美国国家公共电台 NPR China Expands Research Funding, Luring U.S. Scientists And Students

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

In China, a new commitment to scientific research seems to be paying off. Chinese scientists now produce more scientific publications than American researchers do. The global ratings of Chinese universities are on the rise, and China has also been recruiting scientists from around the world. NPR's Joe Palca traveled to China to meet some of them.

JOE PALCA, BYLINE¹: You enter Tianjin University from the busy Weijin Road through an impressive stone gate that leads to a quad² with rectangular ponds in the middle. The campus has a familiar urban feel. It's largely laid out on a rectangular grid³ with some dowdy⁴ office buildings and some snazzier showpiece structures. Jay Siegel's office is in one of the dowdier⁵ buildings.

JAY SIEGEL: Tianjin University is the oldest of the modern universities.

PALCA: It was founded in 1895. Siegel says before that, universities in China existed primarily to train people for positions in government. Tianjin added a focus on science and engineering. Five years ago, Siegel became dean of the School of Pharmaceutical⁶ Science at Tianjin University. He says the university president recruited him to build an undergraduate program that would attract students from all over, not just China. Siegel says the students in the program are taught entirely⁷ in English.

SIEGEL: They get a bachelor's degree that is every bit recognized around the world. You know, our graduates go and do master's and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard, at Princeton, at any of the universities around the world.

PALCA: And Siegel says there's one factor he expects will make getting a pharmaceutical science degree at Tianjin particularly attractive - the Chinese government plans to offer scholarships to cover the cost for students who enroll⁸.

SIEGEL: They'd walk out debt free.

PALCA: Siegel says this is all part of China's efforts to attract scientists from around the world.

SIEGEL: We've hired from Brazil, from Mexico, from the United States. We have people from Germany, from the U.K., from Korea, from all over.

PALCA: One of these hires is chemist Mark Olson. We chatted next to a small fountain outside his building on the Tianjin campus.

MARK OLSON: I'm actually born and raised in the south of Texas in Corpus Christi. I come from a Hispanic family.

PALCA: Olson had a faculty⁹ job at Texas A&M, but he was ready for a new challenge. He says the move has been positive from a research standpoint, but there's another reason he's happy he moved to China.

OLSON: It's good for the kids...

PALCA: He's got three now and a fourth on the way.

OLSON: ...To show them that the world is round, to show them that, hey, on the other side of the planet, this is what life is like. And it's been very fulfilling, I think.

PALCA: Olson's chemistry colleague, Jon Antilla, is also pleased with the move. He was at the University of South Florida when he first came to Tianjin University as a visiting faculty member.

JON ANTILLA: Now I have become full time here giving up my position with tenure¹⁰ in U.S. just to come here.

PALCA: For Antilla, there were several reasons for the move. One - he has a Chinese wife who was enthusiastic about the idea, and Antilla says he was attracted by the research climate.

ANTILLA: You really have a lot of freedom, actually, here to pursue your science. The grant funding is easier to get, and that frees you up to think more.

PALCA: There's no question that the amount of money available for research in China is going up. The country has made it clear it plans to be a global leader in high-tech¹¹ manufacturing, and it created The Thousand Talents Plan to attract top researchers from around the world. Both Antilla and Olson get support under the plan. China's ambitions have prompted great concern in the Trump¹² administration. The worry is that China might be eroding¹³ America's technology advantage, not just by support for research but also by theft of scientific ideas and corporate¹⁴ espionage¹⁵. But for now, though, those concerns are not preventing American scientists interested in going to China from doing so.

GREG HERCZEG: (Speaking Chinese).

PALCA: It's lunchtime on the campus of Peking University, and a cafeteria on the edge of campus is packed. Astronomer¹⁶ Greg Herczeg is taking me to lunch. A row of small booths along the wall offers a variety of selections. Herczeg stops at his favorite.

HERCZEG: It's called mala xiang guo, and so people will choose different vegetables and meat, and then it's all mixed together. It's a delicious meal.

PALCA: Herczeg is an astronomer at The Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University. He took a faculty position at Kavli after doing postdocs at Cal Tech and in Germany.

HERCZEG: I wasn't drawn¹⁷ to China. A lot of people who live here are drawn to China for some reason, and I wasn't, but I thought it would be an interesting thing to do to move to China for a few years and experience a different culture. And I have stayed for the past seven years now.

PALCA: Herczeg says, right now, China has the largest radio telescope in the world and is planning to build several new telescopes.

HERCZEG: I think this is a great place to build a career. It's given me an interesting platform, let me work with interesting students.

PALCA: Now, there's no question that working in China has some drawbacks. There are restrictions¹⁸ on the Internet, making it difficult to reach certain websites. And though English is spoken on university campuses, it's not throughout most of the country, posing a problem for many foreign visitors. And free speech in China isn't the same concept as it is in the United States. But Herczeg says there's one thing he has not experienced.

HERCZEG: There's no interference politically on the science.

PALCA: That's a feeling echoed by Jay Siegel, the dean at Tianjin University.

SIEGEL: We've had no political restrictions. I know that people talk about them being out there and, you know, I've heard rumors¹⁹ of things. But for us personally, I would have to say, no, I've not had that experience.

PALCA: Siegel thinks he knows why he and his American colleagues have been left alone to do their research.

SIEGEL: The Chinese have an interesting phrase that says the foreign monk²⁰ speaks more easily to God. And so this is - you know, when you're a foreigner here, you may get away with things that other people don't get away with.

PALCA: On the other hand, guests' influence may be modest when their opinions don't fit with a country's intentions. While China may be becoming more welcoming to foreign researchers, clearly there is no flood of scientists abandoning labs in the United States for positions in China. But for now, China is trying to make itself an attractive destination for top foreign scientists. Joe Palca, NPR News, Tianjin.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 quad   

n.四方院；四胞胎之一；v.在…填补空铅

参考例句：

• His rooms were on the left-hand side of the quad.他的房间位于四方院的左侧。
• She is a 34-year-old mother of quads.她是个生了四胞胎的34岁的母亲。

3 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

4 dowdy   

adj.不整洁的；过旧的

参考例句：

• She was in a dowdy blue frock.她穿了件不大洁净的蓝上衣。
• She looked very plain and dowdy.她长得非常普通，衣也过时。

5 dowdier   

adj.（指衣服）不漂亮的，俗气的，（穿着）邋遢的( dowdy的比较级 )

参考例句：

6 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

7 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

8 enroll   

v.招收；登记；入学；参军；成为会员（英)enrol

参考例句：

• I should like to enroll all my children in the swimming class.我愿意让我的孩子们都参加游泳班。
• They enroll him as a member of the club.他们吸收他为俱乐部会员。

9 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

10 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

11 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

12 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

13 eroding   

侵蚀，腐蚀( erode的现在分词 )； 逐渐毁坏，削弱，损害

参考例句：

• The coast is slowly eroding. 海岸正慢慢地被侵蚀。
• Another new development is eroding the age-old stereotype of the male warrior. 另一个新现象是，久已形成的男人皆武士的形象正逐渐消失。

14 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

15 espionage   

n.间谍行为，谍报活动

参考例句：

• The authorities have arrested several people suspected of espionage.官方已经逮捕了几个涉嫌从事间谍活动的人。
• Neither was there any hint of espionage in Hanley's early life.汉利的早期生活也毫无进行间谍活动的迹象。

16 astronomer   

n.天文学家

参考例句：

• A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
• He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。

17 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

18 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

19 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。