UBLISHING a research paper in a prominent journal is the dream of most researchers and professors. But Tsinghua student Zeng Bei has already earned admiration of students and teachers alike with her four research papers that appeared in the US's Physics Review.

Its papers appear in the Science Citation Index, which catalogues information, abstracts, and references from the world's leading scientific and technical journals.

The Sichuan-born Zeng attended Tsinghua in 1998 as an undergrad and took part in the "Nobel Class" — which was designed to train promising physics and maths students.

But Zeng said that her gift for study was not everything and that academic research demanded a good environment and hard work.

She joined a research group in quantum physics at Tsinghua headed by Professor Long Guilu.

"We had a good co-operative environment in the lab. We ate together, played together," she says.

That group co-operation influenced her thought and reinforced her research potential, she explains. Three of her four SCI-indexed articles were published during her time at the lab.

But, she said, it involved constant hard work.

Even before all that, Zeng was known as a chess master. She was accepted at Tsinghua five years ago because of that.

She began playing chess at the age of 8 and, by 12, was the Champion Chess Competitor of Sichuan Province; then a National Champion at 13, and Runner-up in the World Youth Chess Competition at 14.

Her life became "a good combination of chess and physics."

Every chess player wants to win and a good researcher must be eager to find something new. That is where Zeng finds the similarities between the two worlds. "I feel happy in both worlds, and I love them both."

As for the future? "I like the school atmosphere and am probably going to be a teacher one day."

She is now a teaching assistant at Tsinghua's Astrophysics Centre.

(21st Century Gu Shuxia and Zhang Haigang 24/10/2002)