Chapter 195 Become a professor from today

Chapter 195 Become a professor from today

Published on 2023-02-1114:40|VIP Chapter

Xu Chuan was really surprised by the news that China had joined CERN as a member state.

After all, this was something that the country had been working hard on in the previous life until the time of rebirth.

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

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

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

He accepted the position of full professor in the Department of Mathematics at Princeton University and enjoyed the benefits that Princeton brought him, so teaching students and conducting scientific research were corresponding obligations.

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

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

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

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

When he came to the study room, he turned on his computer and logged into his mailbox.

Tutoring students and giving lectures are two things that Princeton University professors must do. Of course, many full professors will leave the teaching to their doctoral students or assistant professors.

After all, in a research university, another responsibility of professors is to conduct their own academic research.

This also gave rise to a famous system in the American education system: "academic leave."

This refers to the fact that usually university professors are eligible to apply for an academic leave of half a year or one year after they have served in the school for a period of time.

During the vacation, professors have no teaching obligations and can devote themselves to academic research work.

And for half-year leave applications, the school will usually pay half a year's salary in full; for one-year academic leave applications, half a year's salary will be 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 inside.

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

Then, the number of letters in his mailbox increased every day.

The semester at Princeton is divided into two seasons, one is the spring semester and the other is the fall semester.

The spring semester starts from January to March each year, and the specific time is uncertain. The autumn semester basically 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, if semester starts in the fall, applications are generally open from September of the first year to January of the second year.

The seven or eight months between the end of January and the beginning of August are used for Princeton to select students, conduct interviews and tests, issue applications, and prepare documents, visas and other things for students from all over the world.

It is now 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 out by now.

After all, I started applying in September, and it’s now the end of December.

Of course, to him, if he doesn't select a suitable student, it doesn't matter whether he takes the student or not.

As a full professor, if he tutors students, he will basically tutor PhD students, that is, doctoral students.

And for him, the start of the fall semester is already too late.

When school starts next fall, he will probably go back to China and bring a P student with him.

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

Because there is one more Chinese professor, Princeton will basically accept one more Chinese student.

Therefore, on the official website of Preston this time, he specifically asked the school staff to indicate that the report needs to be made before students can return to school in February next year.

Although he may only be able to teach these students for a few months, he doesn't have to worry too much about cheating the students he leads.

After all, during the doctoral studies, the supervisor was poached by other schools or resigned, which is a very embarrassing thing for doctoral students.

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

First of all, he will definitely arrange an escape route for these students before he leaves.

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

If you don’t want to, August and September are the fall admission season at Princeton, and it is not unfeasible to stay at Princeton and change a tutor.

This will not affect these students' studies at Princeton.

Changing supervisors during a Ph.D. program is indeed a tricky thing, but it depends on the situation.

If you are the kind of person who has been studying for two or three years and then suddenly is told that the tutor has left, that is indeed a scam.

But for him, if he enrolls early and then changes his tutor just in time for the first semester of Princeton, it can be said that it will not have any impact.

From another perspective, this is an opportunity for these students.

After all, not everyone can study under a Philippine Prize winner during their Ph.D., or in other words, not everyone can study under a mathematics professor who has 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? Looking at the entire mathematics community, there are only a handful of top professors like this.

For these students, these six or seven months of study can provide 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 happy.

On the one hand, this kind of scientific research experience is really beautiful.

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

Therefore, Xu Chuan is not under any psychological pressure that he may leave Princeton next year, nor is he worried that his departure will cause any big problems to the students he recruits.

It took Xu Chuan a whole day to process the emails in the mailbox.

Although he started recruiting students near the end of Princeton's admissions application process, the quality of the student files sent by Princeton's admissions team and the applications sent to him by himself was extremely high.

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

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

On the list sent to his email by the Princeton working group, all had GPAs above 3.8, and several had GPA 4.0. For those applications that were sent to his mailbox, the average GPA was slightly lower, but it was basically above 3.6, and some were 4.0.

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

Calculated this way, they are basically all top academics.

Xu Chuan flipped through the application form in his mailbox, then pulled up a form and directly excluded applicants with a GPA below 3.8 and without an outstanding portfolio.

In his previous life, he had been a professor at Princeton for so many years, and he had already developed his own method of selecting students, which he was very comfortable with.

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

The undergraduate line (GPA) is the dividing line.

If you do not meet the undergraduate level, your application will basically be thrown into the trash can.

It is undeniable that there may be a very small number of people who do not have a bachelor's degree but have excellent work experience, but these people are only a very small minority after all.

Panning for gold on the beach is far less efficient than panning for gold in a gold mine, and the effort consumed is far greater than the harvest.

Therefore, setting a standard line is the most convenient for HR.

The same goes for selecting students. If their grades are not up to standard, direct elimination is the best option.

After screening, you can then look at the applicants' portfolios to select the students you want to interview.

If there are too many, you can probably decide by looking at who has the recommendation letters.

After spending a day, Xu Chuan screened out twelve applications from his mailbox and prepared to conduct an online interview with these resumes in the next two days.

Anyway, nowadays mobile phones and computers are very convenient for conducting online interviews.

The interview subjects on the first day were all from China. Among the twelve resumes, Xu Chuan reserved six for domestic use. Judging from the proportion, they were given preferential treatment.

But no one knows anyway, it doesn’t matter what the secret operation is.

The first student interviewed was called Gu Bing. Judging from his resume, he was a doctoral student at Minhang University of Science and Technology. He was currently twenty-five years old and looked like he had a direct PhD. However, his GPA was not very high, at 3.8.

Of course, this low level is relative to other interviewees in the same batch. For ordinary students, a GPA of 3.8 is simply an elusive mountain.

Putting it into the college entrance examination, a GPA of 3.8 is almost equivalent to the provincial top scorer in science, which is actually very good.

But generally speaking, everyone who dares to apply to a university like Princeton is at this level, so it seems relatively average.

When he was transferred to Princeton in his previous life, 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 batch.

Of course, he never applied in his previous life, and was accepted as a student by Witten while at CERN.

Compared with other resumes, Gu Bing's GPA was not high, but the reason why Xu Chuan liked this resume was not the GPA, but his work set.

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

Among the many domestic resumes, he was more optimistic about this one because it met his requirements for students.

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

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

So Xu Chuan arranged for Gu Bing to be the first interviewer.

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, hearing 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.

"Please introduce yourself 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 put a circle on his resume.

This means to wait and see, indicating that the interviewer has not satisfied him enough to make a decision, but it can be denied if he has not, which is quite satisfactory.

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