Cars were coming and going at the construction site, and smoke and dust were billowing. The sound of excavators and cement trucks could be heard nonstop. An engineer wearing a white helmet was holding a design drawing in his hand. He personally went down to the first site to command. The construction workers wearing yellow helmets were running around the construction site like lightning.
Everyone was like a clockwork machine, working non-stop along with the construction equipment. The construction progress was also progressing at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was a bustling scene.
The environment at the site was terrible. Just by standing on the side, one's leather shoes would be covered in a layer of dust.
However, the city council leaders who were standing nearby didn't have any disdain on their faces. Instead, they were smiling.
A billion-dollar national project suddenly landing in Jinling was like a surprise from the sky for Jin Ling City.
Especially a systematic scientific research project like controllable nuclear fusion. It was a huge help to the development of Jin Ling's high-tech industry and talent recruitment policies.
Or to put it bluntly, this was a visible political achievement.
Of course, controllable nuclear fusion wasn't something that needed to be kept a secret. There were many domestic and foreign research institutes that were working on it, and they had been working on it for almost half a century.
However, in order to avoid unnecessary concerns and misunderstandings, it was best to keep a low profile. Before there were in-progress results worth showing off, it was best to avoid publicity.
Regiment Commander Liao was supervising the project, and the quality of the construction unit was also reassuring.
With the current construction speed, it would take at most half a year to complete the project. If they were fast, it might even take less than half a year. Three or four months would be enough.
After receiving Regiment Commander Liao's guarantee, Lu Zhou didn't worry too much about the project. He gave a few instructions to Engineer Sun before focusing on the construction of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.
Three days before New Year's Day, the "STAR" Stellarator Research Institute officially started its second week of construction. The Jinling Institute of Computational Materials building was finally completed.
The chemistry department building that Lu Zhou had borrowed for almost two years was finally returned to its original owner.
However, for the chemistry department professors at Jin Ling University, they weren't eagerly looking forward to its return.
Because the relocation of the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials meant that the US $100 million worth of high-end equipment was also moving with Yang Xu and the others.
Although the new location of the Institute of Computational Materials wasn't far from here, it was still outside the campus.
It wouldn't be so convenient if he wanted to freeload on equipment in the future.
Dean Li, who was standing next to Lu Zhou, said, "Why are you in such a hurry to leave? It's not like anyone is rushing you."
Lu Zhou: "This laboratory building is the school's property after all. It's not good for me to occupy it in my own name."
Dean Li shook his head and said, "Can you be considered an outsider?"
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Jin Ling University is my alma mater. I've never treated myself as an outsider, but it's better to separate business and personal matters."
If this relationship was not clear, there would be problems sooner or later.
When he was abroad, he was very careful with every step he took. Now that he was back in China, he had to be even more careful in some aspects.
Seeing that Lu Zhou said so, Dean Li didn't ask him to stay anymore. He just sighed.
"You're right, you're a Nobel Prize laureate, the benchmark of China's scientific community. The spotlight is on you. There are a lot of people watching you produce results, and there are also a lot of people waiting for you to make mistakes. It's good to be careful. "
Lu Zhou nodded and said, "I will."
…
The research institute building was in place, and the equipment had basically been moved. However, for Lu Zhou's blueprint for the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study, this was only the beginning.
Other than the Institute of Computational Materials, there were no other research units in the entire research institute.
If he wanted to turn this blueprint into a reality, he would have to put in a lot of effort.
Because it was a private research unit, after making the policy demands, Lu Zhou didn't ask the government for money. Even though the government promised him an interest-free loan of one billion yuan, he didn't plan on borrowing money from the bank.
First of all, he didn't need that much money right now.
Second of all, there was still a lot of money in the Star Sky Technology subsidiary's account.
If he didn't look at the number in his account, he would have forgotten that he was a billionaire. After he realized that he still had a lot of money to spend, he immediately transferred 100 million yuan to the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study's account.
Lu Zhou didn't care about spending money on research.
After all, the original intention of establishing Star Sky Technology was to inject blood into his laboratory.
Lu Zhou walked around the brand-new research institute building with his most capable helper, Yang Xu. He was familiarizing himself with the environment as he chatted.
"How does it feel to move into a new home?"
Yang Xu smiled and said, "The laboratory is a lot more spacious, but there are too few people, so it's a bit quiet."
Lu Zhou smiled when he heard this.
"It's only quiet for a while. Soon, we will recruit a group of researchers to make this place more populated."
With the halo of the Nobel Prize, coupled with the entire laboratory building's sophisticated equipment, he could attract a large number of hard-working researchers to work for him without a high salary.
Of course, from a long-term perspective, he wasn't going to mistreat his researchers.
Lu Zhou stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the research institute director's office. He looked down at the entire research institute and spoke with ambition.
"The entire research institute has only completed the first phase of the project. There are still three more phases to go. Not just in materials science, but also mathematics and physics. Whether it is hardware or software, we have to strive to achieve world-class standards!"
Yang Xu: "Better than CERN?"
Lu Zhou: "It's only a matter of time."
You don't have to brag. What if it comes true?
Yang Xu jokingly said, "Are you really planning on building a hadron collider?"
Lu Zhou smiled and said, "That's an idea, but we can't build this thing in the city. Also, we don't have the energy right now."
Theoretical physics experiments were another funding black hole. Even if he threw all his money into it, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
However, once the controllable nuclear fusion project was completed, he wouldn't have to worry about funding anymore.
By then, whether it was drawing a circle on the ground to build a hadron collider or putting a satellite in the sky to collect dark matter, as long as he had the idea, someone would give him the green light.
Yang Xu didn't think that far into the future. His thoughts were still on the hadron collider. He rubbed his chin and was a bit surprised.
"That thing is probably going to cost tens of billions, right? The problem is, where will the money come from?"
Lu Zhou smiled and didn't directly answer the question.
"Knowledge is the greatest wealth. Our research itself is creating wealth."
He stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows and paused for a second.
"Gather all the researchers at the research institute. We're going to have a meeting and talk about what we're going to do next!"
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
