PWJul11news 21/6/11 14:29 Page 12

News & Analysis physicsworld.com Breaking the mould of Chinese science The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Beijing is designed to carry out international- quality research. But, as Matin Durrani discovers, while its staff are highly talented and well supported, encouraging Chinese researchers to learn how to generate truly innovative ideas is not always easy

“People are incredibly busy in and I probably work three times

harder than I ever did before,” says Minfang Lu Douglas Lin, as he reflects on how his life has changed since taking over as founding director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Beijing in 2007. Located in a newly refurbished building on the leafy cam- pus of , the institute aims to become a global centre that conducts research to the highest inter- national standards. It certainly has the potential to succeed, being jointly funded by Peking University – rated the fifth best university in Asia by Times Higher Education in 2010 – and by the Kavli Foundation, which has set up some 14 similar leading research institutes around the world in astron- Sparkling innovation ing the culture of Chinese science to every day at 6 p.m. on the basis that “it omy, and neuro- Douglas Lin wants enhance innovation is not easy. would be better to go home and think science (see box). staff at the Kavli However, Lin is determined to do about what one had done today and But the fact that Lin and his col- Institute for what he can in that quest, with his top what one was going to do tomorrow”. leagues work so hard does not neces- Astronomy and priority being to develop the insti- But telling one’s staff not to work so sarily mean that this is the best route Astrophysics to tute’s intellectual environment. He hard is an unusual message in China, to success, as far as the 62-year-old mature into has even helped to design the physical where universities often offer bonus director is concerned. While Chinese original thinkers. infrastructure of the Kavli Institute, payments to researchers based on researchers are good at beavering which has plenty of open space with how many scientific papers they get away for hours analysing data or solv- lots of white boards to draw re- published. These bonuses, which are ing problems, in Lin’s view what they searchers out of their offices. given to anyone appearing as the first are less good at is coming up with ideas “I don’t want people just sitting in or second author on a paper, are often that will lead to genuine and revolu- front of their computers creating the the only way for researchers to boost tionary breakthroughs. And without a perfect PowerPoint presentation,” their otherwise meagre official steady stream of innovative thinking, says Lin. “I am trying to develop a salaries. Those salaries are kept delib- China cannot reap the most from its stimulating setting for researchers to erately low by the Chinese govern- recent heavy investment in basic talk and to interact.” That approach ment, whose official policy is to stop research and new science facilities. has, for example, led Lin’s colleagues any one group earning much more “I often advise our students and to set up a course based on the highly than any other. postdocs to take time off from work- acclaimed “order-of-magnitude” phy- Ensuring equality in pay may be a ing so hard,” says Lin. “Many people sics class designed by Peter Goldreich laudable aim to prevent the formation ask their mentors ‘What is the ques- at the Institute of Tech- of a rich elite, but the drawback of the tion at the frontier of my field?’ and nology. Their hope is that Kavli’s bonus system in science is that it can then want to go away and work inten- Chinese students, who are well trained hinder collaboration between sively on the problem. However, I technically, can learn the art of mak- researchers and encourage salami- suggest to them that they have to find ing sensible guesses to scientific prob- slicing of research results. “In order out for themselves what the question lems – rather than feeling they have to to take advantage of the system, some is.” Lin feels that Chinese scientists solve them exactly. “I hope this researchers rewrite the same papers need to learn how to follow their approach also provides an effective many times, which dilutes the overall curiosity and try out different ideas. communication tool for specialists quality,” says Lin. The temptation to “To mature into original thinkers, with diverse expertise to exchange try to publish what one can is high they need to venture outside the box ideas and to collaborate,” adds Lin though: two researchers at Zhejiang where some new ideas may one day University College of Medicine pop up,” he says. Don’t work so hard recently revealed that their institution While Chinese scientists are cer- In encouraging staff and students at pays ¥200 000 (about £19 000) to any tainly talented and highly productive the Kavli Institute to take time out staff member who is lead author of a – a recent Royal Society report con- and contemplate “the big picture”, paper appearing in Nature or Science cluded they publish more papers than Lin draws inspiration from Lord (Learned Publishing 24 95). any other nation bar the US – chang- Rutherford, who would close his lab Low salaries are, moreover, a disin-

12 Physics World July 2011 PWJul11news 21/6/11 14:29 Page 13

physicsworld.com News & Analysis

centive when it comes to attracting The Kavli Foundation: a force for change in China scientists from other countries to come and work in China. With faculty The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics members at most Chinese universities (KIAA) in Beijing was set up in 2007 by the Kavli earning barely half of what a postdoc Foundation, which has the lofty goals of “advancing in the West would get – no more than science for the benefit of humanity and promoting

