Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

by Stayrr

After suffering from a heat stroke while working under the scorching heat of summer, Lu Zhou, a hardworking but poor university student, somehow becomes the owner of an advanced technological system. With the cheat given by the system, his university life changes overnight. A Master’s degree? Easy. PhD? Not a problem. From a nobody, he quickly becomes a huge celebrity in the wor

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Read Scholar's Advanced Technological System - Chapter 260 - Nature Submission online free - Novelfull

Chapter 260: Nature Submission

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Although Princeton's chemistry major was not as famous as its physics or mathematical physics, it still ranked in Top 15 in the world. Its organic chemistry major was ranked even slightly higher.

In 2011, after the Frick Chemistry Laboratory was built, it was considered one of the best chemical laboratories in the country. Although it was no match for MIT, it still had decent equipment.

People often think that Princeton did not have nutty laboratories, but this was a misunderstanding. As part of the Ivy League, Princeton's alumni association was well funded. This could be observed from Lu Zhou's $400,000 USD per year salary.

From Witten, Lu Zhou met Professor Paul J. Chirik.

Although this professor looked very young, he was one of the big names in the field of organic chemistry. This year, he just won a Green Chemistry Challenge Award for his Science thesis.

Goldbach's conjecture was famous in the field of number theory. In the field of organic synthesis, there were similar famous problems as well, like the "22" problem.

The problem of cycloaddition reaction for olefins was very common in organic synthesis. The well known Diels Alder[4π2π] cycloaddition reaction formed a six-membered ring from diene (4π) and olefin (2π) under thermal conditions.

However, another seemingly simple reaction of cycloaddition for [2π2π] olefins formed a cyclobutane ring, this was not actually that simple. Due to the limitation of orbital symmetry, this reaction often required photochemical reaction conditions to activate, but this reaction pathway tended to be inefficient and poor specificities.

Professor Chirik, in his 2015 Science thesis, proposed a new way to solve this problem. He proposed using iron catalysts to convert simple olefins to cyclobutane structures under mild heating conditions.

Apparently, the industry was extremely interested in this technology. This professor's patents brought him millions of dollars in dividends.

When Professor Chirik learned that Lu Zhou was interested in computational materials science, he immediately showed a strong interest in Lu Zhou and invited him to visit his laboratory.

In a magical place of Princeton, many professors from other disciplines were attracted to mathematics and physics. However, not many top mathematics professors were willing to research other things, even though mathematics did not make much money.

"The discipline of computing materials is emerging. Many people in this area have gone to Silicon Valley to do chip processing. Speaking of which, why are you interested in this area?" asked Professor Chirik as he gave Lu Zhou a cup of coffee and invited him to sit down.

Lu Zhou smiled and replied, "Because mathematics is an interesting thing. I intend to shine the light of mathematics onto other fields, not just on the tower of number theory."

Professor Chirik leaned back in his chair. He smiled and said, "Your viewpoint is very unique. Whenever I would argue with professors from the Institute of Advanced Studies, they would tell me that mathematics should be pure."

"And they're right, mathematics is pure. But in my opinion, tools derived from pure research can be used to solve other problems," said Lu Zhou with a smile. He paused for a second before he then said, "Actually, before I came to America, I participated in a similar research project. However, I was too busy so I couldn't continue. So in order to complete my research, I would like to borrow some equipment."

It was actually mainly for thesis writing. He had already registered the patent for the design method of the product. He even completed numerous experiments in the University of Jin Ling laboratory.

However, he was not a Princeton professor. He had to do the experiments again to gain credibility for his thesis. Materials science was different than mathematics, and experiments must be referenced in the thesis.

If he used a year-old data, from the other side of the Pacific, it could look like he was fabricating data and he would fail the peer review. This was because the peer reviewers did not do experiments themselves, so they had rigorous checks on the results of the experiment.

After all, it was not like Lu Zhou could ask the reviewers to do experiments for him.

All of the reviews were based on the preface that the thesis writer was honest, and was backed by his or her academic reputation. Sometimes, a thesis would pass submission but would be noticed by peers, then finally retracted by the journal.

This type of situation was most common in biology because many biology experiments were subjective and biased.

When Professor Chirik saw the list of equipment that Lu Zhou had in mind, he generously opened his drawer.

He knew that none of the equipment that Lu Zhou listed were anything dangerous, so he was confident to hand Lu Zhou the keys.

