909 Grand Meeting of Physics and Aeros.p.a.ce

It was rare for this city to have such good weather.

Thousands of people gathered at the Beijing Conference Center.

Two security guards stood at the conference hall entrance with a formal smile on their faces.

Their faces became sore after a while. They spoke to each other in hopes of relaxing their facial muscles.

The guard with a buzz cut said, “I realized that no matter what the conference is, if it has an ‘international’ in its name, it becomes totally different.”

The other slightly older guard asked, “What do you mean?”

The younger guard continued, “Think about it, if they changed it to just the China Lunar Hadron Collider Conference, wouldn’t it feel less important?”

The older guard smiled and said, “Why does it matter? The word international only means that we’re open to cooperation from other countries. What does this have to do with importance?”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Okay, enough, stop messing around, be quiet.”

On the other side of the conference center, a young PhD student with neatly combed hair looked at the foreign faces walking through the entrance.

“Hey, if we can build this Hadron Collider ourselves, why are we letting the Americans partic.i.p.ate? Can’t we just do it ourselves?”

The older man standing next to him was probably his supervisor.

After hearing his student’s words, the older man in a suit shook his head and spoke.

“That’s not how it works. We’re going through globalization; cooperating with other countries is a win-win situation. We’re still the world-leaders in the aeros.p.a.ce industry, and the best way to maintain our advantage isn’t to close our borders. Rather, we should join forces; even the Americans know this.”

The younger scholar scratched his head.

“So what’s the advantage of joining forces?”

The older man coughed and said, “Actually, I’m not sure, I heard this from someone at the hotel buffet yesterday.”

Student: “…”

The older man coughed and continued, “All in all, your plan won’t work. Hosting this international event strengthens our diplomatic relations.h.i.+ps with other countries. Back in the day, we used to work for western laboratories, helping them do research. Now, these foreigners will work for us.

“This meeting is very important. Don’t sit there on your phone, try to network with people. The person sitting next to you could be a laboratory director or some big-name physicist.”

The young student had a serious look on his face as he nodded and turned off his phone.

“Understood!”

The older man smirked at his student.

Not a bad student.

Even though the older man was a leader in physics among top Chinese universities, he was still humbled at a place like this.

Being able to network at an international physics event like this was beneficial for everyone, even him.

Speaking of which, he had to thank Academician Lu for creating this opportunity for the Chinese physics community to host an event like this.

If only he had this kind of opportunity when he was younger. Back in his day, not only did he not have foreigners coming to China for an academic conference, he could barely go to a conference himself…

The old man couldn’t help but look at his student with envy in his eyes.

Kid, you don’t know how lucky you are.

You’re in the perfect era for physics…

…

The first International Lunar Hadron Collider Conference was held in the Beijing Conference Center.

Professor Keriber stood at the entrance of the conference hall with a large trench coat over his shoulders as he welcomed Lu Zhou with his arms wide open.

“Hi, my friend, long time no see!”

“Long time no see.” Lu Zhou hugged the tall and thin German professor and smiled. He said, “If I recall correctly, this is the Lunar Hadron Collider Conference, so what are you doing here?”

Professor Keriber, director of the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator Inst.i.tute, was one of the main engineers working on controllable fusion research in Europe.

When China was leaving ITER, these two were compet.i.tors, but they had always maintained a good personal relations.h.i.+p. They even did some academic exchanges on behalf of their respective countries.

For example, the STAR Stellarator, predecessor of the Pangu fusion reactor, was modified from the Wega Stellarator bought from Germany.

Looking at it from the long term perspective, the deal certainly worked out for Germany. Without the success of the Pangu fusion reactor, Europe would have had to wait another fifty years to use clean and nearly unlimited energy. Now that the fusion negotiations had ended, it was likely for East Asia Energy to build fusion reactor plants in France or Germany sometime in the next year…

“You probably forgot that I’m an engineer doing research on plasma physics, and I’m one of the world’s leading experts on superconducting magnets. I take credit in CERN’s underground superconducting magnets. That’s why I received an invite.” Keriber patted Lu Zhou’s shoulder and said, “You have another friend here as well.”

“Professor Klitzing?” Lu Zhou looked at the old man nearby and smiled. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“How could I miss such an important event? You guys will be the deciding factor on whether there will be new physics discoveries in the next fifty years.” Professor Klitzing smiled and shook Lu Zhou’s hand as he said, “Congratulations on being able to host such an important meeting, this will be a highlight in your academic career… But I guess you don’t care about those kinds of things anymore.”

“Oh no, of course I care, but I’m not the one hosting this conference; I’m just one of the hosts…” Lu Zhou smiled and made an inviting gesture. “Let’s go inside.”

Professor Keriber suddenly raised his right hand.

“Wait a second, I forgot something.”

Lu Zhou smiled and said, “What thing? Don’t tell me you left your invitation letter back at the hotel?”

“An old friend of mine from Princeton asked me to give you a letter. I knew that I would probably run into you, so I agreed.” Keriber took out a letter from his briefcase and said, “This is it.”

Lu Zhou was about to take this letter, but w.a.n.g Peng stepped forward and grabbed it.

“Sorry, can I take a look at it first?”

Keriber shrugged and awkwardly looked at w.a.n.g Peng. “Uh, sure, no problem, my job is just to deliver it. You can throw it in the trash for all I care… But I did go through airport security with it, so it should be fine, right? Just don’t blame me.”

“Yeah, we’re in a special time right now, and it’s kind of affecting my life…” Lu Zhou looked at w.a.n.g Peng and said, “Is it fine?”

After checking the envelope with professional tools, w.a.n.g Peng cautiously nodded.

“It’s fine.”

w.a.n.g Peng then walked to the side and opened the envelope.

There was a letter inside, as well as an invitation card.

Lu Zhou looked at w.a.n.g Peng and asked, “Can you tell me who sent the letter? I’m curious.”

“The sender is Krugman… That’s what it says.” w.a.n.g Peng noticed Lu Zhou’s face and asked, “What?”

Lu Zhou: “… Nothing.”

F*ck sake!

He’s still not giving up!

Even asked his friend to send me the letter…

Really can’t get rid of him.

——