News resource: http://en.ustc.edu.cn/news/201707/t20170705_279940.html

ZHUANG Xiaowei Rocks USTC in the Forum of Great Minds

Professor ZHUANG Xiaowei, a representative of excellent alumna of USTC, came back “home” and gave a report on “Illuminating biology at the nanoscale and systems scale by single-molecule and super-resolution imaging” in the Academic Lecture Hall of Biology Building on July 3rd. This renowned biophysicist、chemist worldwide has ignited USTCers’ passion, and this 90-minute report proved to be a great success.

Though starting at 1pm, the seats had been taken already 50 minutes ahead of time. Many were standing at the back and the two sides of the hall, even on the front ground sat nearly 50 students! The report drew not only students in campus, but also alumni coming back to school and 30 young campers from foreign universities. There was a granny with her notebook in a front seat!

With the clock ticking 1 pm, Prof. PAN Jianwei gave a welcome opening first. “As is known, Xiaowei was particularly excellent at schoolwork who usually got full mark on subjects even like mathematics and physics, while I was much worse,” Prof. Pan sounded a little envious, “I only got above ninety.” The audience broke into Laughter immediately and turned to applauses as Prof. ZHUANG stepped on stage.

ZHUANG was in an ordinary brown suit with a bright smile. After warm greetings to USTCers in her mother tongue, she went straight to the report contents in English. Some of the audience have little background knowledge, but her vivid efficient illustration kept all the listeners focused. She used a pink squeaky bar made of periodic cycles to show the flexibility of actin skeleton. “This is actually a present for my daughter, but I found it so fit that I take it with me every time in a report,” Prof. Zhuang laughed as she recalled, “she realized it was hers at 7, but I just have to ‘rob’ it of her.”

90 minute slid away quickly, the enlightening report arouse applauses after applauses. After the question & answer section, many students came to Prof. Zhuang for a picture or signature as if a fan meeting. And this “legendary” alumna accepted all delightly.

This report will also serve as a grand opening for the forum of great minds in the following weeks.

(GUO Jianjian, USTC News Center)