Before the closing ceremony, Chen Muwu's opportunity to meet and communicate with these astronomers was limited to the day before the opening ceremony, when Eddington took him to the Cambridge University Observatory on a bicycle.
Moreover, those who participated in the event were all giants among astronomers.
Except for them, no one knew what Chen Muwu looked like.
Although he also participated in the opening ceremony on the first day of the conference, in the venue of St. John's College that day, the big guys who spoke on the podium sang and I appeared.
No one present at the meeting would know that the young astronomer who has been in the limelight in the past two years was also present at the opening ceremony that day, and was sitting in the last few rows of seats for the observer states.
But it's different at the closing ceremony. The Chinese Astronomical Society has become one of the official members of the International Union of Astronomers, and there is always a process of going on stage to accept relevant certificates and then take a group photo.
Chen Muwu meant to let Zhang Yun take the stage. After all, he was a formal member of the Chinese Astronomical Society and was assigned as the official representative to attend this general meeting.
But the reasons given by Zhang Yun made it impossible to refuse.
"Brother Hanchen, my success in joining the Federation this time is all because of your face.
“In the past few days, I have witnessed with my own eyes that other countries that are also observer states have been refused to be admitted as full members by the federation because they have not met various indicators.
"I asked myself that the level of astronomy development in the Republic of China also failed to meet the conditions set by the federation. However, we were able to successfully join as a full member in the end only because of a talent like you, who brought glory to the country in the international astronomical community. .
"I am a student from the University of Lyon, and I haven't even received my degree certificate. If I come to power hastily, it will only bring shame to the country. For reasons of emotion and reason, you should be the one to take the stage."
Since I couldn't refuse anyway, I had no choice but to agree.
Chen Muwu followed Spain. Representatives of Portugal, Norway and Switzerland, the other four countries that joined the Federation at this plenary meeting, walked onto the podium in the auditorium together.
Rutherford's son-in-law, R. Fowler, served as moderator of the meeting throughout the seven days, and the closing ceremony was no exception.
When introducing other countries, he just read out the name of the country and the name of the country's domestic astronomical organization.
But when he arrived in the Republic of China, the senior of Trinity College obviously talked more.
R. Fowler also gave a report at a certain day's meeting this time. The topic of the report was about the transformation process of stars into white dwarfs.
In his report, he used a basically latest statistical principle, Dirac-Chern statistics.
Others may not know why these two surnames are juxtaposed. They may think that in this statistics, the little-known Dirac, a PhD student at Cambridge University, occupies the main position in theoretical research.
But as Dirac's mentor, R. Fowler still knew very well that without Chen Muwu Zhuyu in front, Dirac would not have been able to find this statistical law so easily.
Moreover, Chen Muwu is also the favorite student of his father-in-law, Rutherford, and is one of the leaders among the new generation of Cavendish Laboratory.
So R. Fowler did not hesitate to praise Chen Muwu on the stage and praised Chen Muwu mercilessly.
It felt like every Monday when I was in middle school, after the national flag was raised and the speech under the flag was delivered, the principal came on stage and angrily scolded the students who got bad grades for not living up to expectations, while praising the students who got the first grade in the monthly exam. Famous good student.
Good students still have to stand motionless on the rostrum with certificates of award in both hands, which is as embarrassing as it gets.
Chen Muwu was neither advancing nor retreating. He thought to himself, he shouldn't have offended Professor R. Fowler in any way recently, right? Why is he doing this to me?
At this time, Dr. Chen finally became famous in front of all the astronomers attending the meeting.
Or should I say, he has always been famous, but no one knew what he looked like before. This time he finally showed up in person.
So after the closing ceremony, Chen Muwu became the busiest person in the auditorium of St. John's College.
Every astronomer wants to chat with him. Chen Muwu is more popular than Campbell, who defeated A. Fowler of Imperial College in the election and was re-elected as president of the International Union of Astronomers. high.
"Dr. Chen, may I excuse you, when do you plan to return to China? Professor Hirayama Seiji, Vice President of the International Union of Astronomers and Director of the National Astronomical Observatory, although he was unable to come to the UK this time due to health reasons, he has always hoped to You are invited to give lectures at Tokyo Imperial University.”
"I have no plans to give lectures here in the next few years. And I don't speak the language myself..."
"It's okay, Dr. Chen, we can provide you with a translator when the time comes."
"Sorry, I can't quite understand the English you speak, just now."
"We can provide Chinese translation, that's not a problem."
So enthusiastic.
The person who surrounded him the most was himself.
This nation has an extremely pathological mentality of admiring strong people. Chen Muwu is so popular, and they, who are also of the yellow race, feel honored.
"Let's talk about it when we have a chance." He could only do it perfunctorily.
"Dr. Chen..."
"Dr. Chen..."
While dealing with the crowd, Chen Muwu tried to squeeze out of the crowd, and finally succeeded in getting in front of Campbell.
"Principal Campbell! Principal Campbell!"
There was also a circle of people surrounding Campbell, which forced Chen Muwu to stand outside the crowd and shout loudly.
After going through some twists and turns, the two finally got on to each other: "Dr. Chen, what's the matter with you? Have you changed your mind and want to go to the University of California with me?"
"...That's not the case. I have a letter of thanks here, and I hope you can forward it to President Lowell of Harvard University on my behalf."
Just because he was lucky enough to fulfill his eldest brother Percival's last wish, Abbott directly took out the bonus of 10,000 US dollars.
Chen Muwu thought about it and felt that it was a bit unethical to ask Campbell to send him a message to express his gratitude. Even this handwritten letter written overnight felt shabby.
If this were in China, no matter what, Campbell would have to help carry back a few kilograms of tea and a few pieces of Suzhou embroidery.
