After World War II, Germany was in dire need of talent.There is hardly a qualified teacher in primary and secondary schools in the country, so that German universities for a considerable period of time mainly train primary and secondary teachers.After graduation, university students go to high school to teach, the rest of the study continues until the Ph. D. degree, stay in the university to teach.Due to the economic difficulties of the postwar period and the political confrontation that followed the Cold War, many talented people continued to flow to Britain and the United States.The German government has long had to find ways to retain domestic talent and bring in talented people from abroad, an act that continues to this day.
Randolf Menzel may not be unfamiliar with insect behavior.Menzel graduated from the University of Tübingen and the University of Frankfurt and later taught at the University of Darmstadt.A few years later he quit teaching and went to Australia to look for opportunities.In his memoirs, he says that when he had just found a teaching position, the German ambassador to Australia found him, begged him to return to Germany and promised him a professorship.During this time, several American universities threw olive branches at him, including the prestigious Princeton University.Menzel repeatedly chose to return to Germany and teach at the newly built Free University of Berlin.Upon returning to the Free University of Berlin, Menzel regretted it.Because he was not satisfied with the performance of students at the Free University of Berlin, which was established with American support in the occupied territories.Between the 1970s and 1980s, he was surprised to find that few students at Liberty University were interested in science compared to students from other countries.They don't want to take classes or even take exams every day, let alone who will participate in scientific discussions or do scientific research.The situation did not improve until the 1980s.Menzel wrote in his memoir, "I should have gone to Princeton.”
Thomas Sudhof, a German-born scientist who won last year's Nobel Prize in Physiology, was hired by the Berlin Institute of Health as a Visiting Fellow and set up a laboratory in Berlin to recruit graduate students without applying for funding.Because the laboratory is maintained on a regular basis each year, it is said that the annual funding can support two young scientists.Sudholf works in Berlin for only three months a year.Sudhof, who had renounced German citizenship, immediately issued a German passport.
But some Germans, including our bosses, don't buy it. They say it's not worthwhile to support a Nobel laureate whose academic career is almost over, apart from teasing his children about the age of 6-26 and his German and American accent.That money, they argue, is better than supporting young people with academic potential.Nobel Laureates His achievements were made when they were young.So they think universities should focus on discovering and nurturing young people with academic potential.The boss said, "Why are there so many Nobel Prize winners at Stanford?Because Stanford can recruit these people when they're young before they win an award because Stanford can see their potential."An important problem is that no matter how much money you get to hire an award-winning scientist, you can't buy the scientist's sense of belonging, and the institution you hire always feels like laying eggs out of chickens.
Looking at China's current state of affairs, school impetuosity may not be far different from that of the Free University of Berlin in the 1970s and 1980s, although our social backgrounds are different.Impetuousness will not only affect the professors' academic career, but also affect the academic development of the whole school and even the country.If Menzel had gone to Princeton, his academic influence and achievements would have been much better than they are now.
Back to the question of whether to support young people or those who have done well.It is established in academia to steal the idea that famous teachers should be used by high disciples.Many Nobel Prize winners have trained subsequent Nobel Prize winners.Sudhof's postdoctoral boss is also a Nobel Prize winner.There are many such examples.In fact, we support people who have achieved success, but we also support young people.Successful people can recruit promising young people and have the ability to develop them.This is a long cycle.
And for us, how to create an environment that makes this cycle work well is the hardest thing.