Professor Ben-Zhong Tang from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, an academician of Chinese Academy of Science and a well-known polymer chemist, gave a Boling lecture entitled “The Trilogy of Creative Research--things I learned from my research experience” at the academic hall of the Institute of Elemento-Organic Chemistry on the evening of Sep. 30, 2016. Academician Qilin  Zhou addressed the opening ceremony.

The evening saw so many students of varies grades being attracted to the hall by Tang’s reputation as an outstanding chemist that there’s not a single vacancy at the spot and some students had to stand the whole lecture.

Tang asked three questions at the beginning, namely, “Why do people do scientific research”, “What area of research they do” and “How to do research of interest”, for all of which he offered detailed and precious advices from his scientific research experience, his work of “aggregation-induced luminescent material”, as well as different examples of others. He noted that the trilogy of innovative research includes discovering questions from new phenomena, building pioneer models and proposing novel ideas in combination with developing fresh fields and applications.

He also put emphases on the responsibilities of supervisors for students, which, with his hearty laughter and great eloquence, struck a chord with the audience. At the end of the speech, he adapted the famous words from the Aesop’s Fables as “United we stand, Together we shine”, which is quite enlightening.

He carefully answered the questions asked by students after the report, and encouraged them to do researches with “passion” and “devotion”.

The lecture lasted nearly three and a half hours for Tang’s passion and the students’ enthusiasm.

For CV of professor Tang, please click this link: http://webhost1.ust.hk/~tangbz/