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)