化，用来把水分解成氢。这是怎么发生的呢? 如果你理解一个特定问题背后的基础科学，你就可以寻找具有能够解决这些问题的属性的现有材料。所以，你需要学到的最重要的事情就是找到解决问题时所面对的真正的基本科学挑战是什么。有许多种不同的方法可以来处理这些问题，包括设计一种新材料，以及设计或在现有材料中合并一种新属性。
所以，材料科学有很多不同的阶段来解决问题。它并不总是关于创新和发现新材料。面对一种可能看起来很普通的材料，如果我们真正理解了想要解决的问题并观察普通材料的性质时，我们可以看到它可以应用到一些完全意想不到的东西上。我认为真正聪明的学生能理解问题，他们会寻找看起来很普通的材料。
我给你们举个例子，你可能听说过石墨烯这种材料。石墨烯于2004年被发现，但是石墨在15世纪就出现了，每个人都知道石墨是什么。石墨烯就是简单的石墨，但只是石墨的一层，所以它一直存在着，但是用石墨加工它是完全不同的。你可以提取一片石墨，然后得到这种材料，这是令人意想不到的。石墨烯具有本质上不同于我们之前发现或知道的任何东西的性质。所以，这门学问并不总是关于需要找到什么新材料，而是如果发现了问题是什么，可以寻找一种材料来解决这个问题。
石墨烯的例子是一个非常有趣的故事，它一直存在于石墨中，只是一层石墨，但是制造出石墨烯并非偶然。
让我往后倒一步说。在20世纪20年代，剑桥大学有一个学生，他叫保罗·狄拉克。保罗·狄拉克是一位天才，是一位数学家，他就读于剑桥的圣约翰学院。保罗·狄拉克当时正在研究一个非常困难的问题。你可能听说过爱因斯坦，爱因斯坦发现了所谓的相对论。因此，狄拉克基本上弄清楚了宇宙是如何以光速运动的。他研究了所有这些知识，即所谓的相对论和相对论物理学。
我不知道你们是否听说过一个叫薛定谔的人，Erwin Schrödinger。薛定谔不太为人所知，但却和爱因斯坦一样重要，因为薛定谔描述了固体中有多少电子在运动。有一个著名的薛定谔方程用来描述电子运动。保罗·狄拉克探讨过“如果有一个电子以接近光速运动会怎样？”他试图用薛定谔方程来描述量子力学，他试图用“E=MC^2”来描述相对论，所以他发展了相对论性量子力学。
如果一个电子在固体中以光速运动，我们如何描述它的运动？保罗·狄拉克提出了一个非常著名的方程——“狄拉克方程”。他发展的数学基本上描述了电子如何在固体中运动，因为它也包含了薛定谔方程，所以他能够确定氢的光谱和很多不同的东西。
在20世纪20年代，人们对这些事物知之甚少。但后来他在20世纪20年代末到30年代初提出了一个方程，并获得了诺贝尔奖。所以，前提是我们在寻找材料。那么，我们如何让电子以接近光速的速度运动呢？我们可以用对撞机或同步加速器来加速电子。我不知道你们是否听说过大型强子对撞机，它是一个让电子在环中加速非常快的加速器。在这个例子里，你可以看到狄拉克讲过的很多物理学知识。但在20世纪90年代末，物理学家们意识到，在某些材料中电子可以以光速运动。我就不展开讲这个很长的故事了，但有一些已经完成的计算表明，如果你去观察石墨烯，你会看到电子的移动速度接近光速。因此，你可以在石墨烯中看到许多在20年代提出的预测。
在大约五年的时间里，人们试图弄清楚如何制造石墨烯。当然，他们制作石墨烯的方法非常简单。我不知道你们是否知道石墨烯是怎么制成的，但是你可以拿一些胶带，比如用来粘纸的透明胶带，你可以用透明胶带剥去石墨烯层。所以当他们制作石墨烯并进行一些测量时，他们发现电子在石墨烯中确实以光速运动，接近于光在石墨烯中的速度。所有狄拉克预言的都成真了。相较于需要有几英里长的大型的对撞机，在桌面上，你就可以通过以上方法在石墨烯中观察到这种很酷很有趣的物理现象。
这是一种很酷、很有趣的物理知识，它是由一种一直存在的材料，而不是新发现的材料实现的。但是分离这种材料可以让我们制造出我们现在还不熟悉的设备。因为电子和石墨烯的性质与硅中的电子性质完全不同。硅是我们用来制造所有电子产品的材料，但电子和石墨烯的表现却是一种全新的方式。
