"The world we see with the naked eye is not the real world, but just a projection of red, green and blue in our minds. In 1666, Newton discovered that sunlight could observe more spectral colors when refracted through a prism, and this experiment led to the creation of spectrometers. With the help of spectrometers, humans have mastered a new ability to accurately detect matter.
More than 300 years later, a young student from Zhejiang, China, traveled to Cambridge to the place where Newton had been inspired. Here, he had the whimsical idea to develop a new type of nanowire material, which would break through the scientific problem of achieving large spectral dispersion at the micrometer scale, and solve the challenge of traditional spectrometers that cannot combine small size and high performance. He is Yang Zongyin, the winner of the 2023 Damo Academy Young Fellow Award.
On December 27, the winners of the 2023 Damo Academy Young Scholars Award were officially announced, and as one of the 15 award-winning Young Scholars, Yang Zongyin will receive a discretionary prize of one million yuan. The DAMO Academy Young Fellows Award aims to discover and help more young Chinese scientists under the age of 35 who have played an important role in promoting scientific and technological progress, encourage them to play a leading role in major scientific research, play an exemplary role, and drive more people to pay attention to and devote themselves to scientific research.
The world's most advanced material synthesis, the most superb experimental skills, the most ingenious algorithms".
Yang Zongyin is currently a researcher in the 100 Talents Program of the School of Information and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, and his main research direction is semiconductor optoelectronic sensors. On Yang Zongyin's desk are two spectrometers, one resembling an old-fashioned television and the other the size of a beverage bottle cap. And it is such a device that is only the size of a beverage bottle cap, Yang Zongyin has been studying it for 8 years, and there are more than 150 failures in it.
Spectrometers are widely used in scientific research and industrial production, and most of them are large in size and still work in a similar way to Newton's experiments, but they can no longer meet the needs of the growing spectroscopy application technology. Because reducing the size of the spectroscopic and detection elements will result in a significant decrease in the detection quality of the spectrometer, the miniaturization of the spectrometer is a major technical challenge facing the scientific and technological community.
The micro-spectrometer developed by Yang Zongyin is only a few tens of microns in size, does not require isolated spectroscopy and detection elements, and is one-thousandth of the smallest spectrometer on the market. What's more noteworthy is that compared with the spectrometer that costs tens of thousands of yuan, this micro spectrometer** is as low as 50 yuan, and through further development, it can be embedded in mobile phones, drones and wearable devices. In the future, scan with a mobile phone to detect pesticide residues in vegetables and fruits, "read" whether milk contains melamine, and the blood sugar index can be detected at any time without harm......The scenes in these sci-fi films are likely to become reality.
Looking back on those years, Yang Zongyin was the last person to leave the laboratory building of the Department of Electronic Engineering of Cambridge University every day, "very tormented and worthwhile", which also laid a solid foundation for his future cultivation of the character of sinking down to do scientific research.
But at that time, Yang Zongyin was not without wavering, "Every night at about 10 o'clock after the experiment, cycling through the bright lights of Cambridge city center, seeing everyone dressed beautifully and relaxing in the bar, I would also wonder if I had not integrated into the local life." But the thought that if it was possible to make this research possible, it would open up a new field, I was excited to ride home, and then the next day I went to the lab with confidence. ”
Yang Zongyin also experienced the darkest moment, in 2018, he fell into self-doubt after more than 150 failures, and he stopped experimenting for half a year. But he was still unwilling in his heart: "Is the three years of hard work in vain?"And the turning point appeared on an ordinary morning, Yang Zongyin chatted with another running partner about the recent troubles during the morning run, and his friend asked him after listening: "Could it be that there is a problem with a certain algorithm?"Yang Zongyin suddenly seemed to see the light.
In August 2018, on a Saturday night, Yang Zongyin measured the signal in the laboratory, and he couldn't believe his eyes, and verified that it was consistent with the measurement results of commercial spectrometers many times. He wrote in his diary, "At that moment, I had mixed feelings, thinking of all the experiences of the past few years, and sitting alone in the laboratory for a long, long time. ”
Happily, his ** was submitted to the journal Science in May of the following year, and it was accepted in July. The editors of Science commented that this achievement is "the world's most advanced material synthesis, the most superb experimental skills, and the most ingenious algorithm", and Yang Zongyin's scientific research achievements have also made China walk in the forefront of the world in the field of spectrometer miniaturization.
Theoretical scientists push the boundaries of humanity, while applied scientists make tools for the benefit of society."
Since I was a child, I have loved to do some research related to electromechanics. My favorite anime is the robot cat, Doraemon. I think it's my life's goal to create more fun inventions. Yang Zongyin was born in Cangnan, Wenzhou, and when he was a child, he was also a headache "King of Destruction".
Because the material conditions were not abundant at that time, there were no toys, so he took pleasure in dismantling electrical appliances and making small inventions. For this reason, he was also criticized by his parents. He would always take apart the radio, alarm clock and even the TV at home to study the mechanism.
In fact, many times it is because there is no accessories store, so the east wall can only be demolished to make up the west wall. The alarm clock that he made that went off automatically with the light, the boat that could start automatically in the river, and the light-controlled lights were all small toys that he entertained himself in his childhood.
Yang Zongyin has been interested in various scientific issues since he was a child, and in his opinion, being a scientist is a good career, and he is interested and able to do some work to explore the future. Theoretical scientists push the boundaries of humanity, while applied scientists make tools for the benefit of society."”
Following the trajectory of his dream, he was admitted to the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Zhejiang University for a bachelor's degree, and a master's degree was sent to his favorite optoelectronics research field, and then got a full scholarship to go to Cambridge University for a doctorate, and took over Newton's thinking to promote the spectrometer into the nano era, which may create greater technical application prospects.
He concluded that the idea of making a machine when he was a child was not a comprehensive understanding of science, and the understanding of science at that time was a circuit within the sight, but when the cognitive boundaries expanded, he wanted to make more cutting-edge scientific achievements, and these ideas also laid the foundation for him to build "the world's smallest nanospectrometer".
When I went to Cambridge, I was very excited to see that the offspring of the apple tree that hit Newton were planted in front of Trinity College, Cambridge. Yang Zongyin said that it was difficult to express the shock at that time, and at that moment he was so close to the scientist of his dreams. "The Science** article published at the time, the Cambridge University press release, was titled 'Beyond the Limits of Newtonian Optics'. I was really inspired by Newtonian optics to make it smaller, and I happened to be in Cambridge where I succeeded, and I think it was something that was also related to it. ”
Now, Yang Zongyin, who has achieved a lot of learning, has returned to his alma mater, Zhejiang University, focusing on transforming the results of the miniaturization of spectrometers into industrial applications, and non-invasive blood glucose detection is one of the core application scenarios. Because there are diabetic patients among relatives and friends, Yang Zongyin sees many inconveniences in the life of diabetic people, "I have to prickly my hands every day, this is really uncomfortable, there are hundreds of millions of diabetics in China, I hope that the technology of the spectrometer can be promoted and really help them." ”
Yang Zongyin was also a little excited to win the Green Orange Award this time: "The Green Orange Award is very different from other academic selections, not only the best and not only the qualifications, but also the innovation and application of technology, and the recognition in the academic circle is very high. ”
Yang Zongyin, 35 years old, is the first and last time he has won this award. "The research you do is either on the shelves or in the textbooks, and if you can do both, your life is really complete. He said so.
Reporter Zhuang Zhengyue Editor Xu Shengzhe Review Wu Jing.