Chapter 205 King's College London, Doctoral Enrollment Plan
Under the leadership of Gregory, Li Qiwei soon arrived at the location of King's College London.
This is just at the corner of the Thames River in London. It is similar to the location of Lujiazui in Shanghai in later generations. It is an absolute city center location.
One kilometer south of it is the famous Whitehall, which connects the Houses of Parliament and Downing Street and is the seat of various British government departments.
The famous British Prime Minister’s residence is located at No. 10 Downing Street.
Two kilometers southwest of the school is Buckingham Palace, which is the residence and office of the British monarch.
Li Qiwei was very satisfied with this location. He climbed up to overlook the Thames River and had a panoramic view of all the beautiful scenery in London.
When Gregory took him into the campus for a tour, Li Qiwei was also checking the relevant information about King's College London in his mind.
The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV and Prime Minister Wellesley.
The school is the fourth oldest university in England after Oxford University, Cambridge University and University College London.
It accepted students and teachers from any race, religion and class, and admitted women.
Like University College London, King's College London was established to break the religious nature of Oxford and Cambridge and allow ordinary civilians to receive education.
Because Cambridge and Oxford mainly recruit children from upper-class religious families, it is difficult for ordinary people to enter.
It’s just that Li Qiwei is a special case.
So, the university with the title of king is to allow ordinary people to go to university.
It's really interesting.
King's College London currently has three main teaching and research directions, namely natural sciences, medicine, and sociology.
Among them, medicine is its strong subject, and the school has produced many Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine.
Although its strength in natural sciences, especially physics, cannot be compared with that of Cambridge University, it should not be underestimated.
This school has also produced several Nobel Prize winners in physics.
The most famous among them is probably the later Higgs.
This big shot predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, the last undiscovered elementary particle, also known as the "God particle."
This particle is closely related to why matter has mass.
Higgs received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from King's College London.
Moreover, late physics greats such as Maxwell and Whetstone served as physics professors here for several years.
But now, the physics department of King's College London is lackluster and cannot be used at all.
So the school has been recruiting senior physics professors with high salaries and giving various preferential conditions.
Because a scholar with enough reputation can often force the school to a higher level.
No matter which century or which country, talent is the most important.
Of course, except for the big clearance.
Ridgway discovered this from Thomson's information and finally chose it as his school.
The other party needs it urgently, so he can wait for the price and sell it.
Li Qiwei also wanted to be like Rutherford, starting directly as the head of the department, so that he would be worthy of his status.
With Professor Thomson’s high-end academic network, Li Qiwei felt that the problem should not be big.
After a period of communication, Gregory discovered that Li Qiwei was not the arrogant scholar he imagined.
The other party was polite to a small employee of a magazine like himself, which made Gregory flattered and emboldened.
"Dr. Bruce, are you planning to take up a position at King's College?"
Li Qiwei smiled and said: "I have this plan for the time being, but I don't know if they will want me."
< br>Gregory quickly said: "Yes! Definitely!"
"After you published the special theory of relativity, the entire physics community was in a frenzy."
“The Department of Physics at King’s College also invited me, as an outstanding graduate, to give a lecture.”
“Of course, the content of my lecture was on quantum theory, photoelectric effect, wave-particle duality and other papers. Feelings."
"As the editor of "Nature", they always think that I have some inside information."
"Everyone is curious about you."
"If they knew you were going to teach in the physics department at King's College, they would be so excited that they couldn't sleep."
"Your joining will make King's College London shine just like Professor Maxwell did."
Li Qiwei felt very comfortable being flattered. This young man can do it, and he is teachable, so he came interest.
"Gregory, it has been ten years since you graduated from undergraduate degree. Have you ever thought about starting over and studying for a Ph.D.?"
"If I can really be a professor in the physics department, I will also I want to bring a few students as soon as possible.”
“Huh?” Gregory was stunned for a moment, his face full of disbelief.
He never imagined that Li Qiwei would value him so much.
"Dr. Bruce, are you telling the truth?"
"Can I still study for a Ph.D.?"
Li Qiwei smiled and said: "In the future No one can say for sure, and when I recruit doctoral students, they must pass the test.”
“You can try it.”
"Try it without wasting time. I think Sir Lockyer will definitely support you."
Gregory was suddenly speechless with excitement. It was really pie in the sky.
He is not a fresh graduate, so he naturally knows what Li Qiwei’s words mean.
If people didn’t want you, they wouldn’t mention it at all.
Gregory knew all about the so-called test, and attitude was far more important than ability.
For a moment, he was shaking all over and his mouth was dry.
"Dr. Bruce, I really don't know what to say, thank you."
Li Qiwei smiled and said: "Let's go, continue to introduce King's College London to me, and then add more The chances of my application being successful."
Gregory smiled honestly and echoed: "As long as the school leaders are in their right mind, they will definitely rush for you."
Li Qiwei laughed.
He chose Gregory as his doctoral student after careful consideration.
Not only him, Li Qiwei will also let Chris be his doctoral student.
