How can the evaluation and assessment of academic papers align with international peers? San Wen Li Zhengdao Research Institute ②, 16 National Scientists Same Building, COMAC | Scholar | Evaluation

Across Jinke Road, Li Zhengdao Research Institute is diagonally opposite COMAC Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute. The construction area of this "I-shaped" building is 56000 square meters, and the northwest two sides are the intersection of two rivers, forming a small river bend.

This year, with the support of Pudong New Area, this clear water and green tree "Lisuo Bay" has been opened up as a new landmark: a riverside landscape trail with double deck platforms up and down. From the inside, it seems as if the rings of different sizes are intertwined, as if the eight major planets are connected. Scholars from all walks of life drink coffee and tea, exchange ideas and brainstorm.

Li Suo in the river bend.

World-class research institutions emphasize the "environment", which includes not only soft environments such as institutional mechanisms, but also real environments that are ecologically livable. It should be noted that under the influence of Li Zhengdao's academic circles and the attraction of Shanghai's construction of a global impact science and technology innovation center, the entire institute has gathered more than 100 scientists from 16 countries and regions across six continents, with foreign researchers accounting for about 40%. The entire research institute, from evaluation to assessment, is like an international "environmental protection zone" that integrates software and hardware, forming an "ecosystem" and "atmosphere" of high-level basic research.

Mr. Li Zhengdao's lecture photos during his youth

【 Talent Introduction: Internationalization and Local Adaptation 】

In fact, the origin of the Li Zhengdao Research Institute is internationalization and openness. In December 2014, Chinese Nobel laureate in Physics, Li Zhengdao, wrote a letter to party and state leaders proposing to build a world-class research institution similar to the Danish Bohr Institute at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, attracting a group of the world's top scientists, creating an academic atmosphere of free exploration, and training a group of top Chinese scientists to promote significant development in physics and its interdisciplinary research.

On November 28, 2016, the Li Zhengdao Research Institute was officially established at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, originally located on the 4th floor of the Li Zhengdao Library on the Minhang campus; On April 7, 2018, Mr. Li Zhengdao, who was over ninety years old, was appointed as the Honorary Director of Li Institute; The iconic Li Institute Experimental Building was located in Zhangjiang and construction began in the same year; In January 2020, he personally wrote "Bringing in talented individuals from all directions and exploring the mysteries of the universe" as a gift to the entire institute. The building was completed and put into use on December 3 of the following year.

In front of the "Expert Building" in Building 7 of the Higher Education Research Institute

Interestingly, many people are unaware that Li's "non work area", especially the "expert building", is located next to the "Shanghai Light Source" at the Zhangjiang Institute of Advanced Studies of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. There is also a door connecting the two courtyards. Luca, who settled here, moved his family from Italy and moved into a fully furnished suite in Building 7. This physicist has convenient daily commuting, from the High Research Institute at 429 Zhangheng Road to the site at 520 Shengrong Road, which is less than 5 kilometers away and only takes about ten minutes to drive. At noon, I was eating Chinese boxed meals with chopsticks in the cafeteria where Li Zhengdao's multiple artworks combining science and art were hanging.

In the expert apartment

Like many overseas scientists who have come to Luka, he has extensive international research experience and has worked at the European Mediterranean Climate Change Center, the Nordic Institute of Theoretical Physics, Uppsala University in Sweden, the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and the Frascati National Laboratory in Italy. Now, he has chosen China and has been appointed as the Associate Professor of the School of Physics and Astronomy at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a scholar of Li Zhengdao at Li Institute.

Apartment type

Entering the spacious and spacious apartment home, Luca and Jiaxiao each have their own study, kitchen, bedroom, etc., and their living conditions are not much different from those abroad. In the park, you can share smart classrooms, lecture halls, lecture halls, reading rooms, coffee bars with teachers and students from home and abroad. There are also ping pong rooms, yoga rooms, equipment training halls located in the basement sports space, as well as basketball courts, badminton courts, and more.

