On the morning of December 7, the 2nd Future Marine Forum: Face to Face with Academicians was held at the academic salon on the 5th floor of the Institute for Advanced Ocean Study(IAOS), Ocean University of China(OUC). This forum is one of the academic activities held by IAOS. Hu Dunxin, the famous physical marine scientist and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, was invited as a guest to share his academic and life experience with over 40 students. Associated professor Gan Bolan from the Key Laboratory of Physics and Oceanography, Ministry of Education, was specially invited to preside over the forum.
Everyone enjoyed the relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, and academician Hu Dunxin answered more than a dozen questions that the students had raised. Academician Hu shared the key to keeping his passion for scientific research: keep curiosity about natural phenomena and be willing to think. Academician Hu suggested that postgraduate students should dare to question their mentors, for what the mentors say is not always right. He also shared one of his personal experience: “once in my class, I made some mistakes on purpose, hoping that some students could point them out.” Academician Hu also encouraged young people to challenge everything in the past. “Challenging everything is not to doubt everything but to question what you have learned in the past and carry out your own research on this issue.”
Since most of the students who participated in this activity majored in sea-related disciplines, academician Hu hoped them, the future elite engaged in marine research, to work hard to make the scientific research in Chinese marine field rise from backward position to leading position.
At the end of the activity, academician Hu gave some suggestions to the young people on how to conduct themselves in life: first, we should discover the strength of others and learn from them in scientific research and life; second, we should be an upright and honest person, which is significant to the progress of our society; third, we should be tolerant and open-minded in interpersonal relationship.