"It's fine! Take it. Just be careful when doing experiments."

Lu Zhou put the key in his pocket. He then smiled and said, "I promise you that I'll leave your laboratory looking the same."

"No, I'm telling you not to hurt yourself," said Chirik. He smiled and said, "I'd rather you break the equipment than yourself. Otherwise, the people from the Institute of Advanced Studies would fire me."

Lu Zhou laughed and said, "I definitely won't."

He then said goodbye.

…

Lu Zhou had already done the experiment before, so repeating it again was easy.

He just had to get used to the design test process, collecting data, labeling material, and even the time and location of the experiment.

Strictly speaking, this was Lu Zhou's first time writing a materials science thesis.

Although strictly speaking, he had submitted an SCI materials design thesis, but that thesis was nothing more than an applied mathematics thesis. It was about mathematical modeling and calculation of the ratio of cement materials and carbon nanotube materials. It did not actually involve an experiment.

However, many things were connected.

As long as Lu Zhou learned the format, writing the thesis was not anything difficult.

He was up for two days doing the experiment. On the third day, he slept until the afternoon. Once he woke up, he sat at his desk and began writing his thesis on his computer.

[Title: A Polydimethylsilane Stabilized Interface Film for High-Performance Lithium Battery Anodes]

[Abstract: This paper uses polydimethylsilane raw material, through the etching of hydrofluoric acid, to obtain an improved polydimethylsiloxane nanoporous film, which is coated on the surface of the negative electrode material by spin coating. Through SEM electron microscopy, it was found that the PDMS film has a nanopore structure, which can provide an effective transmission channel for lithium ions and effectively inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites…]

Lu Zhou looked at the beginning of his thesis and nodded with satisfaction.

For this sensational invention, he could write more exaggerated points. However, it was not good to appear cocky toward the reviewers.

Not to mention, since he was new in the field of materials science, he did not know if the people in materials science would acknowledge him.

After Lu Zhou wrote the title and abstract, he began to write the body.

This was different than writing mathematics theses. Whenever Lu Zhou entered his mathematics formulas into LaTex, he would often reconsider if the "trivial" parts were actually "trivial".

However, for materials science theses, as long as one understood the experiment data, the thesis writing would go smoothly.

Lu Zhou spent three days finishing the thesis. He double checked the whole thing and did not find any major problems.

As for the choice of journal submission, after careful consideration, he chose Nature's Nature Chemistry journal as his target. It had an impact factor of 25.87.

For this kind of professional thesis, it was better to submit to a mainstream journal, rather than a science-focused journal.

Apparently, the Nature journal had a submission fail rate of 90%. This meant that only one in ten people passed submission.

Even with this fail rate, Lu Zhou decided to challenge himself.

He logged onto the submission website, filled in his personal details, and clicked upload.

Lu Zhou thought about that 20 plus impact factor, and could not help but smile.

Without a doubt, this was the highest impact factor journal he has ever submitted to.

However, Lu Zhou could not help but frown.

He did not know why, but he felt…

Did he take a loss somehow?

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Chapter 261: Being A Professor

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Two editors in the editorial department of Nature Chemistry were working on the newly received manuscripts.

After all, this was one of the top journals in the world. Every manuscript they received had to undergo scrutinized review.

Although the majority of these theses would be heading for the garbage bin, some of them were excellent.

Suddenly, Kevin, who was reading the manuscripts, shouted.

"Unbelievable… Someone solved lithium dendrites?!"

Kevin's voice caught the attention of his colleague.

Kerryman, who was holding a cup of coffee, stood up and walked next to Kevin's computer. He looked at the screen and pushed his glasses as he said, "I can't believe it… If this is real, the battery industry would undergo a technological revolution."

This statement was not an exaggeration.

Right now, the technical bottleneck restricting lithium batteries was the problem of lithium dendrites. This was applicable in a portable bomb or a high-performance battery. The problem was who could solve the "silver fork" that pierced the diaphragm. Although it was only a small negative electrode material, its application was insanely broad.

Of course, the premise was that this thesis was true.

The two editors stared at this thesis for a long time, no one could make up their minds.

The format of the thesis didn't have any problems, the writing also didn't have any mistakes. This type of research experiment was definitely in-line with Nature submissions. But the problem was that this experiment was almost "too high tech". Everyone was studying how to inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites, but this guy solved this problem completely?

