Journey to the East-Tsinghua University

Journey to the East

2013-11-29 11:13:30 CRIENGLISH.com Web Editor: Liu Yuanhui

An estimated one million Chinese have gone abroad to study since the country began opening up to the outside world in 1978.

About one-quarter of those eventually returned, and those numbers have increased in recent years.

China's economic boom makes it a great place to build up one's career. At the same time, the government is intensifying its efforts to draw senior researchers and professors from abroad to bolster the competitiveness of its own institutions.

On today's show, we will meet two scientific researchers who gave up their comfortable living conditions and promising career prospects overseas and returned to China to pursue the Chinese dream.

Stay tuned.

Intro:

Shi Yigong is a world-renowned structural biologist. The youngest professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, Shi gave up his thriving career in the U.S. and returned to his alma mater, Tsinghua University, in February 2008.

The 46 year old now heads the Life Science Department of Tsinghua and is dedicated to researching a cure for cancer.

Rpt:

Shi Yigong exhibited great academic ability from a young age, showing a particular interest in mathematics and physics.

He graduated from high school with outstanding grades and received offers from several of China's best universities. Shi chose to study at Tsinghua University's Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology and, in 1989, graduated at the top of his class with a double major in biology and mathematics.

The next year, he went to the United States to pursue a doctorate in biophysics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland.

Shi Yigong says life was not so smooth during the first several years in the US:

"I struggled in the first two years of my doctorate. I even thought about giving up my studies. I was seriously questioning my future, not sure where I was heading to."

Shi also recalls working part-time at a restaurant as a waiter and delivery man.

"I started by cutting meat, washing and trimming vegetables in the basement. Two or three weeks later, I cleaned tables and washed dishes. One day, when I was delivering food, a group of African Americans robbed me. I was almost beaten to death. They took my money and ran away？？ those were the hardest times."

After completing his doctoral studies in 1995, Shi joined the Structural Biology Laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York as a postdoctoral fellow.

Just two years into his research project, he was offered an assistant professorship by the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University and joined them in February 1998.

Shi Yigong's outstanding achievements were fully recognized and he moved rapidly up the ranks at Princeton. He was given tenure in 2001, after just three years of teaching instead of the required six. Two years after that, he became the youngest tenured professor in the history of Princeton's Department of Molecular Biology.

"My lab had 14 postdoctoral students, six doctors and two researchers, as well as two million dollars for research. The resources were abundant."

There can be no doubt that Shi is one of the top scientists in his field with the U.S.'s top universities, including Harvard, M.I.T., and Johns Hopkins, clamoring to get him on their staff.

With such a sparkling career in the U.S., few would have any desire to leave.

But Shi Yigong made a decision that shocked many: He decided to leave the life he had built in the U.S. and return to his home country with his family.

"In May 2006, I went to attend an international academic conference in Beijing, where I met the former party secretary of Tsinghua University. He officially asked me to come back and work for Tsinghua to help develop the School of Life Science in Tsinghua. I was excited, it was my dream job. The next morning, I told him that I'd decided to return to Tsinghua."

Many people were surprised and shocked at his decision.

"The dean of the Physics Department at Princeton asked me to give him some time to persuade the university president to make me a package that I can't refuse. One of my relatives in the US also told me that if I was considering leave, I must have lost my mind."

Shi says his decision had a lot to do with his childhood, which he spent at a small village in Zhumadian, Henan Province:

"It must have been 30 to 40 years since I haven't seen the villagers, but on my recent trip to the village, they still recognize me and call me by my nickname. I believe each time I made scientific breakthrough, people in my home town would feel proud of me. I somehow feel that I'm living for them."

Shi says that it feels good to work in one's own country, adding he has a sense of belonging that he lacked abroad.

"If I didn't return, I would have been depressed when I got old. I'd think that I owe a heavy debt that I didn't pay back. After coming back, though sometimes I have complaints, I don't feel guilty."

As the new dean of life science in Tsinghua, Shi has started to build a top class laboratory. Shi admits that it's not an easy job, as he has to start from scratch, but he's received invaluable support from school authorities:

"The school authorities gave me full support, from lab equipment purchases to talent recruitment. Now, the overall level of our lab, concerning the depth of scientific research, has surpassed that of Princeton when I was there in 2006. I feel very happy about that."

Shi Yigong is dedicated to his role in Tsinghua. He believes that outstanding talent needs a supportive academic environment and he makes great effort with his team to provide young scholars with such.

Since returning to China, Shi himself has published 12 articles and three scientific journals. His research has been patented and will soon be used to develop new types of drugs to aid in treating cancer.

Shi says the study of cancer poses a huge intellectual challenge and it is quite irritating that mankind has not been able to conquer this disease.

"After many decades of cancer research, we are still unable to make a bigger impact in terms of treating it; this is very frustrating. It's almost as if the more we learn, the more we realize what we don't know."

However, by inching closer to the goal with some exciting discoveries, Shi remains hopeful and optimistic.

"It has been very effective in some patients in cancer shrinking, in some cases, even disappearing. The drug has proved in phase one and phase two clinical trials in the US, I want to begin clinical trials in China as soon as possible."

At Tsinghua University's 100 year anniversary celebration, Shi and other alumni sing a song together.

"More than twenty years have passed since we graduated. When we sing songs together at the main hall, I couldn't hold back my excitement, and some of us sang with tears. Have we achieved what we aimed for when we were young? It's a complicated feeling."

Though he's doing the same job as he did in the US, Shi Yigong say he feel more confident at Tsinghua University. Every morning he wake up excited, thinking he's going to have a rich new day. He says when one's heart is full of purpose, one is full of energy.

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