20% of a grant budget from the increased public understanding and support for Michael A Mariant National Science Foundation of scientists and their work”. The foundation was set up in China is allowed to go on salaries – 2000 by the Norwegian-born physicist and many foreign researchers will simply philanthropist Fred Kavli, 85, who moved to the US in look elsewhere to further their the 1950s after studying at the Norwegian Institute of careers. However, the Kavli Institute Technology in . He went on to become head has an advantage: being outside the of the Kavlico Corporation, which grew into one of the mainstream Chinese scientific system, world’s largest suppliers of sensors for aeronautic, it can use its endowment from the automotive and other industrial applications. Kavli Foundation to top up the The KIAA is one of a network of 15 Kavli institutes salaries of its staff. around the world dedicated to astronomy, Founding father Fred Kavli. nanotechnology, and theoretical Moving to China physics, 10 of which are in the US, with two in China as well funding workshops, symposia, Kavli The institute currently has more than and one each in the , and the UK professorships and a programme for science a dozen PhD students, some 10 post- (the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of journalists. The foundation even has a new “residential docs and seven research professors, Cambridge). The KIAA focuses on three main fields of working retreat” for scientists at the 18th-century three of whom are Chinese and have astrophysics: cosmology and the birth and death of Chicheley Hall in Buckinghamshire, UK, known as the returned home after spells abroad, galaxies; gravitational physics and high-energy Kavli Royal Society International Centre. The hall was with the other four being from the phenomena; and the interstellar medium, stars and bought for £6.5m by the Royal Society, part-funded by West. Among the latter is Richard de planets. The institute, which works closely with the Kavli himself. In an interview with Physics World in Grijs, who moved from Sheffield Department of Astronomy at Peking University, is one 2007 (November p49), Kavli said that physics was, for University in the UK to China in 2009, of two Kavli institutes in Beijing – the other is based at him, “the most interesting and fascinating subject after seeing looming cuts to astron- the Chinese Academy of Sciences and focuses on because it deals with the most fundamental questions omy in the UK. Currently working on theoretical physics. and forms a foundation for most science because it the end-products of galaxy collisions, The Kavli Foundation also awards $1m prizes each [gives] us an understanding of nature, the universe and De Grijs thinks the Kavli Institute “is year in astronomy, neuroscience and nanotechnology, the world in which we live”. among the best places I’ve ever been”. In addition to paying a glowing trib- of simple materials for enhancing lec- ment – the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in ute to Lin’s “vision and ambition”, tures with hands-on experiments, New Mexico – can, in contrast, obtain De Grijs is also impressed with the something that is not usually done in just 600 spectra simultaneously. quality of Chinese researchers. “We China,” says De Grijs, who will also Another problem with encouraging have some wonderful students,” he visit a school in Xinjiang province. Chinese researchers to innovate is the says, “and it’s great to work in a country As for adapting to life in China, fact that the Chinese Academy of where science and engineering are De Grijs had a head start in that his Sciences (CAS) gets the vast majority really encouraged.” De Grijs also high- wife is Chinese – they met while she was – 90% – of the government’s budget lights the promising intellectual envi- a postdoc in the US – and that he had for science and it is the CAS that pri- ronment for the Kavli Institute’s been collaborating with Chinese marily decides which researchers to fellows – postdocs who are supported astronomers since 2002. “You just have fund and what national facilities for three years and who earn twice to be open-minded,” he says. “Living should be developed. With the CAS what those supported by government here is fine. Apart from housing, life is monopolizing so much resource, grants get. However, he admits that the pretty cheap and my language is slowly many university institutes or laborat- very best young Chinese researchers improving, although it doesn’t hurt that ories spend more of their efforts on do tend to get seduced by the West – the working language of the Kavli fighting to maintain their income than and the US in particular. Institute is English.” De Grijs, who is they do on research innovation. Apart from his research, De Grijs Dutch by birth, does, however, admit “But at the Kavli Institute, these also serves as a volunteer “interna- to “missing cheese” and finding coffee barriers fortunately can be bypassed,” tional coordinator” for the Institute of and chocolate “expensive”. says Lin. “We hope to set an example Physics (the publishers of Physics for the Chinese community of how to World). Supported financially by the International credentials do things differently. Students are Institute, the role involves him running But when it comes to the future of starting to get involved in state-of-the- projects to encourage Chinese school Chinese science, De Grijs is optimistic, art research projects and the oppor- pupils to get interested in science. He citing the $34m Large Sky Area Multi- tunities we provide are helping people has, for example, taken pupils on trips Object Fibre Spectroscopic Telescope to think up creative ideas and sort the to the Kinglong Observatory in (LAMOST) in Hebei province, north- We hope to set best ideas out. It’s hard though. Beijing. De Grijs is also going early this east of Beijing, as an example of a an example for Students here are extraordinarily well month to Sichuan province in south- facility that is “helping China to get to prepared and technically brilliant but west China to help science teachers at an international level”. LAMOST, the Chinese they’ve spent their whole lives solving two local schools set up physics classes which is still being commissioned, will community of problems – other people’s problems.” based on the Institute of Physics’ be able to survey the universe in the how to do While the Kavli Institute is unlikely Teaching Physics in Remote Places edu- finest detail yet and obtain the spectra things to change Chinese science single- cational material. “We will be taking of up to 4000 celestial objects at a handedly, it is certainly a great oppor- the teachers manuals as well as boxes time. The current best survey instru- differently tunity for Lin to break the mould.

Physics World July 2011 13