Therefore, the two editors were hesitant.

Kerryman stood behind Kevin and asked, "What do you think about this?"

Kevin frowned and said, "I don't know. The thesis itself doesn't seem to have any problems. It's definitely a breakthrough in the research of lithium batteries, but… I can't make a definitive conclusion based on the thesis itself."

Kerryman said, "The writer is from Princeton."

Kevin sighed and said, "I know, he's a mathematics professor. Not long ago he won the Crafoord Prize. However, I did some research and only found one material science thesis that he wrote."

Kerryman paused for a second. He then said, "Professor Lu Zhou's academic reputation is high, so I think he wouldn't make any mistakes."

Kevin asked, "Then your suggestion is?"

Kerryman said, "My suggestion is that if the thesis doesn't have any problems, and it meets the requirements of our journal, then we should just throw it to the peer reviewers. If the experts think there's no problem, then we should be fine."

It was not like the journal was personally responsible.

Kevin said, "Then who do you think is appropriate?"

"MIT professor Moungi G Bawendi. He's well versed in battery research. I think he's a good choice," said Kerryman. He paused for a second before he continued, "Since he reviewed Lu Zhou's previous materials science thesis, I think his opinion is crucial."

Kevin thought for a bit. He could not come up with a better idea.

"Then… We'll just go with your suggestion."

…

A week after the thesis submission, a piece of good news came from Nature. Lu Zhou's thesis had passed the technical editor review and entered the peer review stage.

Lu Zhou was relieved to hear this news.

At least his thesis was not like 90% of people, where they were rejected for "not in line with reader's interest", or "not enough innovation".

Although Nature was a good choice, there were many other organic chemistry journals that Lu Zhou could consider. However, Lu Zhou's objective was to promote his new technology, so in this regard, there was no other journal that had the same level of impact as Nature.

Now that the thesis was in the hands of professionals, it should be a lot easier. Lu Zhou believed that his peers would give his thesis a fair evaluation.

Time quickly passed.

The 15th of July had finally arrived.

As per Lu Zhou's request, his three master's students arrived on Princeton grounds.

The three students were Vera Pulyuy from Berkeley, Qin Yue from China, and Hardy Clive from Columbia University.

Lu Zhou already had an impression of Vera, and she did not change much from when he met her in Berkeley. She was still small, but a strong girl.

Qin Yue was the same. He had a pair of square glasses and was very polite, but not very extroverted. However, Lu Zhou recognized his mathematics ability and talent because he had already tested his mathematics ability during the interview.

As for the Brazilian guy named Hardy, his mathematics ability was inferior to Hardy and Vera, but he was still talented.

Lu Zhou developed different requirements and training plans for each of them.

There were not many supervisors who were as responsible as him.

Lu Zhou spent the entire afternoon helping the three students sort out their accommodation and enrollment. Then he brought them to his office and started planning their work for next month.

"Your talents and abilities are good, but you guys are a long way from my requirements."

Lu Zhou paid careful attention to them when he said this. None of the students expressed dissent. Someone even looked at him with worship.

He cleared his throat and continued, "… Before September, I won't let you guys touch my research project. Because at your level, the most you can do for my project is to make me coffee. I'll arrange learning tasks for you guys. If some of you can pass the August test, then I'll allow you to join my research project…"

"… This research project will accompany you throughout your master's studies. I'm not asking you to complete it, but you must show results. At least, your results must be worthy of Annual Mathematics. Of course, I'll help and research with you guys, but the main work has to be done by you. I'll only provide guidance and ideas."

Lu Zhou learned this speech from Professor Lu.

However, Princeton had Princeton standards.

During the interview, Lu Zhou reminded them that he would not let them cruise through their master's. Every day would be fulfilling.

Qin Yue asked, "What if someone doesn't pass the test?"

You had to pass the test if you wanted to join the project. If you did not pass, it meant that you could not graduate?

Studying abroad was a rare opportunity, so Qin Yue naturally was concerned about this problem.

Lu Zhou said, "Then you would have to study and make coffee for me until you pass the test, but I think you should be more confident. The reason I chose you guys, is because I think you guys can meet my requirements."

Compared to Qin Yue, Hardy was a little cocky. He was not even worried about the test. Instead, he asked, "Professor, what is the project about?"