In this way, he has reason to accept Chinese students as his doctoral students. Li Qiwei asked Li San to count the Chinese students currently in the UK. This was the purpose.
He will bring out a group of research-oriented students in the UK.
The positioning of these students is different from that of He Yujie and others. They are really engaged in physics research, not physics education.
After returning to China, he can become a backbone and promote domestic physics research.
It complements He Yujie’s basic physics education.
However, while he was teaching Chinese students, he also had to recruit local British students.
The British are not stupid either. They give you resources and funds.
Fortunately for you, all the students you brought were students from your own country. After graduation, you returned to your country to work.
Britain is losing blood.
Therefore, Li Qiwei must treat everyone equally, so as not to arouse opposition and severely pluck the wool of Britain.
He has dozens or hundreds of Nobel Prize results in his hands, and it is easy to bring out a few students who won Nobel Prizes.
When the time comes, Britain will definitely relax its vigilance when it sees that he is so loyal to the British Empire.
Li Qiwei could do it with great fanfare in the scientific city of Borneo, slowly develop, accumulate strength, and swallow it in one last bite.
Several Nobel Prize results are exchanged for Borneo, which is more than 700,000 kilometers away. No matter how you look at this deal, it is a good deal.
Everything is calculation and routine.
Just when Li Qiwei was thinking about his doctoral enrollment plan, the visit was over.
After thanking Gregory, he asked him to go back first.
Gregory was always floating when he walked. It was not easy to get a doctorate these days.
Unlike the proliferation of PhDs in later generations, PhDs are now very expensive.
With this title, you can at least stand tall in any situation and field.
And there are no examinations for doctoral admissions now. As long as a supervisor is willing to take you, you can study at any time.
As for whether you can graduate or not, it all depends on your abilities.
Many domestic universities in later generations also adopted a similar tutor selection system, which did not require a unified examination.
Some master's students can even become doctoral students after just speaking a few words to their supervisors, without any difficulty.
For unfamiliar students, letters of recommendation are particularly important.
After Li Qiwei returned to Cambridge from London, he went to find Thomson again.
After telling the other party his final decision, Thomson was very happy.
What he cared about was that Li Qiwei was stable in England, not which university he attended.
Anyway, the other person’s intelligence will shine wherever he goes.
“King’s College London is very good, and their vice-chancellor Karp and I are acquaintances.”
“Some time ago, before you came to the UK, he came to me and asked me to Introduced the professor of physics to him."
"Rutherford and Richardson had already made arrangements, so I rejected him."
"Now that you want to go to the physics department there, I will write you a letter of recommendation to ensure that it will be fine."
"Based on your conditions and the current situation at King's College, I feel that I can serve as It shouldn’t be difficult for the head of the physics department.”
Li Qiwei was overjoyed. He didn’t expect Thomson’s relationship to be so strong.
Although he has a Nobel Prize and a knighthood, he is a Chinese after all.
in the country, Li Qiwei wanted to go wherever he wanted.
But in the UK, although this invisible restriction is invisible and intangible, everyone is aware of it.
Just like a foreigner, it is absolutely impossible to be the president of Capital University.
However, with Thomson's guarantee, everything is possible.
After all, the significance of a physics department chair and a principal are incomparable.
Li Qiwei's own strength is enough for Thomson to be willing to contribute.
If it were Wilson, it would probably be close.
Otherwise Thomson would have recommended Wilson to King's College, and gold plating would be good too.
Half a month later, Li Qiwei came to King's College London again with a letter of recommendation and met with Vice President Karp.
"Dr. Bruce, you are very welcome."
"If you have any needs in the future, you can always ask the school."
Karp looked excited. He was unexpected but extremely excited about Li Qiwei's arrival.
Because of how much funding a great physicist can bring to the school, Cambridge University is the benchmark.
Garp had a smile on his face, and he was full of expectations for the future.
King's College London is different from the University of Cambridge. The school has greater management rights over its various departments, but only delegates teaching power to professors and lecturers in each department.
So, Karp has a great say in the selection of the chair of the physics department.
Li Qiwei also smiled and said: "I hope to contribute a little bit to the development of physics at King's College London in the future."
After some pleasantries.
Karp said: "Dr. Bruce, I can now call you Professor Bruce in advance."
"The school does not have any restrictions on your doctoral enrollment. You only need to report the information. Yes.”
Li Qiwei felt the sincerity of King’s College London, and it seemed that he was in the right place.
If he had gone to Oxford University, he would certainly not have been treated so specially.
Next, Karp took Li Qiwei to sign several contracts, formalizing the employment relationship and becoming the head of the physics department at King's College London.
At this moment, Li Qiwei finally had the title of professor at a regular British university.
He can be called Professor Bruce from now on.
He did not expect that his first professorial title would be from King's University London.
Then set a small goal first: within five years, obtain the title of professor from at least 20 prestigious European and American universities.
In this era, there are also honorary professor titles, so Li Qiwei’s goal is feasible.
(End of this chapter)