The week-long general meeting of the Federation finally came to an end. The guests left the University of Cambridge in batches. This academic town around London also gradually returned to the calm before the meeting.
After being busy with the preparation, reception and aftermath of this meeting, Eddington finally had time to find Lord Balfour.
He told the Chancellor of Cambridge University that the 92-year-old Northumberland astronomical telescope in the school observatory was old, had a small aperture, and its manufacturing technology was behind the times.
He also told him about the allusion that nearly a hundred years ago, the third generation Duke of Northumberland, the chancellor of Cambridge University, donated the telescope with his own money.
Eddington's words, both inside and outside, meant that he wanted the school superintendent to either allocate funds or donate money.
In fact, Balfour, like Lord Kelvin, perfectly meets Chen Muwu's definition of a scapegoat.
First of all, he is very rich. When he was six years old, he inherited a huge sum of four million pounds due to the death of his father.
You have to remember that this was 1854, and a pound then was worth much more than a pound now.
Chen Muwu feels that even as a time traveler, his horizons are still very low. He will still be happy to receive a bonus of one thousand pounds.
But in the eyes of the rich, this money is nothing at all.
In Mark Twain's 1893 satire, two wealthy brothers make a casual bet and give away a million-pound note.
Secondly, Balfour was still single and had no children.
He once had a lover when he was young, but the girl contracted typhoid and died of illness when he was twenty-seven years old.
Balfour placed a ring given to him by his mother in the girl's coffin and remained unmarried ever since.
With a huge fortune to his name and no heirs behind him, Eddington thought it would be easy to get the money to build a new telescope for the Cambridge University Observatory from the Chancellor. He had even done it. The plan was to name the new telescope the Balfour.
But he never thought that the school supervisor did not intend to pay for it himself. Instead, he said that he would put it at the school's review committee meeting and discuss it with the members.
Greedy, stingy, miser...
In his heart, Eddington used all kinds of vicious words to scold the old guy named Belfort.
A meeting of the Cambridge University Review Committee is held before the start of the autumn semester.
In addition to Chancellor Balfour relaying Eddington's proposal to the committee members, Thomson Sr., the dean of Trinity College, also brought another motion.
He proposed the creation of a new Newtonian Professorship of Theoretical Physics at Trinity College in memory of the greatest scientist in Cambridge's history.
How to place Chen Muwu has become a worry for old Thomson.
The number of professorships at Cambridge University is limited.
Unless the previous professor dies or offers to retire, it is simply impossible to arrange for a new professor to take up the professorship.
Professor Larmore was enjoying his tenure as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, and Old Thomson had no reason or power to remove him from this position.
In this case, if you want to find a professor position for Chen Muwu, you can only create a new one for him.
At the current University of Cambridge, there are only two ways to create new professorships.
Either there is a donation from a great benefactor, like William Cavendish, the seventh Duke of Devonshire who donated money to build a laboratory and establish the Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics.
Either you have to apply to the review committee and go through an extremely complicated application process, and there is a high probability that you will not be successful.
Old Thomson was rich, but not very rich.
He likes Chen Muwu, but not that much.
Therefore, Old Thomson would never donate a huge sum of money to Cambridge University just to help Chen Muwu get a professorship.
Regardless of whether he could afford the money, if Old Thomson really had the money, why would he make a "donation" to Chen Muwu?
Wouldn't it be better to bring his son, Thomson Jr., who was sent to remote Aberdeen, Scotland, to be a professor, back to Cambridge University, and reunite father and son?
Then we can only take the second approach and put the pressure on the school.
…
After the review committee meeting, some people were happy and some were sad.
Although he failed to obtain a huge sum of money from this stingy school supervisor to build an advanced astronomical telescope, Eddington still received more funds than usual.
The money will allow him to update a lot of equipment at the Cambridge University Observatory.
But Old Thomson's proposal was completely rejected.
Of course there is nothing wrong with commemorating Newton, but after the Dean of Trinity College announced the first nomination for this professorship, the expression on the face of Chancellor Balfour suddenly became not so good-looking.
Chen Muwu, who had something to do with both proposals, was completely unaware of what happened at the review committee meeting.
On the one hand, he had to keep an eye on Zhao Zhongyao and Cockcroft's electrostatic generator design, and on the other hand, he had to prepare linear algebra courses.
Even the closer it was to school, the more nervous he became.
It was the first time that I taught a complete course in class, and the students were all the smartest Cambridge students in the world.
If there are obvious mistakes during lectures, will many people write them in their memoirs?
Chen Muwu specifically learned from Professor Fowler in the laboratory and asked him if he had any experience in teaching methods.
A magical door was installed in Fowler's office. Chen Muwu walked in with a frown and walked out happily.
"Chen, there is no need for you to be so nervous. You have said it yourself, the students you will face are some of the smartest in the UK and the world.
"Do these smart people still need to rely on teachers to teach them new knowledge? That's wrong, they rely entirely on self-study!
"As long as the handouts are distributed in advance, at least half of the students in your class will be able to learn all the knowledge before the first class begins. Do you believe it?
"As a teacher, the most important thing is to make the best use of the situation. Dr. Chen, you should cultivate their autonomy!"
Fowler's words made Chen Muwu suddenly enlightened.
I have always been worried about being laughed at by smart students, but for basic knowledge like linear algebra, smart students don't need a teacher at all.
He thought again of the year when he and Dirac were roommates. Dirac once recounted how Fowler taught in class.
The entire classroom is like a quiet study room, with every student reading and doing calculations independently.
Fowler just took a look here and there. If he found an obvious error in someone's calculation process, he would point it out to the students.
High, really high!
If there are levels in fishing, then Fowler is definitely at the master level.
(End of chapter)