Of course, Lu Zhou did not reveal the project directly. He only smiled.

"It's related to hail."

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Chapter 262: God Is Also Indecisive

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, materials science laboratory.

Professor Moungi Bawendi sat in front of his office desk and was leisurely drinking a coffee while he browsed new theses on arXiv.

He was one of the leading persons in nanochemistry.

Not long ago, he published his research paper on PBS quantum dot thin film solar cells in the ACS-Nano journal. This attracted widespread attention from various Silicon Valley companies.

Although this technology was far from being implemented, it had great potential.

A lot of people said that he was close to a Nobel Prize. Once the quantum dot technology was commercialized, the Nobel Prize would be his.

However, it could be 10 or 20 years later. The industry would accept this technology slowly and they would first implement them on displays. After that, it would change the face of the semiconductor industry.

However, even though he might be far from commercialization, he had already owned four companies through said technology. Most professors were worried about their research funding, but he was already a CEO.

Suddenly, he received an email from Nature.

"Lithium dendrites?"

When Professor Bawendi opened the email, he raised his eyebrows with interest.

He rubbed his chin and said to his assistant, "Ladis, bring me a sandwich."

"Okay, professor!"

The beautiful woman in a white coat got up and walked outside. She soon came back with a bacon sandwich.

Professor Bawendi sat in front of the computer and eat his breakfast while he continued to read the email.

Honestly speaking, he did not believe that someone solved the lithium dendrites problem.

Although he was not in lithium batteries research, the people in his research team had studied it, so he knew a little about it.

UK's Oxis energy and America's Sion Battery were at the forefront of battery research, and they had not made any special progress. Samsung had been registering patents as always, but they had not made any big announcements.

The only progress was last year when an MIT professor found that fixing sulfur in mesoporous carbon materials and combined with special electrolytes could inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites.

However, it turned out that it was only a misunderstanding. The lithium dendrites problem was not that easy to solve. Otherwise, IBM would not have cut their investment in supercomputers lithium dendrites research.

If this thesis was written by anyone else, Professor Bawendi would have thrown it away. The author was interesting. Although he was not famous in the field of materials science, he was a Princeton mathematics professor.

"Improving the 'breathability' of the negative electrode material through the PDMS material film, and inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites… This is not a novel idea. The performance on the SEM electron micrograph is surprising, and it doesn't look fake…"

"Computational materials science can do this? I've never heard of it before."

The image of the negative electrode material of the several charges and discharge cycles showed that the negative electrode material located under the PDMS film did not form the deadly white trees, but instead it formed a layer of mossy pleats layer by layer.

Then there was the discharge process. Since the surface of the entire negative electrode material was a layer of undulating moss-like folds, there was no so-called tip region, and after the discharge was finished, there was no large amount of dead lithium residue on the electrode.

If these results were accurate, then there was no doubt the results would be groundbreaking.

The only downside was that these folds would also affect battery life and performance. However, compared to the lithium dendrites bottleneck, the downsides were negligible.

Professor Bawendi tapped his finger on the table and started to think.

The thesis was a good thesis, and he could not find any mistakes in the data and images. Still, this was too groundbreaking. Like the editors from Nature, he could not make a decision.

Professor Bawendi thought for a long time. Suddenly, he said, "Ladis, I will send an experiment report to your email. Ask Issac to do it according to the report. Remember to tell him that this is his experiment of the week."

"Okay, professor."

Done.

Professor Bawendi smirked.

Issac was his master's student, who researched battery technology.

The experiment was not difficult. It would take Issac three days to complete.

Although generally, the reviewer was not responsible for doing the experiments, Bawendi was curious.

Anyway, since he had the equipment, the material would not cost much.

If Lu Zhou really solved the problem of lithium dendrites, then Bawendi would be witnessing history.

…

While Lu Zhou's Nature thesis was in peer review, it was not as if he did nothing.

Once again he called his three master's students to his office and gave everyone a book list.

The book list was not long, only six books.

He asked them to thoroughly understand the contents of the books within a month and a half.

By then, he would give them a test based on the contents of the six textbooks.

For a newly undergrad student, this was not an impossible task. A lot of the content was taught in undergrad, just at a shallow level.

And now Lu Zhou wanted them to dive deep into the topics.

They would have to pay a little blood, sweat, and tears to join Lu Zhou's project.

