On the fourth week of November, which was the day after Black Friday, the MRS Autumn Conference was held as scheduled.
Because Lu Zhou was invited to attend the conference, he enjoyed VIP treatment. After he got off the plane, he sat in a special car and arrived at the five-star hotel arranged by the organizer.
Generally speaking, the duration of the MRS conference was at least a week. Occasionally, it would be ten days.
But this time, the situation was a bit different.
Since the lithium dendrites problem was solved, the number of papers related to lithium batteries had increased exponentially. Even photovoltaic materials and other new energy related papers had increased to varying degrees.
Many research institutes that had already done reports at the spring conference even changed their previous reports and rushed out a paper to apply for an oral report. This forced the organizer to extend the conference to twelve days.
As for Lu Zhou's report, it was scheduled for the next morning.
He had just arrived in Boston and did not have any special plans today. Therefore, he planned on walking around. He wanted to listen to a few reports and familiarize himself with the reporting style here.
Lu Zhou placed his luggage on the bed and went to the bathroom to wash his face. He then went downstairs to the conference center near the hotel.
Even though Lu Zhou had attended many reports, he could not help but feel emotional when he saw the MRS Autumn Conference.
In terms of scale, the MRS Conference was too big. It was on a completely different level compared to mathematics conferences.
There were dozens of venues, hundreds of topics, and thousands or even tens of thousands of conference participants.
Every year at this time, the hotels near the conference venue would be extremely crowded. This was because most of the people were participating at their own expense, and some were just there to join in the fun. For this group of people, it was obviously impossible for the organizers to provide food and accommodation.
In terms of format, the MRS Conference was not much different from the Federal Mathematics Society's conference in Princeton.
Each venue was divided into two parts: an oral report and a poster display.
The former was generally done by big names, and there were many high-quality theses and reports. The latter was not only the essence of the report, but it was also the "battlefield" for strong universities such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and Cornell.
Especially when it came to some popular and cutting-edge fields, the discussions were often particularly "intense". Even if there was a physical altercation, it was not surprising.
As for the latter, the threshold was relatively low. As long as the paper submitted to the conference was passable, even if they did not get the opportunity to give an oral report, they could usually get a poster booth for the corresponding topic.
However, it was also because of this that this area was relatively mixed. There were people with high standards but lacked opportunities, and there were also the legendary "PowerPoint entrepreneurs." Perhaps it was because there weren't many people paying attention to this place. Everyone was more enthusiastic when discussing problems, but overall, they were still restrained.
Lu Zhou walked through the center of the venue and looked around. He found that everyone's behavior was very friendly. Some were walking together in twos and threes, some were taking photos, some were talking and laughing …
In short, it wasn't as exaggerated as Professor Chirik described.
Seeing this, Lu Zhou heaved a sigh of relief.
When he first got off the plane, he was still hesitating about whether he should buy a handy weapon to defend himself, but now it seemed that his consideration was purely unnecessary.
But just to be safe, he still brought the "watch" rewarded by the system with him.
Even if there was a high chance that it wouldn't be used.
…
Lu Zhou wandered around the poster area for a while and happened to walk into the lithium battery conference room.
When he passed by the first lecture hall, a report was in progress.
He looked at the academic poster at the entrance and saw that the content was actually the legendary lithium-air battery. He suddenly had a look of interest in his eyes.
The report did not seem to have started for long, and the professor on stage was still preparing the PowerPoint. Lu Zhou walked into the lecture hall from the back door and found a seat in the back row. He was ready to listen to the lecture.
Strictly speaking, lithium batteries, including lithium-air batteries, were actually not completely considered a topic in the field of materials science.
However, just like the photovoltaic concept, when the main problem was the materials, it naturally became a materials science topic, even though it looked more like a new energy problem.
Soon after, the report began.
Standing on the podium was a professor with neatly combed hair. He looked to be in his fifties.
According to the introduction on the PowerPoint cover, his name was Sarrot, and he was from Cornell University.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's my honor to be standing here. As you all know, not long ago, Professor Lu Zhou from Princeton University published a paper on modified PDMS film materials in Nature Chemistry. He solved the most critical problem in lithium battery technology!
