Behind these achievements is his extraordinary persistence and diligence. He once said humorously that his scientific research has the spirit of "new four unlike". A keen sense of smell like a dog, grasping the frontier; Act quickly and immediately like a rabbit; Relax like a pig, not afraid of failure; Last but not least, I am as diligent and persistent as an ox.
In 2000, Zhong Yang gave up his position as deputy director of Wuhan Institute of Botany and went to Fudan University as an ordinary professor. Since 2003, Zhong Yang and I have been fighting side by side with the leaders of the Academy of Life Sciences for five years.
In his mind, he always looks down on his position and fame, and pays more attention to society and country, not only to the present, but also to the long-term future.
After coming to Fudan, he and several teachers of the college undertook the mission of rebuilding the ecological discipline. He is more and more aware that with human activities and environmental changes, many species are disappearing, and preserving germplasm resources has become a basic and strategic work. Building an ecological barrier for the country and establishing a "gene bank" of endemic plants in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has become another dream in his heart.
He once proudly told me that they collected more than 40 million seeds in the past ten years, accounting for 1/5 of Tibetan species. In the next 10 year, 1/5 may be completed again. I still can't forget his excited expression. He told me that if more people can be trained and Qi Xin works together to tackle key problems, it will be possible to collect three-quarters of Tibet's seed banks in 20 years, and maybe all of them will be collected in 30 years!
In addition to his long-term vision in scientific research, Zhong Yang chose to come to Fudan because of his teacher complex. He said: Everyone's life will come to an end one day, but he is not afraid, because his students will continue to dream. In his eyes, every student is a unique and precious seed. As long as you water it with your heart, it will take root and sprout, blossom and bear fruit.
He taught at Fudan University 17 years and trained more than 80 graduate students. His bioinformatics course is the most popular course in the College of Biological Sciences, and all my students have chosen his course. He always insists on teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and carries out targeted training according to the characteristics of each student. He has lunch with different students. He said that only in this way can he have more contact with students and better understand their characteristics.
He has another characteristic. Those students who have a weak foundation, have no direction in research, and even have problems in graduation will eventually receive their own names, one by one to talk about and one to guide. Miraculously, in the end, all these students graduated smoothly, and even some students graduated well. This is his ability.
As we all know, he also tried to introduce the "Coast Guard"-mangroves into Shanghai. He knows that it will take at least 50 years for these seedlings to grow up, and it will take hundreds of years or even longer to grow into mangroves. Of course he can't see this scene, but he said, this is my gift to Shanghai in the future. He sincerely hopes that Shanghai's bare coastline will grow beautiful mangroves and become a new ecological business card for Shanghai.
Context of the article
Starting with the importance of Arabidopsis thaliana in botany, it naturally leads to Zhong Yang, the discoverer of Arabidopsis thaliana in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and further introduces his identity, summarizing his contribution and extraordinary life course. The opening cut into nature, which is infectious and easy to attract readers.
The "talent" in the network refers to a very professional and outstanding person in a certain field, a person who is very proficient in a certain aspect, or a master in a certain aspect. In this paper, Zhong Yang not only reached an unprecedented height in the field of seed collection and research, but also took the initiative to undertake popular science work in this field, so that more primary and secondary school students can understand seed knowledge and become interested in botany.