On March 28, Dr. Michael Levitt, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry and professor of structural biology at Stanford University, came to our university for an exchange visit.
In the morning, Vice President Xu Yan met with Dr. Levitt and his team. Mr. Jiang Bo, Chief of International Exchanges and Cooperation, and Prof. Bai Zhonghu, of the National Engineering Laboratory, also attended the meeting. Vice President Xu introduced the reform and development measures undertaken by our university in the aspects of talent cultivation, faculty building and scientific research in recent years, as well as the plan for branch schools in Yixing and Jiangyin. Dr. Levitt discussed Stanford University and the progress made in basic science research in recent years with Vice President Xu. During the meeting, the two sides agreed that our university and Dr. Levitt's team should promote cooperation between industry and the academic sector and build a joint research center in order to leverage our university's advantages in the field of food and fermentation and research in combination with industrial applications.
In the afternoon, a seminar entitled “Dialogue with the Master — Nobel Prize Winner's Visit to the Campus of China Jiangnan University” opened in the lecture hall on the third floor of the library, presided over by Mr. Jiang Bo.Nearly 500 students and teachers from different majors and grades came to listen to Dr. Levitt. Dr. Levitt’s speech on the theme of "A Wonderful Life in Science" was well received by the attendees. He told the audience to discover problems, dare to fail, and seek breakthroughs through failures, while also sharing his own life experiences. After the lecture, Dr. Levitt had a long and cordial exchange and interaction with a number of students.He patiently and carefully answered various questions raised by the students, and discussed biology, medicine and other aspects of professional knowledge. The students benefited greatly from his vast experience and knowledge.
During his stay at our university, Dr. Levitt also visited the National Engineering Laboratory and other research facilities. He also communicated with Prof. Xu Xueming.
Dr. Levitt is an internationally renowned biophysicist, a Fellow of the Royal Society in Britain, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Humanities and Sciences, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (US), among many other honors. He is mainly engaged in RNA and DNA modeling, protein folding, protein geometric classification, antibody modeling, X-ray diffraction optimization, side chain geometric structure research, torsion canonical pattern analysis, molecular dynamics and mass spectrometry in solutions and other fields of scientific research. He and two other scientists, Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel, won the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for "creating multiscale models for complex chemical systems".
Dr. Levitt’s lecture gave many students the opportunity to listen to and interact with a leading international scholar. He spoke about developments at the forefront of scientific knowledge internationally, as well as how to cultivate an interest in scientific exploration, be inspired to innovate, and devote yourself to science while remaining grounded in reality. The students gained enormously from Dr. Levitt’s knowledge and the lessons of his own life experience.
Vice President Xu Yan meets with Dr. Michael Levitt
Dr. Michael Levitt presents his speech
A scene from the seminar
