Amidst the applause, the speech finally ended.
Lu Zhou put down the chalk in his hand and looked at the audience. He nodded with satisfaction.
This year's audience was pretty good.
At least it was much better than the MRS Conference.
It was obvious that the crystal chemistry and physical chemistry professors had a general understanding of his theory.
The scholars who had done in-depth research on Lu Zhou's thesis also understood more than 70% of what Lu Zhou said.
This result was acceptable to Lu Zhou.
The Adams Chemistry Prize award ceremony came to an end, and the opening ceremony also came to an end.
After the organic chemistry conference officially began, Lu Zhou temporarily put aside the joy of winning the award and participated in this academic conference with a learning mindset.
As the saying goes, one is never too old to learn. Even though he was at the forefront of research, he still had a lot of things to learn.
It was just that the learning here was different from the learning in his student days. For a scholar who created knowledge, instead of learning from books, he focused more on communicating with colleagues, reading literature, listening to reports, etc.
This organic chemistry conference provided him with such an opportunity, and he felt like he had learned a lot.
The next afternoon, Lu Zhou just finished an organic chemistry lecture. He made himself a cup of coffee and went to the lounge area to sit down. He then quietly organized the notes he collected.
In the conference just now, a researcher demonstrated a non-fullerene organic solar cell. He also gave a fluorinated binary heterojunction cell current-voltage curve and the highest photoelectric conversion efficiency curve.
The data on this graph was very beautiful.
Even though he wasn't researching photovoltaic materials, he did some research on fullerene materials. What interested him the most was the mathematical analysis part of the thesis. He could tell that the author of the thesis had a good foundation in mathematics, so he planned on spending some time researching it.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of high heels next to him. A blonde beauty sat across from him.
Lu Zhou raised his head and looked at the beauty sitting across from him.
"You are?"
The blonde beauty smiled and reached out her hand. She said, "My name is Roy, nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too …" Lu Zhou shook her hand and asked, "Which university are you from?"
"I have a master's degree from Harvard, but I'm not a chemistry major."
Looks like she's not here for a recommendation letter.
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and said, "Journalism?"
Blinking, Roy's lips curled up mysteriously. "Somewhere in between."
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Are you also a writer?"
"Bingo!" Roy snapped his fingers and winked at him. "I'm a science writer."
You really write novels?
Even though there were many differences between science fiction and novels.
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I didn't expect other companies and media to be interested in my research. I'm curious, why are you looking for me?"
Roy: "Actually, I signed up for this organic chemistry conference to find inspiration for my writing. I didn't expect to see the Adams Chemistry Prize award ceremony."
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I guess you didn't understand my speech."
"I didn't understand, but that didn't stop your speech from inspiring me. Especially your insights on energy and materials, they gave me a lot of inspiration." The woman looked at Lu Zhou seriously and said in a sincere tone, "I have a few questions I want to ask you. I don't know if I can take some of your time?"
Lu Zhou looked at the steam on his coffee cup and thought about his upcoming schedule. He then said in a relaxed tone, "I have time before I finish my coffee."
"Don't worry, I won't take too long." Roy's face lit up. He took out a notebook and a pen from somewhere and quickly began to ask questions. "So, the first question …"
Roy's questions were all very superficial, or rather, they were of a scientific nature.
Lu Zhou tried to use a simple language to correct some of the misunderstandings of the media.
Time quickly passed by.
When Lu Zhou finished his coffee, Roy also finished asking all the questions. She put away her notebook and pen.
"Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. After my work is successfully published, I will give you a copy for free."
Lu Zhou jokingly said, "Do you have an autograph?"
Roy smiled and said, "If you want, I can sign as many as you want."
She paused for a second and spoke in a joking tone.
"This is my business card. I'm very interested in you. Maybe we can have a deeper conversation."
The blonde beauty left behind a business card with her contact information. She then looked at Lu Zhou ambiguously and left, leaving behind a gust of fragrant wind.
Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.
Deeper conversation?
Forget about it.
