Chapter 195 Become a Professor From Today

Published on 2023-02-11 14:40 | VIP Chapter

Huaguo joined CERN as a member country, and this news really surprised Xu Chuan.

After all, in the previous life until he was reborn, this was still something that the country had been working hard on.

As for why the trajectory of this life has changed so much, he couldn't figure it out.

But this can be said to be good news for both the country and him.

After sending Brother Lin away, Xu Chuan also started working.

He accepted the position of full professor of mathematics at Princeton University and enjoyed the benefits that Princeton brought him, so teaching students and doing scientific research are corresponding obligations.

However, the position of lifelong researcher at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study did not require him to do anything.

For this world-class institute, it doesn't matter if the researchers inside take a walk in the "institute tree forest" every day.

Scholars who can enter this institute and become lifelong researchers have basically made great contributions in their respective fields.

Of course, for scholars who can enter this institute, very few people will waste their time like this.

Coming to the study, he turned on the computer and logged into his email.

Leading students and teaching are two things that professors at Princeton University must do. Of course, many full professors will leave the task of teaching to their doctoral students or assistant professors.

After all, in a research university, a professor's other responsibility is to do his own academic research.

This also led to a famous system in the US education system: "academic leave".

This means that university professors are usually eligible to apply for a six-month or one-year academic leave after working in the school for a period of time.

During the leave, professors have no teaching tasks and can devote themselves to academic research.

And for a six-month leave application, the school usually pays half a year's salary in full; for a one-year academic leave application, half a year's salary is paid.

This treatment can be said to be top-notch.

Opening the mailbox, Xu Chuan was a little overwhelmed by the pile of unprocessed letters.

After Princeton University sent him the application materials for the full professor, his information was posted on the school's admissions website.

Then, the letters in his mailbox increased every day.

Princeton's school starts in two seasons, one is the spring semester and the other is the fall semester.

The spring semester starts from January to March every year, and the specific time is uncertain. The fall semester starts in August and September.

However, due to the fact that this school recruits students from all over the world, its application time must be at least half a year in advance.

For example, for the fall semester, the application is generally open from September of the first year to January of the second year.

The seven or eight months from the end of January to the start of August are the time for Princeton to select students, conduct interviews and exams, issue applications, and prepare materials and visas for students from all over the world.

Now it is late December, and the application deadline for the fall semester is almost over.

At this point in time, to be honest, good students have generally been picked up.

After all, the application started in September, and now it is the end of December.

Of course, for him, if he doesn't select the right students, it doesn't matter whether he takes students or not.

As a full professor, if he takes students, he basically takes PhDs, that is, doctoral students.

And for him, the fall semester is already late.

By the time the school starts next fall, he will probably have returned to China, and he still has a student with a P.

However, considering that it is not easy for Princeton to have a Chinese professor, Xu Chuan still chose to accept two or three students.

Because with one more Chinese professor, it is basically assumed that Princeton will accept one more Chinese student.

So on Princeton's official website this time, he specifically asked the school staff to state that the students need to report before February next year.

Although he may only be able to lead this group of students for a few months, there is no need to worry too much about cheating the students.

After all, it is a very bad thing for doctoral students if their supervisors are poached by other schools or leave during their doctoral studies.

But that is for other people. For the students he leads, there is actually no such problem.

First of all, he will definitely arrange a retreat for these students before he leaves.

For these students, if they are willing to follow him to China at that time, he will definitely be happy.

If they don't want to, August and September are the autumn enrollment season for Princeton, and staying in Princeton to change a supervisor is not an unfeasible way.

This will not affect these students' studies in Princeton.

Changing advisors during PhD study is indeed a very annoying thing, but it depends on the situation.

If you have been studying for two or three years and are suddenly told that your advisor has left, it is indeed very annoying.

But for him, he enrolled early and changed advisors just in time for the start of the school year at Princeton, so it can be said that there is no impact.

In fact, from another perspective, this is an opportunity for these students.

After all, not everyone can study with a Fields Award winner during their PhD, or in other words, not everyone can study with a mathematics professor who proved the seven millennium problems.

The former may be simpler, after all, the number of Fields Medal winners has reached double digits over the years.

The latter? Throughout the entire mathematics community, there are only a handful of such top professors.

For these students, these six or seven months of study can fully see an additional scientific research experience.

For other ordinary professors, if their students have studied and worked with such a top mathematics professor, I am afraid they will be very happy.

On the one hand, this kind of scientific research experience is indeed very good.

On the other hand, maybe they can use this relationship to get in touch with the other party.

So Xu Chuan has no psychological pressure on his possible departure from Princeton next year, and he is not worried that his departure will cause any big problems for the students he recruits.

It took Xu Chuan a whole day to deal with the emails in his mailbox.

Although he started to recruit students near the end of the Princeton admission application period, the quality of the student files sent by Princeton's admission working group and the applications sent to his mailbox were ridiculously high.

When foreign students apply to universities in the United States, for example, they usually look at four aspects: GPA, TOEFL or IELTS language test scores, recommendation letters, and portfolios (published papers, research projects participated in, etc.).

Among them, GPA is the basis. If it is lower than 3.5, unless you have a solid portfolio as a foundation, you will basically be rejected by top universities such as Princeton, Harvard, and Yale.

The list of people sent to his mailbox by the Princeton working group all have GPAs above 3.8, and there are several people with 4.0.

The average GPA of those applications sent to his mailbox by himself is slightly lower, but they are basically above 3.6, and there are also 4.0.

If converted, if the total score of the college entrance examination is 750 points, a GPA of 3.6 is 675 points, and a GPA of 3.8 is 712.5 points, and 4.0 is directly full.

