Academician Guoping Zhao shares his scientific journey with young technology workers.
[Image provided by the university]
Academician Guoping Zhao studied at Fudan University. Photo source
■ Oral History
Confucius said, "At forty, I had no more doubts." When I graduated with a Ph.D., I felt that at my age, although I could make a living in the United States, it would only be for myself. If I returned to my country, I could contribute something to the nation and fulfill my filial duty to my parents. So, I was determined to return.
Dare to do and persevere, not for the sake of "no credit but hard work," but to accomplish things. How to accomplish things? Ultimately, you need to have the ability. Where does ability come from? Serious study.
It's not your ability, but your attitude, that determines the height of your life.
By today's standards, the life of Academician Guoping Zhao, director of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, seems to have been a bit slow: seven years of primary school, ten years in the countryside after high school graduation, entered university at the age of 30, studied abroad in the United States at 35, graduated with a Ph.D. at the age of maturity, and at 50, shifted from microbiology and biochemistry research to a new field—genomics…
Zhao Guoping jokingly says he "never won at the starting line." However, despite his journey not being "smooth sailing," Zhao Guoping's achievements are remarkable: he participated in China's Human Genome Project, organized teams to implement major projects such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "Research and Utilization of Human Genome and Post-Genome and Important Disease Genes" knowledge innovation project/"Ninth Five-Year Plan" special support project, broke the monopoly of Western scientists in the localization and cloning of human Mendelian disease genes, and contributed to China's position in the Human Genome Project. He pioneered research in microbial genomics in China and used it as knowledge and technological support. In the 2003 SARS epidemic, he organized molecular epidemiological research, analyzing the molecular evolutionary patterns of SARS-CoV from animal-to-human transmission to human-to-human transmission. In 2005, Zhao Guoping was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, affirming his systematic and creative achievements and significant contributions in the field of science and technology.
From Zhao Guoping's growth experience, we can see that the growth paths of outstanding innovative talents are diverse. How young people can successfully traverse different stages of life in seemingly "unfavorable" conditions and eventually become scientific talents contributing to human progress, Zhao Guoping's "atypical" life may bring some thoughts to readers.
I was born in Shanghai, the youngest in the family. My three sisters studied medicine, literature, and engineering respectively, and my brother also studied engineering and was one of the first batch of postgraduates in New China. In such a family, I learned various things when I was young. As long as my parents could think of it, such as Chinese painting, piano, etc., they would take me to learn. Or if I was interested, like shadow puppetry, I would sign up to learn it myself. But my biggest problem was that I couldn't stick to anything seriously. I was the kind who could do something when I started, but would soon give it up.
I was very bad at sports when I was young. I heard that sending and receiving telegrams was also a sports activity, so I signed up to learn it. After learning for a short while, when I was evaluated for the first time, the teacher praised me for doing well and reaching the standard of a third-level athlete. I was proud, but immediately stopped learning. At that time, my father was very worried about me. He said, "What will you do when you grow up? If you can't stick to anything, you won't even have a skill to rely on."
However, I was always interested in "living things" when I was young, especially plants, and I even learned grafting. I've raised chickens at home and even kept bees. Every time I raised a new kind of animal, I would find relevant books on breeding to read. The most important turning point happened when I was in the first year of junior high school. That year, I saw an article in Shanghai Science Illustrated that introduced the significant progress in human understanding of the essence of life after confirming the double helix structure of DNA and using electron microscopy to understand the subcellular structure and function of cells. The article also specifically mentioned viruses, saying they were life forms at the boundary between living and non-living things. When I read that, I was so excited that I couldn't count how many times I read it over and over again. After that, I made up my mind— I wanted to study life sciences in my life.
Confucius said, "At fifteen, I set my heart on learning." My "ambition" at the age of 12 was to attend Peking University and study biology. However, when I graduated from high school, it was the time of the "Cultural Revolution," and it was impossible to study biology in university! We, the high school graduates of 1967, were assigned jobs after graduation, and it was possible to stay in the city and work as laborers. But whether it was working on an assembly line as a laborer or sitting in an office reading newspapers, it was not the life I wanted. I still wanted to study biology. In that situation, if I wanted to continue studying biology, the only choice was to go to the countryside and engage in agriculture.
So, on the evening of January 10, 1969, I boarded the first train to Anhui Huainan with the first group of "educated youth" to be sent to the countryside from Shanghai, and settled in Zhuji Village on the Nanqian River in Mengcheng County, which was poor and backward. I stayed there for 10 years. Although the conditions were harsh, my companions and I learned the most basic principle of being responsible for oneself, for society (the production team), and for science. After a year of integration with the farmers in the village, we successfully formed a "combat-effective," united leadership team with public-spirited, hardworking, and representative outstanding individuals, which made it possible to implement "scientific farming"! In a few years, we changed the face of local agriculture at various levels of "soil, fertilizer, water, seed, and management." And I, myself, also developed the literacy, attitude, and character to do science in this "university" in the countryside. For example, the teacher who taught me how to do experimental controls for the first time in my life was a very wise farmer who couldn't read a single word. When the college entrance examination was restored in 1977, I was serving as the head of a production team, so I didn't sign up. I remember that on the day of the exam, I was leading laborers to repair roads. But soon after, I was relieved of my duties as the head of the production team. The team leader encouraged me, saying, "The rural areas are different now. If you have the opportunity to go to college, you should take it! Learn skills that us farmers can't." I understood his advice, delegated my responsibilities in the production team, and returned to Shanghai to review. With a solid foundation from high school and ten years of studying on my own in the countryside, the following year I was admitted to the Department of Biology at Fudan University. At that time, I was 30 years old, which was indeed the last chance because the age limit for the next year's college entrance examination was set at 29.