Even a professor at Cornell University can't understand my theory. It's pointless to talk to you about things that are too difficult.
At this moment, an unexpected acquaintance walked over.
Grynberg looked at Roy's back and spoke in a relaxed tone.
"You have good taste."
Lu Zhou asked, "Do you need me to call someone for you?"
"That sounds very attractive." Grynberg sat down on the sofa and stared at Lu Zhou. He said, "But I'm not here to talk to you about women."
Didn't you mention this first?
Lu Zhou looked at him speechlessly and put away the business card in his hand.
"So, what are you here to talk to me about?"
Grynberg said, "Nothing, I'm just here to tell you some bad news."
Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh?"
Grynberg said seriously, "Mobil Chemical plans to intervene in the production of lithium-sulfur battery materials. Not only that, but they also found Professor Stanley!"
That's it …
Lu Zhou thought it was something big, but he was speechless.
"Oh, I already know."
Grynberg was stunned for a moment, but he quickly reacted. "Woods has already looked for you?"
Lu Zhou nodded and replied in a relaxed tone, "Yes, just the night before yesterday, not long after I arrived in San Francisco, he and Professor Stanley came to visit me."
Grynberg glanced around and asked in a low voice, "How far have they progressed?"
Lu Zhou frowned and said, "What step?"
Grynberg said, "Of course the research progress … Wait, you didn't ask them anything?"
Lu Zhou looked at him strangely and said, "What do I need to ask them?"
Grynberg: "…"
Lu Zhou looked at Grynberg and sighed. He said, "To be honest, I don't quite understand why you are so careful."
"That's because you don't understand how scary the market prospects of sulfur batteries are." Grynberg took a deep breath and suppressed his anxiety. He then said, "Listen, Mobil is also researching the cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries, and their research and development direction is carbon-sulfur composite materials based on hollow carbon spheres! You did them a big favor, you shouldn't have published those two papers in Science at all! "
Even if Umicore's old rival, Nichia, had developed this technology first, Grynberg wouldn't be this nervous.
However, ExxonMobil was different.
This kind of cross-field oil giant naturally had one foot in the upstream of the chemical industry chain, and naturally had a unique advantage in the cost of raw materials.
Once ExxonMobil became interested in the cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries, it wouldn't just be taking a piece of meat from Umicore, it would be cutting off a piece of meat from all of the chemical giants.
Just like there was a gap between geniuses, there was also a gap between giants.
However …
What does this have to do with Lu Zhou?
It's not like he's a shareholder of Umicore.
"I don't agree with your point of view. The value of academia can only be sublimated through communication." Lu Zhou frowned and said, "Also, do I need to discuss with you whether or not I publish my own research results?"
"No, that's not what I meant." Grynberg noticed the dissatisfaction in Lu Zhou's tone, and he quickly explained, "I admire your confidence, but the problem is that confidence depends on the time. You have to know that your competitor is ExxonMobil! In order to start this battle, they have already invested 50 million US dollars in Professor Stanley! Do you understand what this means? "
Lu Zhou looked at Grynberg and didn't know how to comfort him.
Obviously, Umicore was also researching the cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries. They were ambitiously investing a lot of money in this project. In some sense, in the lithium-sulfur battery project, Lu Zhou and Umicore were also competitors. It was just that their competition wasn't as strong as Umicore and ExxonMobil.
If Lu Zhou was the first to research, Umicore would at most give up a portion of the profits. But if Umicore was the first to research, they would at most be cheated by their peers. But if ExxonMobil, an ambitious giant in the field, took the lead, it would be a disaster.
Because of this, Lu Zhou's two theses made them panic.
Especially when they were racing against ExxonMobil, no one knew how many meters they were from the finish line. These two theses were like time bombs, making Grynberg so nervous that he couldn't sleep.
Lu Zhou felt quite bad.
However, even if he had to choose again, he would still make the same choice.
Lu Zhou paused for a second and tried to comfort him.
"Relax, I never thought of you as competitors."
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