In this way, they are basically all academic masters.

Xu Chuan flipped through the application forms in his mailbox, then pulled out a table and directly eliminated applicants with a GPA below 3.8 and no outstanding portfolio.

In his previous life, he had been a professor at Princeton for so many years, and he already had his own set of methods for how to screen students, and he was very familiar with it.

Screening these applicants is like a company's HR recruiting employees.

The undergraduate line (GPA) is the dividing line.

If you don't reach the undergraduate line, the application will basically be thrown into the trash.

It is undeniable that there may be a very small number of people who have excellent work experience without reaching the undergraduate line, but these people are only a very small number after all.

The efficiency of panning for gold on the beach is much lower than panning for gold in the gold mine, and the effort consumed is much higher than the harvest.

So setting a standard line is the most convenient for HR.

The same is true for screening students. If the GPA is not up to standard, it is the best choice to eliminate them directly.

After screening, looking at the applicant's portfolio, you can select the students you want to interview.

If there are too many, you can make a decision by looking at who has the recommendation letter.

It took Xu Chuan a day to select twelve applications from the mailbox, and he will do an online interview for these resumes in the next two days.

Anyway, it is very convenient to do online interviews with mobile phones and computers now.

The interviewees on the first day were all from China. Xu Chuan kept six of the twelve resumes for domestic students. Judging from the proportion, it was definitely preferential treatment.

But no one knows about it anyway, so it doesn’t matter if it’s a secret operation.

The first student to be interviewed is called Gu Bing. According to his resume, he is a doctoral student at Minhang University of Technology. He is currently 25 years old and seems to be a direct doctoral student. However, his GPA is not very high, 3.8 points.

Of course, this is not high compared to other interviewees in the same batch. For ordinary students, a GPA of 3.8 is simply an unattainable mountain.

In the college entrance examination, a GPA of 3.8 is almost the same level as the provincial science champion, which is actually very excellent.

It's just that generally speaking, those who dare to apply to universities like Princeton are all at this level, so it seems relatively ordinary.

In his previous life, when he was exchanged to Princeton, his GPA was 4.0, and he also had scientific research experience in discovering new particles at CERN. Even in a place like Princeton, he was among the top ones.

Of course, he didn't apply in his previous life, and was designated as a student by Witten when he was at CERN.

Compared with other resumes, Gu Bing's GPA is not high, but the reason why Xu Chuan is interested in this resume is not GPA, but his work portfolio.

This doctoral student has some scientific research experience, has participated in scientific research in physics and chemistry laboratories, and has published two papers. Although both are SCI Zone 3, it is also quite rare.

Among many domestic resumes, he is more optimistic about this one because it meets his requirements for students.

He will probably return to China in the second half of next year, and then the two disciplines of physics and materials will be his key breakthrough areas.

And having participated in scientific research in physics and chemistry laboratories can help him get started.

So Xu Chuan arranged Gu Bing to be the first interviewee.

On the computer, the conference interview room opens.

The figure of Gu Bing waiting for the interview came into Xu Chuan's eyes, making him involuntarily stunned.

Without him, the image of this student named Gu Bing is very different from the photo on the application resume.

In the photo, he has a head of black hair, but during the interview, he looked like a math expert. At the young age of twenty-five, my hair has already receded like the Pacific Ocean.

After being stunned for a moment, Xu Chuan came to his senses, coughed slightly, and said, "Are you Gu Bing?"

On the other end, when he heard the questioning, Gu Bing almost stood up nervously and said quickly: "It's me, Gu Bing."

Seeing the nervous interviewer in the video, Xu Chuan smiled and comforted him: "Don't be nervous, it's just a simple interview."

"Okay, okay."

Although he was comforted, classmate Gu Bing was still nervous.

But this is normal, after all, this interview determines his future.

He wants to apply not only to Princeton, but also to Xu Chuan, a top mathematics professor who has proved the seven millennium problems.

Regardless of age, this is like an ordinary ordinary citizen suddenly meeting the boss of his province one day. The level gap is too big, and everyone will be nervous.

"Let me introduce myself first in English."

Xu Chuan didn't give the interviewer much time to adjust his mentality. After all, this was also part of the assessment.

For a top mathematics professor like him, there are no shortage of opportunities for students to give reports on stage.

If your psychological quality is not strong enough, how can you control the overall situation?

However, as long as he is not the kind of top-level social fear, normal people can be trained. He was also trained step by step under Witten.

Hearing this, Gu Bing seemed to have deserted the class and was suddenly called upon by the teacher. His body suddenly jumped upright. After a few seconds, he said: "Hello, professor, my name is Gu Bing."

Gu Bing was introducing himself on the other end, and Xu Chuan was listening on the other end.

Although I sometimes made mistakes due to nervousness, at least the interviewer's English was passable.

"I read your application materials. Your study direction is algebraic topology and analytic geometry. Please tell me about your understanding of smooth Riemannian manifolds."

After waiting for the other party to finish introducing himself, Xu Chuan started to ask questions. It took him about ten minutes to get a basic understanding of the interviewer in front of him.

His basic skills are pretty solid, and his talent seems to be quite average, but surprisingly, he has begun to have some ideas of his own in the field of mathematics, and he is not ashamed of his hair that is gradually receding.

As for character, I can’t tell yet.

As for letters of recommendation, there was one from Academician Zhang Weiping of Sun Moon University.

Considering this factor, his character should not be too bad, so after failing the interview, he circled it on his resume.

This means to wait and see, indicating that the interviewer has not satisfied him enough to make a decision, but he has not been able to deny it, which is quite satisfactory.

As for whether he can be selected, it depends on whether any of the interviewees from China can surpass him.