At 7pm on November 28, a crowd of students sat in a room of Zhiren College, listening attentively to Professor He Jiaqing to share his experience. Due to its practical and interesting topic “My Road of Study and Research”, plus Professor He’s exceptional performance in teaching and researches demonstrated in daily life, the sharing seminar attracted a lot of students who even came earlier before it started.  

       Professor He first lightened the mood with his simple and humorous language. The seminar started with his college life, with him recalling his mentality changes, the breathtaking scenery in Wuhan University, how he ended up with “wrong major” and his sincere appreciation for his first mentor.

       Then Professor He jumped to his experience of being recommended for doctoral degree and doing scientific researches in Juelich Lab, Germany far away from home. He spoke highly of the Germans’nature repeatedly citing a lot of small stuff and details he encountered. Following that he transferred to America, quite a different story from his research life in Europe as commented by Professor He with smiles. By telling his own experience of choosing the major and research interest, he reminded students: “always follow your heart and judgment”.        In terms of his story in America, He also mentioned his weariness of the intense and fast-paced life there and sudden longing for coming back. This led to the invitation of ex-President Zhu Qingshi asking him to teach in SUSTC. Like other academic elites abroad, he was still observing until his work in Xi’an Jiaotong University turned out unsatisfactory; that is when he thought of SUSTC who highlighted “de-administration” in higher education.

       Professor He stressed that SUSTC is more like a university that features European or American higher education style. He enjoyed his teaching life here and also suggested students cherish and utilize the academic and research facilities provided here. In the final Q&A session, he briefly explained how Germany, America and Japan vary with each other in innovation, what are the three kinds of people in labs with good humor, and ardently encouraged the audience to be the one that “not only accomplishes the task, but also goes a step further”.