"If this was the conference half a year ago, you might have scoffed at the concept of lithium-air batteries. But now, we have to admit that a new era has arrived! "
Professor Sarrot stood on stage and spoke excitedly. Soon after, the whiteboard next to him was filled with all kinds of chemical reactions and all kinds of seemingly reliable data.
Some people listened attentively, but there were also some people who scoffed.
Professor Kerr from Columbia University was sitting in the back row of the venue. He crossed his arms and finally couldn't help but speak in a sarcastic tone.
"How do you solve the reaction between the lithium anode and nitrogen in the air? And water vapor? Even the cleaners in our laboratory know how active lithium is. In my opinion, you're not making batteries, you're making rockets. "
He was in the field of lithium-sulfur batteries, and lithium-sulfur batteries were the mainstream of lithium battery research. Although lithium-sulfur batteries had a lot of flaws, they were at least more reliable than lithium-air batteries.
A lot of people in the venue laughed, but Sarrot did not care.
He cleared his throat and continued to speak.
"Professor Kerr's question is very good. Interns in our laboratory often ask this question, but formal researchers usually don't ask this. Because we need to think about how to solve the problem, not how to make a fuss all day long. "
Hearing the sarcasm in his words, the person who was originally laughing stopped laughing.
However, the people who were not laughing began to laugh.
Because this was going to be interesting.
Professor Sarrot did not give Professor Kerr a chance to refute. He looked at him provocatively and continued to speak.
"We all know that Mr. Kerr is in the field of lithium-sulfur batteries, but honestly, I'm also very curious. How does he plan on solving the shuttle effect caused by polysulfide intermediates dissolving into the electrolyte and diffusing from the positive electrode to the negative electrode? Normally, even an idiot would know not to stick the positive and negative electrode together. "
Kerr was furious, and he was about to explode.
Sarrot suddenly changed the topic and spoke.
"I've talked to Professor Lu Zhou from Princeton about this problem. Theoretically speaking, it is unrealistic to separate pure oxygen from the air. However, through a wonderful mathematical model, we can deduce many potential products that can help us achieve our goals. "
Sarrot paused for a second before he continued to speak in a provocative tone.
"What I mean is, if we can find a kind of membrane that can screen oxygen molecules, the problem of lithium-air batteries can be perfectly solved.
"And this is what we are trying to solve!"
Lu Zhou:???
When did I talk to him?!
After Professor Sarrot finished speaking, no one in the venue spoke.
Many professors in other fields, including Professor Kerr, had a serious look on their faces.
A few men in suits sitting in the back row were quietly exchanging opinions.
Judging from their appearances, these people didn't look like researchers. From their conversation, Lu Zhou vaguely heard the keywords "investment", "cost", and "feasibility".
At this point, he knew that he could no longer remain silent.
It was fine for someone to show off his knowledge.
However, he couldn't tolerate someone using his name to cheat money!
Lu Zhou coughed and stood up.
Professor Sarrot didn't recognize this Asian man, so he couldn't help but frown.
"Sir, may I know who you are …"
"I'm Lu Zhou," said Lu Zhou as he coughed and said, "I can testify that I didn't say anything."
He didn't finish speaking.
A shoe flew from the back row onto the stage.
Following that, the organizers also threw gel pens and water cups. The entire lecture hall was in a mess.
"Liar, get out of here!"
"Take your PowerPoint and get the hell out of here!"
Before Lu Zhou stood up, they were almost fooled by Professor Sarrot's "mathematical model". They even doubted their lives for half a minute.
It was also because of this half a minute of doubt that they were particularly angry, feeling that they had been fooled!
Even though Professor Sarrot looked a bit embarrassed, he was obviously an experienced person. He nimbly dodged the things that were thrown at him. He used the stack of speeches in his hand to cover his face as he quickly ran out of the lecture hall.
The staff of the organizer, who heard the commotion, arrived in time and quickly stopped the group of angry researchers.
Judging from the helpless expressions of the staff, this was obviously not the first time they had to deal with this kind of situation.
Lu Zhou sat in the back of the lecture hall and watched the commotion from beginning to end. He couldn't help but be dumbfounded.
This is the industry …
Why are they so tough?
Speaking of which, it's my turn tomorrow.
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