那么，什么是电子学？电子学是基于电子的，所谓的电子学就是储存信息的是电子。当你发送一个微信信息时，它只是一大堆的电子从一个地方移动到另一个地方。所以，如果我们能理解电子在石墨烯中的运动方式与硅的运动方式有何本质上的不同，那么，我们就能构想出与目前基于硅的电子设备有根本不同的电子设备。
我知道这是一个很大的问题。那么对于你的问题，你不需要去发现新材料，你只需要找到可能已经存在的材料。这将会让你正在研究的这种“新的化学、新的物理、新的电子、新的光学”有望转化为一种全新的设备。在10到15年后或者15年至20年后，你可以告诉你的孩子：石墨烯制造了这个设备。
想法是创新的“源头”
Q
您提到我们需要想象未来的事物，就像我们需要创新一样，但是您如何将我们想要创造的材料联系起来呢?
A
我给你举个例子。如果你看看iPhone，这就是一个很好的例子。苹果公司的史蒂夫·乔布斯提出了这个设计概念。但iPhone所需的许多组件还没有上市。当他们做iPhone的时候，他们发现首款iPhone原型机之一的玻璃很容易被划伤和损坏，所以他们做了其他的东西。但后来他们意识到，当他们把玻璃盖上时，玻璃很容易破裂，很容易被最小的东西划伤。他们说，“我们不能售卖这款iPhone，因为整个设备都会因玻璃而被毁。”
然后，他们去了一个叫康宁的玻璃公司，他们说，“我们需要一个不会被损坏的玻璃罩，因为一旦玻璃损坏，就会破坏下面的电子设备。”康宁说，想办法帮助他们解决问题。
康宁公司也意识到，如果他们能开发出一款能够适用于iPhone的玻璃，他们将拥有巨大的商机。于是，康宁立即着手工作，在三个月内，他们发明了一种叫做Gorilla glass的玻璃。之所以叫它“大猩猩玻璃”是因为半毫米的这种玻璃便可以承载一只大猩猩的重量，而且玻璃不会碎。
苹果公司所做的是提出一个概念，史蒂夫·乔布斯对这款iPhone产生了一个想法，iPhone的很多部件问题还没有得到解决，于是，他去了康宁公司表达出了“我们需要你们的帮助来解决这些问题”。大猩猩玻璃就是一个非常简单的例子，因为它实际上不是康宁公司开发的一种新玻璃。事实上，他们在20世纪50年代就发现了这种制造高强度玻璃的技术，虽然他们当时没有广泛应用这门技术，但并不意味着现在不需要这项技术。当苹果公司出现说他们需要一种抗刮的，非常坚固的玻璃时，这种玻璃就迎来了巨大的市场空间。因为每一部iPhone、每一部高质量的手机、每一部三星手机……都会需要这种玻璃，于是，这种玻璃开始投入生产。
这很有趣，因为有时候，你不知道你需要什么样的材料。有时，某种材料具有一些奇妙的特性，但你不知道它在什么场景中能够派上用场，所以通过创新和发现，你可以开发很多不同的组件。
他们让电池更小了、他们发明了触屏技术、他们找到了精确切割玻璃的方法……所有这些技术都是在iPhone问世之前人们没有想到的。通过想象这个iPhone的概念，使用一些旧材料和一些新材料、一些新工艺、一些新的编程和一些新的界面，史蒂夫·乔布斯创造了所有这些新技术。
在iPhone出现之前，没有应用程序开发，而现在任何人都可以开发它。有时候你需要有一个很聪明的想法，可以借助材料实现这些新概念。有时，新材料可以成为开发新设备的可能，但有时新设备的概念可以使新材料的发现成为可能。
创新需要跨学科的【横向思考】
Q
在我看来，编程在我们的日常生活中是一项非常重要的技能，我们的很多产品和应用程序都需要编程来支持。当您在做研究或发现一个现象时，您是否会通过编程来添加您的数据，看看您的数据是否可行，并证明您的想法是正确的呢？
A
是的，这是很重要的一点。材料科学现在大量使用计算，我们做很多理论计算来看我们有的这种材料和这种化学物质会如何相互作用。在我们尝试实验之前，我们可以利用机器学习和人工智能来给我们一些关于材料属性和设备属性的理解。通常，当我们做实验的时候，如果我们得到一些意想不到的东西，我们会用编程来做一些模拟，来理解实验结果是否可行。我们使用软件和编程来分析数据。有时候我们会从测量中得到数不清的数据，我们很难单独查看这些数据。所以我们必须开发程序和算法来过滤数据、处理数据并提取关键信息，所以这非常重要。