It was foreseeable that their summer would be very fulfilling.

Lu Zhou was sitting in his office writing an opening report when he suddenly received a phone call from China.

Xiao Tong excitedly screamed in the phone.

"Brother! I got it!"

When Lu Zhou heard Lu Xiaotong's excited voice, he smiled.

"Congratulations!"

Xiao Tong said, "Brother, can I ask for one thing?"

Lu Zhou said generously, "Say it, what gift do you want? I'll mail it to you."

Xiao Tong shook his head and said, "I don't want a gift. I want to visit you in Princeton!"

Lu Zhou was stunned.

"There's nothing to do in Princeton."

In Lu Zhou's mind, all there was to do was visit the Carnegie Lake.

The rich academic atmosphere was not something ordinary people could feel.

Xiao Tong said, "It's too boring at home. I want to go outside."

Lu Zhou thought about it. It made sense.

It was a pity to waste her summer vacation at home. It would be good for her to get out of the house.

Lu Zhou said, "Then… Do you know how to apply for a visa?"

Xiao Tong replied immediately, "Of course I know. I already applied for my passport! I'm going to Shanghai to apply for the visa tomorrow!"

I guess this girl already planned the whole thing.

Lu Zhou shook his head and smiled.

"Okay then, I'll buy you the ticket. Just get on the flight and I'll pick you up."

Xiao Tong cheered.

"Wow! Brother, you're the best!"

"Haha, you're welcome."

Lu Zhou hung up the phone and smiled.

Suddenly, he remembered something.

Speaking of which, he did not know how Han Mengqi was doing.

He had not tutored her in a long time, but she was still his student. Lu Zhou had helped her studies a lot, so he still cared about her.

After the college entrance examination, he never asked for her result. Now that the college offers were released, he wanted to know if she got into her ideal university.

Lu Zhou opened WeChat and sent a message.

[Did you get the offer?]

He waited for a long time, but he did not get a reply.

Lu Zhou guessed that she probably did not see the message, so he put his phone aside.

I hope she gets into her ideal university.

Lu Zhou placed this matter aside and continued his work.

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Chapter 263: Mathematics Is More Interesting

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Princeton University Library.

Hardy rested his head on the table as he complained, "That guy is a devil, this is impossible… Is there anyone on this planet that can complete these things in half a month?"

There were six textbooks in front of him. Some were "entry level", like Number Theory Guide, some were more "advanced", like Number Theory Lectures. It was not just number theory textbooks, there were other textbooks like algebraic geometry and differential topology.

Before Hardy met his supervisor, he did a lot of preparation work. He did not expect that the moment he stepped into the doors of Princeton, there was already a mountain of work waiting for him.

Thankfully he did some study beforehand, otherwise, he would not even know where to begin studying.

Qin Yue, who sat across Hardy, was a lot calmer. He did not bother to think about questions like "can I do it or not". Instead, he was reading Number Theory Lectures intently.

Although he could not read textbooks as fast as Hardy, the turtle would always win the race.

Since they began studying, Qin Yue had not stopped reading.

Hardy sighed and gave up. He then asked, "Qin, are your professors in China this scary?"

Qin Yue, "Scary?"

Hardy nodded his head and said, "Yeah. When I was in Brazil, I was always first in mathematics for my high school and everyone thought I was a genius. Once I got into Columbia, I met a lot of geniuses, but the content for the course was still easy for me. I did it easily without spending much effort."

Hardy sighed and continued, "But now, I'm starting to have some doubts about my talents…"

Qin Yue did not know how to comfort this kid. Instead, he pushed his glasses and said, "Because this place is Princeton?"

Honestly, Qin Yue's previous university, Kai University, did not have professors this strict.

However, since he had spent the last four years studying like this, he was used to it.

"Princeton professors can't all be this strict. Yesterday I played football with a schoolmate. Professor Lu Zhou is definitely an exception," said Hardy as he shook his head. He suddenly remembered something and he asked, "Speaking of which, Qin, I noticed that you're already on your second textbook. Do you have any tips? Or did you already know this stuff?"

Qin Yue shook his head and said, "Nope, this is my first time learning this."

At most, Qin Yue did some preparations before, but not much.

Hardy said with an unbelievable tone, "Impossible! Wait a minute, don't tell me you study in your bedroom? God… How long do you spend to study in a day?"

