When a theory was clearly explained, when the report received such a large amount of applause, the Q&A session seemed a bit redundant.
Of course, there were still a lot of people asking questions during the Q&A session.
Lu Zhou answered all of these questions in detail.
Compared to the MRS Conference where no one raised their hand, this was undoubtedly an exciting improvement.
This at least showed that the audience really listened to his theory. They didn't just want to cover up their ignorance with applause.
After the report ended, a few PhD students from Humboldt University ran to the podium and excitedly asked for Lu Zhou's autograph. They said that they wanted to commemorate this moment that could be recorded in the history of chemistry.
Although Lu Zhou didn't think history would record such trivial things, he still fulfilled their request. He scribbled his name on their textbooks.
Professor Ertl walked backstage and walked toward Lu Zhou.
He then spoke in a serious tone, "Regardless of whether the Nobel Committee agrees with the value of your theory, I will recommend your name to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences."
Lu Zhou paused for a second and smiled.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Professor Ertl looked at Lu Zhou and smiled. He then said, "We should be the ones thanking you. Thank you for bringing this report to Berlin. I haven't heard such an excellent report in a long time. Although I can't guarantee that you will win the Nobel Prize, I think the honor of being nominated belongs to you. "
According to the Nobel Prize selection rules, former Nobel Prize winners were eligible to recommend candidates.
However, this wasn't anything to be excited about. After all, there were usually 1,000 to 2,000 candidates recommended each year. After two rounds of screening, only one person could win the Nobel Prize.
In principle, the recommendation couldn't be disclosed. The nomination information was strictly confidential for 50 years.
However, this rule wasn't strictly followed in the initial recommendation process.
According to a Nobel Prize winner's acceptance speech, at least for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, there was a joke like, "Hey, I recommended you to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences." The person who was made fun of would usually read the longest year of his life in anxiety until the final result was announced in October.
Of course, there was no need to mention the Peace Prize and Literature Prize.
Even the bookies could "guess" the list of nominees in advance and open their bets before the list was revealed. These two awards had long been spoiled.
Lu Zhou joked, "You shouldn't have told me. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any surprises for me."
Ertl laughed. "It's just a nomination. Don't get too excited. When you reach my age, it'll be good enough if you can bring home a Nobel Prize. "
Lu Zhou made a helpless expression.
"This … this is too much of a blow."
It was unrealistic to win the Nobel Prize with a novel theory. Many things needed time to be tested.
But he felt that even so, he probably wouldn't have to wait that long …
…
Lu Zhou wasn't worried about the Nobel Prize, nor was he worried about Professor Ertl's recommendation.
He felt that, for him, the medal was a recognition of his research results, but it was not a motivation for him to engage in research.
He was still young and had a long way to go.
He had to focus on his own research. When the time came, he would get what he deserved sooner or later.
Regardless of what Lu Zhou thought about his theory and the medal hanging above his head, the entire theoretical chemistry community was in an uproar after the report.
This sensational response was far stronger than when Lu Zhou's thesis was first published in JACS.
Just like the Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics, the chemistry community also had problems that needed to be solved.
However, these problems couldn't be summarized in simple language like mathematical conjectures. Even the question of "who was more important" was debated among the major schools of thought.
However, even though there were controversies, the international theoretical chemistry community had reached a consensus.
For example, one of the four major problems in chemistry in the 21st century was how to establish an accurate and effective time-dependent many-body theory and statistical theory for chemical reactions.
This sounded a bit awkward, but it could be described in layman's terms. How to accurately calculate the rate of chemical reactions? How to determine the chemical reaction pathway? How to determine the catalyst needed?
And how to answer all of these questions from a theoretical perspective.
The Theoretical Model of the Electrochemical Interface corresponded to a certain type of problem in this proposition.
The establishment of this theoretical model was probably equivalent to the Hardy-Littlewood theorem to the Riemann conjecture.
The Hardy-Littlewood theorem determined that "the number of non-trivial zeros of the Riemann function in a certain interval is not less than KT", while the Theoretical Model of the Electrochemical Interface Structure determined "the microscopic chemical reaction theory of a certain type of chemical reaction".
After Lu Zhou's report ended, the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science in Germany established an interdisciplinary research group on the "Theoretical Model of the Electrochemical Interface Structure" and announced their support for this theory.
What was interesting was that after Max expressed his position, Professor Martin Karplus, who had previously published a scientific review in Nature and was optimistic about the theory, published a paper in JACS, the top journal of the chemistry community.
In his paper, Professor Karplus cited Lu Zhou's previous paper in JACS, which gave a clear explanation of the zero-charge potential of polycrystalline metal electrodes from a theoretical point of view.
Prior to this, this was regarded as a classic problem in the field of electrochemistry and theoretical chemistry.
Although the existence of the "zero-charge potential of polycrystalline metal electrodes" was unquestionable, there had never been a conclusion on its formation mechanism and chemical essence under microscopic conditions.
However, under the framework of the "Theoretical Model of the Electrochemical Interface Structure", solving this problem didn't seem to be a difficult task. At least, it was much easier than studying this problem from the perspective of "first-principle calculation".
Obviously, this Nobel Prize winner knew that this theory would eventually succeed as early as two months ago, so he "placed a bet" on it. This was why this paper was published in such a timely manner.
It seemed like he had made the right bet.
Martin Karplus wasn't the only one who was interested in this new theory.
At the end of the report, more and more people in the theoretical chemistry community, and even researchers in the application field, showed a strong interest in this theory.
Compared to the "Kohn-Sham method" and the "density functional theory", which had a large discrepancy between the calculation results and reality, this theoretical model of the electrochemical interface structure was simply tailor-made for the study of the electrochemical quality of the surface of materials. It had a strong guiding force for the research of polymers.
Especially for PhDs in computational chemistry and computational materials science, the emergence of this new theory was undoubtedly a blessing for them.
At least, their bosses now had another reason to keep them on the research team.
While the outside world was guessing whether Lu Zhou would become the youngest Nobel Prize winner because of this theory, the German Chemical Society quietly made a decision.
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