我们还利用人工智能和机器学习进行研究。如果我们要做很多实验，我们想要从数据中快速学到一些东西，而不是让学生来学习，我们就会想要利用机器学习，去尝试很多不同的东西。用算法解释数据并识别趋势，因为人类很难理解所有的信息，特别是当我们有千兆字节的数据从每个实验或测量中产生的时候。
所有的学生都会学习软件，他们学习不同的算法。这很有趣，因为通常剑桥的学生总会去横向思考。很久以前，有一个学生致力于开发一种算法来去除一些噪声和电子信号。他的同事们做了一些测量，测量结果非常嘈杂，而且不清楚。就像一张模糊的照片，这种模糊性就是噪音。所以，他在研究如何自动去除噪音，这样就能得到非常漂亮清晰的图像。
他研究了电子信号，开发了一些算法。他当时正在攻读博士学位，他说，这对声音来说很有趣，因为电子噪声就是电子波加上一些噪声波，噪声波与信号波重叠。如果能去除噪声，就能得到高信号。他认为自己可以将其应用到电子学上也可以应用到光学上，同样可以应用到声音上。所以，他应用这个算法来减少声音中的噪声。这样就能听到非常清晰的声音。
这个博士生的名字叫Ray Dolby。我不知道你是否听说过杜比。如果你去电影院，我想在中国也有，电影院有关于杜比环绕声的广告。他发明了杜比声音，这是能听到的最清晰的声音。基于他的博士工作，他开发了一种消除电子噪声的数学算法。他说这对电子和噪音很有用。后来，他认为它更有助于消除噪音，发出清晰响亮的声音。从那以后，他变得非常富有，赚了很多钱，最近他捐给了剑桥大学3亿英镑用于科学计算。
横向思维非常重要。还有另一个例子，那是在21世纪初，有几个人试图连接两个设备，他们厌倦了用电线连接它们。他们都是从事无线电技术的博士。他们发明了用无线电波在很短的距离内传输信息的这种方法。他们创办的公司叫做剑桥硅电台，简称CSR。你可能没听说过CSR，但CSR是研发蓝牙技术的公司。比如，我的耳机通过蓝牙技术连接到电脑上。他们的博士学位是和无线电波有关的，但后来他们意识到其实可以用这些无线电波来交流和传输信息。
通常，不同的技术和不同的知识之间都需要大量的交叉与融合，在剑桥，跨学科尝试来自于一种打破常规的思考，开发算法、开发材料、一起工作，然后你意识到你的博士研究并不总是最有用的，但它可以对你在博士期间试图做的事情有所帮助，甚至对你从未想过的事情大有裨益。
怎么选择最适合自己的专业？
Q
我在选择大学的方向和专业方面很纠结，您是如何在进入大学前便选择了材料科学这个领域的专业的？
A
我在美国读的本科，在剑桥读的博士，美国的教育系统是非常不同的。我的父母是印度人，他们告诉我必须要学工程学，而且他们想让我做电气工程。所以，我去申请了工程学校，并被工程学校录取了。但在美国读大学的学生不需要马上选择哪个工程专业，你可以等一年再选择工程学。我等了一年，然后选择了材料科学。但是在英国，你必须马上选择想做的专业方向。在申请时就必须决定申请化学或者任何你想申请的专业，我认为这是非常困难的。说实话，在你这个年龄，我儿子和你一样大。他16岁了，已经选择了A-Level课程，并且正在参加IGCSE考试。当他申请英国的大学时，他需要深入研究这些学科。我也曾建议他去美国上大学，因为在大学的第一年他可以用来决定自己想学什么专业。因为我不了解作为一个青少年，你是否知道你的余生想要做什么。这是一个非常困难的决定，但我想说的是，要独立做出选择并尝试做你喜欢做的事情。
我那些真正获得了成功的学生，对材料科学或他们正在研究的学科充满热情并真正享受其中。那些不是很确定他们是否喜欢这门专业，或者没有找到他们喜欢的专业方向的同学，虽然他们也很好，但是他们的学习生活还是有点挣扎。我知道选择往往伴随着很多压力，我现在可以理解我的父母了，因为我自己也已经为人父母。父母希望你选择一些能让你成功的东西，你应该努力去选择。