Independent kitchen and bathroom

In order for international scholars to complete local adaptation and focus on studying in Shanghai, the company provides solutions for their children's enrollment and even spouse's work. Russian scholar Li Zhengdao, Vadim, came to work at Li Institute last year from the Institute of Solid State and Materials Physics at Dresden University of Technology in Germany. His wife, as a researcher, also found her desired job here.

As the Secretary of the Party Branch of the Li Zhengdao Research Institute at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Party Committee Secretary of Zhangjiang Higher Research Institute, Zhao Xin told the Liberation Daily Shangguan News reporter that even during the special period of the first half of 2022, no overseas scholar has left China and returned home. "This year, as many as 10 teachers and students from different countries have celebrated a Chinese New Year in Shanghai."

Xu Jinxiang is with Li Shu, Liu Kun, and others

[Evaluation: Peer recognition, not just papers]

Having settled in Shanghai for almost 4 years, there are at least two things that make Malaysian Li Zhengdao scholar Kim Siang Khaw proud. First, his wife works in Zhangjiang Pharmaceutical Company. The two gave birth to a son in Shanghai in 2021. This year, she has taken her son to watch the lights in Yu Garden; Secondly, at the end of last year, under the age of 40, he was approved for the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Basic Research Special Zone Program with a project funding of 4 million yuan.

Special Zone Plan Certificate

In Room 669, North Building of the Li Experimental Building, Xu Jinxiang has this certificate in his glass cabinet. It says, "Kim Siang Khaw: Your project" Research on Muon Sources Based on Shanghai SHINE Accelerator Electrons "has been approved and this certificate is hereby issued. In order to trace the source of" muon "as a fundamental particle, he completed his undergraduate, master's, and doctoral studies and postdoctoral work at Kyoto University, University of Tokyo, Zurich Federal Institute of Technology, and University of Washington.". In his view, the support for young scholars in this special zone plan is at a leading level internationally, and "there is no financial pressure."

Xu Jinxiang measures the activity of Miao Zi

"You spread out your palm, and on average, one muon passes through every second; if you get on a plane, there will be about 20 muons passing through at a height of ten thousand meters." Holding a small "circuit board," he told the Jiefang Daily Shangguan News reporter that muons and electrons are siblings, about 200 times heavier than electrons. They are products of high-energy cosmic rays that bombard the Earth's atmosphere. Thanks to their super penetrating power and the time expansion effect of relativity, they can cross tens of kilometers of the atmosphere directly to the surface, but they are unstable and will decay into electrons. Internationally, he has long been involved in the anomalous magnetic moment experiment of muons at the Fermi Laboratory in the United States, and the results have shown that the behavior of muons does not match the predictions of the standard model theory.

Why do we still need muons when we have electrons? Like dark matter, does Miao Zicun not exist and have little impact on this world? The Basic Research Special Zone Plan can be said to be a "questioning system", which must raise significant scientific questions and be evaluated by academicians, truly worth doing. Since the project funding is approved, there must be evaluation and assessment, but the evaluation that Xu Jinxiang faces is not a conventional routine of "counting articles and calculating performance".

A corner of Li Zhengdao Research Institute

Zeng Xiaoqin, Dean of the Research Institute of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, revealed that the special zone plans to support for at least 5 years at a time, and there will be rolling support at that time. It is not required to publish many papers, as long as the progress report is submitted by the end of the year, and there is no need for mid-term assessment. Moreover, in terms of fund allocation, in the past, "the money for buying oil and salt cannot buy soy sauce and vinegar", but now it is self allocated with high flexibility.

Of course, not having to publish a paper does not mean not publishing a paper. For individual scholars, the assessment period is extended to 6 years, with one assessment every 3 years, ultimately determining whether they can transition to the promotion channel. The internationalized Li Institute also values international peer evaluation the most. A high-quality representative work of an international paper reveals the answer to the question, which is enough to overwhelm multiple procedural papers.

"The mentality and approach of deep research and large-scale research are completely different. There is no need to raise topics or seek funding, let alone to make money or make a living." Zhao Xin admitted that under the changes and influences of scientific research mechanisms and culture, he has independently cultivated capable, emotional, and structured scientists, internalized as the spirit of "Tianwen", and pursued true science.