Qin Yue said, "What else am I supposed to do besides sleeping and eating?"

Hardy: "…"

I can't continue the conversation with this dude…

…

Six textbooks in six weeks were difficult, but Lu Zhou knew this when giving out this task.

Therefore, he set his expectations very low. As long as his students learned half of the textbooks, he would count them as a pass.

As for the rest of the knowledge, they could learn it while helping him with his research project.

After all, textbooks were always behind, and it was only to get one's foot in the door. The textbooks often did not contain documents or thesis materials, which were needed for research.

However, Lu Zhou did not expect that within a week, one person had already completed his task.

When he heard the news, he was overly surprised.

Because…

It turned out that he found gold.

"… Your talents are amazing. I thought that it'd be impressive if you could solve four or five out of the ten questions. Looks like I underestimated you."

Lu Zhou looked up from the test paper and looked at Vera with surprise.

He came up with all of the questions himself, so there was no way for Vera to know the answers beforehand. Although the ten questions were not particularly difficult, getting them right meant that Vera completely absorbed all of the knowledge from the six textbooks.

Vera smiled and said humbly, "I already read four of the books back at Berkeley, so I guess I got lucky."

"This isn't luck," said Lu Zhou as he placed the test paper aside. He smiled and said, "Congratulations on passing my test. From now on, you are a research member in my project!"

Vera smiled. This was what she dreamed of.

Lu Zhou said, "I'll email you the contents of the project. Although the project will officially begin in September, you can use this time to think about the project. This is an interesting project."

Vera nodded her head politely while her golden hair swayed like a squirrel's tail.

"I understand, anything else?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Nope, you can go back now."

Vera packed her things and happily said goodbye to Lu Zhou. She then turned around and left Lu Zhou's office.

As Lu Zhou looked at her slim body, he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh wait, one more thing."

Vera stopped her footsteps and turned around to look at him.

"I might be a bit presumptuous here, so I hope you don't mind," said Lu Zhou as he pulled a document from his drawer and placed it on the table. He then added, "I know that your financial situation might not be the best right now, so I inquired about a scholarship from Princeton. Take this form and fill it out. I'll apply the scholarship for you tomorrow."

PhD scholarships were relatively easy to get, but a master's scholarship, especially full scholarship, was insanely difficult.

Normally speaking, if a student did not have a recommendation letter from a nutty supervisor, all the student could get was a half scholarship.

Especially in a place like Princeton where there were tons of nutty people around, it was beyond competitive.

Lu Zhou looked at Vera's eyes which were filled with surprise and continued, "I hope you won't delay your studies because of your financial situation. Don't go work part-time. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it, but remember, your knowledge is your power. If the full scholarship isn't enough, I can apply for a part-time teaching job for you."

Vera took the form from Lu Zhou and lowered her head. She did not speak for a long time.

She grabbed that document tightly and her face turned red as she bowed at Lu Zhou.

"Thank you!"

Lu Zhou did not know what just happened when the little girl just ran out of his office.

He felt a bit weird as he was sure that he did not say anything to offend her.

Honestly, because Chen Yushan would always call him "insensitive", he had been practicing his words beforehand.

Lu Zhou wondered why the little girl almost cried.

I did something good.

Hopefully, no one thinks otherwise…

That would be a pain in the ass.

Lu Zhou shook his head and decided not to think about this stuff. He took out his phone and looked at the time.

It was lunchtime.

He stretched and stood up from his office chair. He then looked at the finished project goal outline and could not help but smile.

Hail, also known as the Collatz conjecture, the legendary mathematical black hole! It was like a black hole that contained all natural numbers.

The general view of the mathematics community was that they were far from solving this problem. However, since Goldbach's conjecture which also created strong theoretical tools was solved, Lu Zhou felt like it was time to challenge it.

He thought about this challenging problem and felt full of energy.

As expected, mathematics is more interesting.

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After a long wait, Lu Zhou finally received a reply from Nature.

[Dear Professor Lu Zhou, we are surprised and excited about your research results. This is without a doubt a great invention. Your paper will be published in the next edition of Nature Chemistry…]

When Lu Zhou was reading this email on his computer screen, he could not help but smile.

This day finally came.

Once his thesis was published, then he could complete his reward mission.

He was looking forward to how much experience points he would get.

Also, it was not just about the experience points. Many people were bound to be interested in his patents.