我朋友的女儿刚上了大学，她是学校的第一名。她是个地道的韩国人，非常聪明，各方面都是一流的。她决定去跳舞，我不知道你们是否听说过纽约的茱莉亚音乐学院，那是一所非常有名的学校。我的朋友是一位科学家，也是材料科学系的教授。他说他不知道女儿上大学后要做什么，但她非常聪明，她想做舞蹈，而不是化学或物理。
我不是建议你也这样做，但我的观点是，这个女孩会成功，因为她已经决定做她喜欢做的事情。所以不管她遇到什么困难，她都能克服，因为她喜欢做她想做的事。
所以，无论你选择化学、材料科学、物理还是其他类似的学科，一定要确保这是你想要做的。
“必须有工作，也必须有生活”
Q
正如您提到的，您在行业里和学术界都有工作，您有什么办法来平衡您的时间吗? 您有什么建议给我们吗?
A
我一直告诉我的学生，你必须有自己的工作，也必须有自己的生活。我的博士导师，他是一个非常聪明的人，他告诉我，生活就像一个三条腿的工具。一把椅子有三条腿，一条腿是工作，一条腿是你的个人生活、你的家庭和你的孩子，另一条腿是你的健康。你必须让所有的事情都井然有序，保持良好的平衡。如果其中一个不平衡，整个椅子就会掉下来。这是非常重要的, 所以，我总是确保我的学生和我的小组成员不要工作太多。
我一直在工作，但我也有两个十几岁的儿子，我也想花很多时间和他们在一起。他们喜欢踢足球、喜欢打篮球，所以我会带他们四处走走，参与他们生活中的一切，帮助他们学习，我的妻子也会做这些工作，不过她也是老师，她也有工作，所以我们要努力平衡。我的孩子们还很小，我确保他们放学回家后，我和他们在一起，和他们一起吃晚饭，当他们上床睡觉时，我再做我的工作。我需要有一段时间来处理工作，但我不想错过和他们在一起的时光。
我的小组里有一个研究员，我总是和她开玩笑，因为她的丈夫在北京大学读博士，她的孩子是个男孩，和她的父母生活在中国。但我觉得这样不好。她应该把孩子带过来，花时间陪他，因为他很快就长大了。我知道我们的文化很不一样，但我认为我需要给出这样的建议。
我告诉我的学生，生活不仅仅是关于工作，你也要享受生活中其他事情的每一部分。我强烈鼓励那些在工作和为人父母方面都取得成功的人。我和妻子一起照顾孩子。我认为每个人都应该这样做。现在这位研究员要带她的孩子来这里了，我说服了她，她意识到了让孩子和她在一起很重要，这里也在照顾孩子等方面提供了很多帮助。
另一方面，工作确实需要集中很多精力，但我感觉你一天不能高效地工作超过8到10小时。我认为，如果你花过多的时间在实验室里，那么你的工作效率就会降低。因为待了这么久，你的头脑已经不转了。所以我告诉学生们，请享受他们在实验室之外的生活，因为这会让他们在实验室里表现得更好。
结语
科技强国这部时空巨著，正待更多的未来创新型人才共同执笔，续写篇章。这些受访的世界顶尖学术大师既是科学家又是教育家，而且均具有一定的社会地位，其专业而富有深度的指导，对青少年的未来发展十分有益。
德胜学校（国际）的同学们从和Chhowalla教授的交流中感受到了科研的魅力和学术的意义，教授也像人生导师一样为同学讲述了平衡生活和工作的方法。同时，在理工科专业如何选择方面，教授也告诉了同学们学习的真理。相信对材料科学或是相关学科感兴趣的德胜学子们一定通过和教授的交流进行了更深刻的思考，也对这一专业领域有了更深入的了解。
进入大学学习知识固然重要，但这只是学生们人生的一个阶段，在生活中学会思考，学会创新，学会坚持才是最重要的。
Interview Content
Q
The material always just involves the discovery of design or the application of materials, is there something more than what we think it is?
