Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Finding superconducting materials from carbon nanomaterials was a novel idea.
Although people had researched this topic before, no one had ever produced any significant results.
Therefore, Lu Zhou wasn’t sure about this either.
However, since most scientific research started from a guess, Lu Zhou decided to just go for it.
After determining the research direction, Lu Zhou called Sarrot and told him the story.
Sarrot’s eyes widened as he asked, “Superconducting materials? Why do you want to study this?”
Lu Zhou said, “I think it’s interesting, is it not?”
Sarrot: “No, I mean that barely any research has been done in this area, we would have to start from zero.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
“So it’s very likely that we will have to take a long time before we can produce any patent-worth results.” Sarrot couldn’t help but say, “Why don’t we continue to do batteries? The industry is looking forward to a new and improved HCS-2 material.”
Lu Zhou laughed.
“The industry is definitely not looking forward to a new and improved HCS-2 material. It’ll take some time for them to adjust to HCS-2.
“As for the patent, don’t worry about it. I won’t use patents as a standard of evaluation, just do your research.”
Sarrot shrugged and said, “Okay, as long as you don’t care about losing money.”
Although he couldn’t understand his boss’ motives, as long as someone was willing to pay him to do experiments, he was fine with anything.
Sarrot then said, “Actually if you don’t care about patents, we can cooperate with other research teams. This will speed up our in-progress results. I know a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research team that is also doing this. We can work with them.”
Lu Zhou asked, “What is the name of the team?”
Sarrot: “Pablo Jerillo-Herrero research project team. They’re well known in the graphene industry.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Will someone like them want to cooperate with us?”
“Depends on who proposes for the cooperation. If it’s me, they will probably reject me,” Sarrot shrugged as he said. He then continued, “But if the Hoffman Prize winner, inventor of the Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure, and leading person in computational materials science were to ask them, I’m sure they wouldn’t refuse.”
Emmmm…
Lu Zhou felt that even though Sarrot’s argument was a bit strange, it made sense.
“Okay then, I’ll contact them.”
Lu Zhou hung up the call. He then turned on his laptop and searched for information on the Pablo Jarillo-Herrero research team using Princeton’s database.
The academic community wasn’t big, so it was easy to find out what someone was researching. Lu Zhou only had to find his recent theses.
Lu Zhou quickly found the relevant information.
Ten years ago, this research team did research on graphene’s superconductivity.
In 2007, they published “Bipolar Current In Graphene” in Nature. In 2014, they also published “Graphene’s Quantum Spin Hall State” in Nature again. The most recent thesis was on “The Ferromagnetic and Heterostructure of Van Der Waals Crystals”; all of them were interesting research topics.
Lu Zhou wrote down the email address of the thesis author and quickly found Pablo Herrero’s blog on Google.
As per what Sarrot said, they were researching an interesting topic— the superconductivity of graphene at low temperatures.
They could provide a new idea for studying superconducting materials.
“The materials science world has a lot of nutty people.”
Lu Zhou opened his email and began typing.
[… Hello, Professor Pablo Herrero,
I am Professor Lu Zhou from Princeton University. After reading your Nature thesis, I became very interested in your research direction. I want to cooperate with you on graphene superconductivity research, what do you think?]
Lu Zhou leaned back in his chair and waited for a bit.
He knew that most people checked and replied to emails in the mornings.
Professor Pablo Herrero should be sitting at his computer, reading the email.
Lu Zhou was correct.
Within five minutes, he received a reply.
There was only one line in the email.
[I’m fine with it, do you have a specific cooperation plan?]
Lu Zhou smiled and began typing.
[Of course…]
Lu Zhou managed to reach a cooperation agreement faster than he had imagined.
For this type of low patent probability projects, most professors were willing to cooperate with other research teams.
According to their agreement, Lu Zhou would send a consultant researcher to help them with computational materials science methods. Also, for research exchange, they would send a researcher to Lu Zhou.
Both parties would study the topic of two-dimensional carbon nano superconducting materials. The final thesis would be signed by both parties.
The next day, Lu Zhou found Connie, who was doing his postdoctoral.
Compared to Jerick, Connie, who has been working with Lu Zhou for a while, was more suitable for this task.
Lu Zhou found Connie and said, “I need you to go to Boston.”
Connie was doing an experiment at that time. When he heard Lu Zhou, he stopped and asked, “Boston? Why?”
Lu Zhou said, “I’ve been in contact with the Pablo Jarillo-Herrero research team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. We’re doing collaborative research on the superconductivity of carbon nanomaterials. I need you to visit for a while, it might take a few weeks or even a few months. Of course, I will pay for all expenses. Do you have any problems with your schedule?”
“Nope, no problems,” Connie said with a smile. He then added, “I got this… When do I leave?”
Consulting exchange was a good opportunity to network, especially when one didn’t have to pay for it.
Any student would be eager at such an opportunity.
Lu Zhou nodded.
“You can start preparing now, you leave in three days!”