After graduating from university, I applied to become a master's student under Mr. Jiao Ruisheng at the Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. On the night before the exam, the secretary of the department called me and said that the university party committee had discussed and wanted me to stay at the university as a cadre for dual responsibilities. I replied, "It's been a hard-won opportunity for me to specialize in biology. Let me go through the academic rigor once again to deepen my knowledge!" And so, I passed the entrance exam for the master's program and was recommended to take the CUSBEA exam for joint admission between China and the United States. I was admitted to Purdue University in the United States for graduate studies, already at the age of 35.
I'm not particularly intelligent, so I relied on diligence in my studies, which wasn't too exhausting. However, during my first year of classes at Purdue University, I was truly exhausted and even began to fear exams. Comparing notes with classmates studying at other schools, I found that Purdue's teaching and exams were much tighter and more challenging! When I asked a respected professor about it, he said, "Universities like Harvard recruit top students who don't need much teaching; we may not attract top students, but unlike other typical universities, we aim to cultivate you into top students!"
My mentor had a unique approach to guiding research students. When I first entered the lab, he asked me to conduct an experiment to measure the neutralizing antibody titer. I thought I knew how to do it, but after a week of effort, the margin of error was significant. Surprisingly, my mentor said, "OK, we can use this data." Naturally, I wasn't satisfied and asked to try again over the weekend, which he agreed to. After repeated attempts, the error remained significant! Before giving up in disappointment, I went to the library to find similar experiments by predecessors for comparison and realized that I hadn't identified the "linear range" of detection, leading to "systematic errors." After correcting this, the margin of error became very small. My mentor was very pleased and told me, "I didn't intend to make it difficult for you. If I had told you the correct method from the beginning, you would have quickly forgotten it. Only by summarizing from your own failures can you remember it for a lifetime."
By the third year, I had passed all my exams and became a true "Ph.D. candidate." My mentor asked me to take a course on "Organic Chemical Reaction Mechanisms in Biochemical Processes." I was already exhausted from studying organic chemistry, and now I had to take this course too, which overwhelmed me. But my mentor said, "This course may not be immediately useful for your current research, but it may be useful for your career in the long run." Although it was a struggle, I managed to get a B in the course. Twenty years later, when we recruited a young scholar specializing in organic biochemistry at our institute, I finally understood his presentations.
I was still studying for my Ph.D. at the age of 40 and couldn't see how far I needed to go with research to graduate. On my birthday that year, I wrote, "Life's journey is difficult; who do I complain to halfway through? In youth, dreams are grand; with middle age comes the realization of hardships." It took me seven years to obtain my Ph.D., and in the ninth year, I finally published three papers based on my research in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. These papers might have been looked down upon in China at the time, but a few years later, a professor from Yale University looked at my resume and said, "I noticed that your Ph.D. papers only have two authors." This statement implied something I understood well: I had independently completed a research project—proposing the research topic, designing and conducting experiments, and finally writing the paper. "My university" journey was complete! From 1969 to 1993, it took me 25 years, and by then, I was 45 years old.
Confucius said, "At forty, I no longer have doubts." When I graduated with my Ph.D., I felt that at my age, although I could continue to thrive in the United States, it would only be for my own sake. If I returned to China, I could contribute to the country and fulfill my duty to my parents. So, I was determined to return.
At the end of the last century, I was tasked with leading a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in China's Human Genome Project. I was 50 years old that year and knew almost nothing about the human genome. But I remembered a passage from Lu Xun, which I read in high school: "May Chinese youth rid themselves of apathy, only move upwards, and not heed the words of self-deprecation. Those who can do something, do it; those who can speak up, speak up. Even a little warmth can shine like a firefly in the darkness, without waiting for a torch. If there is eventually no torch, then I will be the only light. If there is a torch or the sun appears, we will happily disappear, not feeling any resentment, but rather praising and admiring the torch or the sun, because it illuminates humanity, including myself." Genome research was too important, and Chinese scientists had to do it. I couldn't shy away from this responsibility; I had to bravely shoulder it. It was challenging, but my experiences from the countryside to studying abroad had instilled in me the perseverance of "never forget why you started, and you can accomplish your goal." Of course, daring to do and persisting in doing aren't just about "suffering without merit," but about getting things done. How do you get things done? You need skills. And where do skills come from? From diligent learning. So, as Marx said, at the entrance to science, just like at the entrance to hell, we must make the same demands: to root out all hesitation; here, any cowardice is futile. And as Mr. Li Dazhao said, everything must be done step by step, not carried away by empty thoughts, not lured by empty rhetoric, but only by seeking truth and doing solid work with an attitude of seeking truth can we understand the truth, and with this attitude, we can accomplish great things. Most of my college dorm mates have studied abroad and earned their doctoral degrees, but I'm the only one still actively engaged in frontline research. One of my classmates obtained his Ph.D. in Canada but found that research wasn't his true calling during his postdoctoral studies. He switched gears and ventured into business, becoming the wealthiest among us. When I returned to China, he bluntly told me, "Zhao Guoping, research isn't your thing. You haven't produced any significant results, nor have you made much money." Later, when I became an academician, he remarked, "You're doing fine because you've spent your whole life doing what you love, and you've excelled at it." I actually appreciate his honesty because it's not your abilities but your attitude that determines the heights you reach in life.