A
It’s not always about discovering new material.It’s oftentimes utilizing existing materials in a new and innovative way.
So, as I give the example of my student, who discovered that the material that we were building transistors from is also good for doing catalysis, for splitting water into hydrogen. So how does that happen? That happens if you understand the fundamental science behind a particular problem, then you can look for existing materials with properties that can address those problems. So the most important thing that you can learn is what is the real fundamental scientific challenge for addressing something. And there are many different ways of hackling those problems, and it could be designing a new material, or designing or incorporating a new property within an existing material.
There are lots of different stages in material science for solving problems.It’s not always about innovating and discovering new material. We see what seems like an ordinary material, when we really understand the problem and look at the properties of ordinary material, we can see that it can be applied to something completely unexpected. And I think the really clever students understand the problems, and they look for materials that apparently seem ordinary. So, I’ll give you an example of that.
You might have heard of the material graphene. Graphene was discovered in 2004. But graphite has been around since the 1400s, so everybody knows what graphite is. And graphene is just simply graphite, but just one layer of graphite, so it’s been around, but taking graphite and processing it is completely different. You can extract one sheet of graphite, then you get this material, which is extraordinary. It has properties that are fundamentally different from anything that we had discovered or known before. So it’s not always about what I need to find new material, or if you understand what the problem is, then you can look for a material that will try to solve that problem. In the case of graphene, it’s a very interesting story, because graphene was discovered in 2004, but of course, it was always there. It was there within graphite because graphene is just a single sheet of graphite. But the people who made graphene that they didn’t do it accidentally.
So let me take a step back. In the 1920s, there was a student here in Cambridge. His name was Paul Dirac. Paul Dirac was a genius. He was at St. John’s College in Cambridge, and he was a genius and mathematician. Paul Dirac was working on a very difficult problem. You might have heard of Einstein. Einstein discovered something called the theory of relativity. So, he basically figured out how the universe behaves when something is moving at the speed of light. He did all this sort of, what’s called relativity and relativistic physics.
I don’t know if you’ve heard of some guy named Schrodinger, Erwin Schrödinger.Schrodinger is a less known guy, but just as important as Einstein because Schrodinger describes how many electrons move in a solid. And there is a famous Schrodinger equation that is used to describe electron motion. Paul Dirac said what if I have an electron moving close to the speed of light? So, he was trying to take the Schrodinger equation, which describes quantum mechanics, and he was trying to take E=MC^2, which describes relativity, so he developed something called relativistic quantum mechanics.
That is if you had an electron in a solid moving at the speed of light, how would we describe its motion?And Paul Dirac came up with a very famous equation called the Dirac Equation. The mathematics that he developed basically describes how electrons move in solid because it encompasses the Schrodinger equation as well, so he was able to determine the spectrum of hydrogen and lots of different things. In the 1920s, none of these things were clear, and it was just very few things were known. But then he came up with an equation way back in the late 1920s to early 1930s, and he won the Nobel Prize and so forth.
So the basis is we’re looking for the material.How do we get electrons moving at very high speeds close to the speed of light? We can accelerate electrons in something called colliders, or synchrotrons. I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Large Hadron Collider, it’s an accelerator where the electrons are really accelerating very fast through this ring. And there you can see many of the physics that Dirac spoke about. But physicists in the late 1990s realized that there were certain materials that could have electrons moving at the speed of light in the material. And I won’t go into a sort of a long story, but if you look at there were some calculations that were done, and they showed that if you look at a single sheet of graphite called graphene, you will see electrons moving at speeds that were close to the speed of light. So you could observe many of the things that direct predicted in the twenties in graphene.