In the same afternoon, Lu Zhou drove his Ford Explorer SUV to Philadelphia Airport.

He stopped his car and walked inside the airport. From far away, he saw a little girl wearing a hat while she dragged a suitcase behind her.

Lu Zhou instantly recognized Xiao Tong. He walked over and patted her shoulder from behind.

"Hey."

"Ah!"

Xiao Tong was surprised by the sudden tap.

She turned around and when she saw Lu Zhou, she was relieved but she still gave him a dirty look.

"Did you know that I nearly got a heart attack!"

Lu Zhou only wanted to give her a surprise. He had not expected her reaction.

I see you still treat me like this.

Don't know if you're going to transition smoothly into university life…

After Lu Zhou picked up Xiao Tong, they did not stay at the airport for long. He took her to the parking lot and was about to introduce her to his favorite car when Xiao Tong wandered around.

Lu Zhou was curious about what she was looking for and he asked, "What are you looking at?"

When Xiao Tong did not see what she expected, she asked, "Brother, why are you the only one picking me up?"

Lu Zhou, "…?"

Do you want a security guard or what?

Lu Zhou never realized what Xiao Tong was talking about.

Xiao Tong got in the backseat and did not wear her seatbelt. She started to curiously touch the interior of the car.

She suddenly said to her brother who was in the driver's seat, "Brother, are we going directly to Princeton?"

"Princeton isn't fun. Let's go shopping in Philadelphia," said Lu Zhou. He started the car but did not drive yet. Instead, he took out his phone and sent Chen Yushan a message.

"Oh…" said Xiao Tong. She then added with a sad tone, "But I want to go to Princeton."

Lu Zhou said, "There's nothing fun about that place."

"It's not all about fun. Dad and mom told me to see if you're taking care of yourself," said Xiao Tong. She then poked her head to the front seat and said, "Oh, and I have to inspect if you have found yourself a pretty girlfriend."

What is this?

So my parents sent you to spy on me?

Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head. However, his heart was full of warmth.

Even though he was in a foreign country, every time he thought about his family who cared for him from thousands of miles away, it made him felt less lonely.

"I'm taking care of myself well, as for a girlfriend… Tell them not to worry about it."

Xiao Tong said, "Hey, it's not up to you, I'm the one inspecting."

"Ok ok ok, Miss. Inspector. Please go ahead," said Lu Zhou with a smile. He then put away his phone and stepped on the gas pedal.

He was not familiar with Philadelphia as he had only been there a handful of times.

Fortunately, he had a friend that went to school here, who could show them around town.

However, he would owe Chen Yushan one.

…

The University of Pennsylvania was not far from the airport. Lu Zhou stopped the car in a nearby cafe and quickly saw Chen Yushan who was waving her hand at them.

Surprisingly, Chen Yushan was not alone.

Next to her, in a red and black summer dress, was Han Mengqi. If it was not because of the contrast between Han Mengqi's depressed look and Chen Yushan's excited look, they would really look like sisters.

Speaking of which, Lu Zhou had not seen his student since he went to CERN to participate in the European Research Summit. He had not expected to see her on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Lu Zhou was not too sure, so he called her name.

"Han Mengqi?"

When Han Mengqi heard the familiar voice, she suddenly looked up.

Then, she was stunned.

"Teacher?!"

When Han Mengqi saw the familiar face, her eyes popped wide opened.

Her cousin said that they were going to see a friend, but she did not mention who.

She did not expect that the friend was Lu Zhou?!

Suddenly, she remembered that she did not dress up at all. Not only did she not have makeup on, but she did not even brush her hair. Her cheeks turned red.

Suddenly, she noticed that there was a girl standing next to Lu Zhou, who was looking at her curiously.

Han Mengqi, who was somewhat confused, calmed down and hid behind her cousin.

Xiao Tong: ???

Lu Zhou did not notice Han Mengqi's change of emotion. He greeted Chen Yushan and said to Han Mengqi, "I haven't seen you in forever… When did you come to Philadelphia? I didn't even know."

It had been a year since Lu Zhou last saw Han Mengqi, but she did not grow taller at all.

Obviously, Mengqi had not been eating well since Lu Zhou left.

Since Han Mengqi had her head down and did not speak, Lu Zhou felt a little awkward.

Chen Yushan, who was standing next to her, sighed and patted her cousin's shoulder.