Then for about five years, people were trying to figure out how to make graphene. And of course, the way they made graphene was a very simple method. I don’t know if you know how graphene was made, but if you just take graphite, and then if you just take some tape, like Scotch tape that you use to tape some paper, and you can peel off graphene layers, just by the Scotch tape method. So, when they made graphene and they made some measurements, they found that electrons indeed move at the speed of light in graphene, close to the speed of light in graphene. All of the things that Dirac had predicted came true. But instead of having a large collider, which is over several miles, you can do it on a desktop. You can observe this cool and interesting physics in graphene.
There are cool, interesting physics. That it’s the cool, interesting physics enabled by this material, not a new material, but is a material that’s always been there. But isolating this material will allow us to build the kinds of devices right that we’re not familiar with right now. Because electrons and graphene behaved in a fundamentally different way than electrons behave in silicon. Silicon is the material that we use for building all of our electronics, but the electrons and graphene behaving a completely new way.
And so when we do electronics, what is electronics?Electronics are based on electrons. That’s what it’s called Electronics. It’s the electron that stores information. When you send a WeChat message, it’s just a whole bunch of electrons moving around, going from one place to the other. If we can understand how electrons move in a fundamentally different way in graphene compared to silicon, then we can think about electronic devices that are fundamentally different than our current electronic devices, which are based on silicon.
I know this is a long question. Answer to your question,so it’s not that you need to discover new material.You just have to find the material it may already exist, right? And that will allow you to do this new kind of chemistry, new kind of physics, new kind of electronics, new kinds of optics, that hopefully will translate into a totally new kind of device. In 10 to 15 years from now, you’ll say to your children, or maybe 15 years or 20 years from now, you say to your children that graphene made that device.
Q
You have mentioned that we need to imagine the thing in the future like we need innovation, but how do you link the materials that we want to create?
A
I’ll give you an example. So, if you look at it again, the iPhone. The iPhone is a great example. The idea of Steve Jobs at Apple came up with this design concept. But many of the components that were required for the iPhone were not available yet. So a very simple thing is when they made an iPhone, one of the first prototypes, what they found was that the glass of the iPhone would get easily scratched and damaged, so they made everything else. But then they realized that when they put the glass cover, the glass is just easily cracked and easily scratched by the smallest thing, it would get scratched. So they said, we cannot sell this iPhone where the entire device will be destroyed because of the glasses.
Then they went to a glass company named Corning, and they said, we need a glass cover that will not be damaged. We need something that will not be scratched because it’s destroying our electronics underneath. Corning said, we want to help you. And they also realized that if they can develop a glass for the iPhone, they will have a huge business. So Corning immediately went to work, and within three months, they came up with a glass that is called Gorilla Glass. The name of the glass that is on top of this thing, it’s called gorilla glass. The reason why they call it gorilla glass is that you can have a very half a millimeter of this glass, and a gorilla can stand on it, and the glass won’t break.
What they did was a concept, there was an idea in mind. Steve Jobs had an idea in mind for this iPhone. And there were many components of the iPhone that were not solved. But basically, he said he went to the companies and said, we need your help to solve these problems. And so the gorilla glasses are a very simple example because it was the last thing, and it was actually not a new glass that Corning develop. In fact, they had discovered this kind of technology for making very strong glass in the 1950s. But they had no use of this technology. They didn’t say that we don’t need this technology right now. But then when Apple came along to say that they needed something that was scratch resistant, something that was very strong, and there was a huge market for this glass, because every iPhone, every quality phone, every Samsung phone, would meet this kind of glass. They said, okay, we’ll start producing it.
It’s interesting because sometimes, you don’t know what kind of material you need. And sometimes you have a material, and it has these wonderful properties, but you don’t know what it’s useful for. So, through innovation and through discovery, you can develop so many different components. They made the battery smaller. They made the touch screen technology. They figured out how to cut the glass very precisely. All of these things were not thought about before the iPhone was imagined. By imagining this iPhone concept, Steve Jobs created all of this new technology using some old materials, some new materials, some new processes, some new programming, and some new interfaces. Before the iPhone, there was no App development. Now, anyone can develop it. So sometimes you have a really clever idea, it can really enable these new concepts in materials. And sometimes new materials can develop and enable new devices, but sometimes new device concepts can enable new material.
Q
In my opinion, programming is a very important skill in our daily life, and a lot of our products and Apps need programming to support them. So, when you are doing research or you’re discovering a phenomenon, do you do programming to attach your data, to see or to find whether your data is feasible, and to proof your idea is true？
A
Yeah, that’s a very important point.Material science now very heavily uses computation. We do lots of theoretical calculations if we had this material and this chemical and to see how they would interact.We can utilize machine learning, and artificial intelligence to give us some understanding of what the material properties will be, the device properties will be, before we try experiments. Oftentimes when we do experiments if we get something unexpected and we don’t quite understand, we’ll use programming to do some simulations to understand whether that experimental result is feasible or not. The place where we use software and programming is to analyze our data. Sometimes we produce tons of gigabytes of data from measurements, and it’s very difficult for us to go through that data individually. We have to develop programs and algorithms that will sip through the data, process the data, and extract the key information. So, this is extremely important.
We also utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning for our research. If we are doing many experiments, we want to learn something quickly from the data, instead of having a student sort of going through it, we’d like to utilize machine learning, where many different things are tried. The data is sort of interpreted, and trends are recognized by the algorithm, because it’s very hard for humans to pick up on all of that information, especially when we have gigabytes of data that’s produced from each experiment or measurement.
All of the students learn software, and they learn different algorithms. It’s very interesting because oftentimes Cambridge studentsthink laterally all the time. It was a long time ago, there was one student that was working on developing an algorithm to get rid of some noise and electronic signals. His colleagues were making some measurements, and the measurements were very noisy, and it was not clear. It is like a photograph, and the photograph is fuzzy. That fuzziness is the noise. So he was working out to automatic remove the noise, so you get a very nice, clear image.
He was doing this for electronic signals, and he developed some algorithms. He was doing his Ph.D., and he said, this could be very interesting for sound. So what he said was that because electronic noise is just electron waves with some additional waves which are noisy, and the noise waves are overlapped with the signal waves. If you can get rid of the noise, then you can have a high signal Then he said, I could apply this not only to electronics but also optics, I can also apply to sound. So he applied this algorithm to reduce access noise in the sound. And in that way, you get a very clear sound.
The Ph.D. student’s name was Ray Dolby. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Dolby. If you go to the cinema, I think it’s in China as well, the cinema has some advertisements and it’s Dolby Surround Sound. He developed Dolby Sound, which is the clearest sound that you can get. Based on his Ph.D. work, which is to develop a mathematical algorithm to eliminate electronic noise. And he said it’s useful for electronics and noise. Later, he thought it was more useful for removing acoustic noise, to make a clear and loud sound. So now from that, he became extremely wealthy. In fact, he made so much money that recently he gave 300 million pounds to the university, for computation, there’s a long history of these things.
Lateral thinking is extremely important. There was also another sort of case. There were some people that were trying to connect two devices, this was in the early 2000s, and they got tired of connecting them with wires. Both of them were PhDs in radio technologies.They developed this method to transmit information in very short distances using radio waves. They started a company, which was called Cambridge Silicon Radio, CSR. You might not have heard of CSR, but CSR is the company that developed Bluetooth technology. My headphones here are connected to the computer by Bluetooth technology. They did their Ph.D. in something relate to radio waves, but then they thought latterly and decided, they realize that you could actually have used these radio waves to communicate and transmit information.
There’s a lot of sort of intermixing of different technologies and different knowledge, Here in Cambridge, which comes from a sort of thinking outside the box, developing algorithms, developing materials, working together. Then you realize that your Ph.D. research is not always the most useful, but it can be useful for the thing that you’re trying to do during your Ph.D., and it can be very useful for something that you never thought of.
Q
I’m very struggling with choosing the directions or majors I want to study at the university, so I’m curious what things decided you to study in this field, in material science before you apply to the university?
A
I did my undergraduate in the US, and I did my Ph.D. in Cambridge, and the US system is very different. Because my parents were Asian parents, Indian parents, they told me that you have to do engineering. And they wanted me to do electric engineering. So I went and applied to the engineering school, and I got into the engineering school. But you did not have to pick which engineering right away. You can wait a year to pick engineering. I waited one year, and I chose material science, but in the UK, you have to pick what you want to do right away. When you apply, you have to apply for chemistry or whatever major that you want to apply for. I think that’s very difficult. I have to admit that at your age, my son is the same age as you are. He’s 16 years old, he’s doing IGCSE and he selected A-Level courses. When he applies to university in the UK, he’ll have to go into those subjects. I am trying to tell him that go to the US for university because you get your first year in the university to decide what you want to do. Because I don’t know, as a teenager, whether you can know what you want to do for the rest of your life. It’s a very difficult decision.But what I would say is to be independent of that, try to do the things that you like to do.
My students who are really successful are the ones who are really passionate about material science or about subjects that they’re working on, and they really enjoy it.And the ones that are not quite sure that they like it, or have not found what they like, they’re also very good, but they tend to sort of struggle a little bit more. I know that there’s a lot of pressure to select different things, but I can understand my parents’ situation now because I am a parent myself. The parents want you to select something where you’ll be successful and you should really try to select.
My friend’s daughter just went to university, and she came number one in her schools. She was a valid Korean, very smart. Everything was top level, and she has decided to go to, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the school in New York City, it’s a very famous school called Julliard, to do the dance. My friend is a scientist, and a professor here in the material science department. He says he doesn’t know what she’s going to do after she goes to university, but she is extremely smart, and she wants to do dance instead of chemistry or physics. I’m not suggesting that you do anything like that, but my point is that she will be successful because she has decided that she’s doing something that she loves to do. So whatever hardship she has, she will be okay with it, because she will enjoy doing what she wants to do.So whether you choose chemistry, material science, physics, or anything like that, just make sure that is something that you want to do.
Q
As you mentioned, you work on both sides, you work for the industry and also the academic. I think it would be really busy when you handle so much work, so do you have any ways to balance your time, and do you have some advice for us?
A
I tell my students all the time that you have to have your work, and then you have to have your life as well.My Ph.D. adviser, he’s a very wise man, and he told me that life is like a three-legged tool. A chair has three legs, one leg is work, one leg is your personal life, your family, your children, and the other leg is your health. You have to keep all of these things in good order, in good balance. If one of them is unbalanced, the whole chair falls down. This is extremely important, so I always make sure that my students and my group members don’t work too much.
I work all the time, but I have two teenage boys as well, and I want to spend a lot of time with them too. They like to play football. They like to play basketball, so I take them around, I participate in everything in there in their life. I help them with their school. Also, my wife does all of these things as well, but she’s also a teacher, so she also has her job, so we try to balance, but what that means is that I have to work whenever I have free time. My children were very young, I would make sure that when they were coming home from school, then I spent time with them. I eat dinner with them, and when they went to bed, I did my work. But I didn’t want to miss the time with them.
I have a researcher in my group, and I always make a lot of fun with her, because her husband is doing a Ph.D. at Peking University, and her baby is a baby boy, with her parents in China. But I say this is not good. You should bring the baby boy here, spend time with the baby boy because he’s growing up, but I know the culture is very different, but I think you have to. What I tell my students is that life is not just about work, you want to enjoy every part of the other things in life as well. And I strongly encourage that have been successful both at my job and also being good parents. My wife and I took care of the children together. And I think everyone should do that. I always encourage it. So now she’s going to bring her child here because I convinced her that it’s very important for both the child and her to spend time together. And there’s a lot of help here with childcare and things like that.
There’s a lot of focus on work, but my feeling is that you cannot work efficiently for more than eight to 10hrs a day. I think if you spend more time in the lab beyond that, then you are not really working efficiently. Because your mind is not fresh after so long being in the company.So I tell the students that please enjoy their life outside the lab because it will make them better in the lab.
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