"My lovely cousin was in a bad mood, so she came out of the house with me."

Han Mengqi whispered, "Master, sorry for disappointing you."

This was the second time that Lu Zhou nearly chocked today.

It was like Xiao Tong heard a big piece of news. She looked at her brother and asked, "Master? What is this situation?"

Lu Zhou knocked his dirty-minded sister on the head and said, "What do you mean what situation is this? Didn't I tell you that I did some tutoring during my second year?"

Xiao Tong gasped.

Han Mengqi looked at Lu Zhou and Xiao Tong with confusion. She felt the relationship dynamic between the two was not what she expected.

Lu Zhou looked at her. He paused for a moment before saying, "I know what you're feeling right now, but I hope you're not discouraged. You did really well. When I first started to teach you, you couldn't even do basic elliptic equations. By the end, you were getting 130 on your tests consistently. I'm sure you noticed the improvement. If you didn't get in…"

Han Mengqi smiled and said, "I passed the requirement, but there were too many people applying for mathematics major this year…"

The f*ck, the mathematics department of the University of Jin Ling is popular now?

Lu Zhou was surprised that Han Mengqi did not get into mathematics.

The mathematics department of the University of Jin Ling rejects people?

When Dean Qin mentioned about the sudden influx in popularity, Lu Zhou thought that he was joking. It turned out that Dean Qin was not joking after all.

It seemed that he underestimated the influence of his "Mini Nobel Prize" and Goldbach's conjecture.

Honestly speaking, Kai University, Shuimu University, Yan University, and Shan University, all had better mathematics departments than the University of Jin Ling. The strength of the University of Jin Ling was physics. However, most undergraduate students did not know this fact.

I feel like I screwed over a lot of people…

But now is obviously not the time to point that out.

Lu Zhou immediately asked, "Then which course did you transfer to?"

Han Mengqi nearly cried, "Applied chemistry…"

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Chapter 265: Breaking News!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The chemistry course might not be the best, but it was not that different from biology and materials science. There were still a lot of students enrolled in chemistry.

One of the reasons was the element of danger, especially in organic chemistry, which frequently dealt with reagents. Even if one followed the safety manual, there was no guarantee that nothing would happen. When an accident happened, one might not even realize it.

The other one was the salary. Even though the rankings for the salary of fresh graduate often put applied chemistry near the top, the actual situation was different.

However, Lu Zhou knew that Han Mengqi did not have to worry about the salary.

Even if she did not cut it in chemistry, she could always rely on her rich mother…

Chen Yushan was sitting in the passenger seat while she directed Lu Zhou. The four spent the whole day hanging out in Philadelphia.

Maybe because of the joyful atmosphere in Philadelphia, Han Mengqi started to feel a lot better.

Still, the happiest was Xiao Tong. She had infinite energy, and she never stopped talking.

Due to Xiao Tong's extroverted personality, she made friends with Chen Yushan and Meng Qi easily. They exchanged Wechat and QQ details in the fast food restaurant.

After Xiao Tong heard that Meng Qi also played Honor of Kings, she stopped eating her hamburger and opened the game on her phone.

Han Mengqi looked at Xiao Tong's phone and said, "You also play Honor of Kings?"

Xiao Tong said proudly, "I do, I do. I'm great."

Interested, Han Mengqi asked, "What rank are you?"

"Diamond!" said Xiao Tong. She added confidently, "But right now I'm still at the bronze rank, but I know that I deserve to be at the diamond. It's only a matter of time."

Han Mengqi: "…"

Chen Yushan bit her straw and smiled at the two's conversation, whereas Lu Zhou rolled his eyes.

Lu Zhou thought, "Without doubt, Xiao Tong is definitely diamond in "stubbornness".

As for other areas, she's a bit behind…

…

After Xiao Tong came, Lu Zhou's life did not undergo drastic changes. The only difference was that he had one more person to take care of, and he started to sleep on the sofa instead of the bed.

His original plan after returning to Princeton was to move out of his student apartment, but he still had not found a new place yet.

He had two choices. One was the teachers' apartment of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. The other was a two-story mansion with a front yard and garage located between Princeton Institute for Advanced Study and the main campus.

Although it said it was a mansion, it was only to sound more elegant. This kind of small cottage was very common in America. Lu Zhou had even seen them in American TV shows before. The average price was between $200,000 and $300,000 USD, and the rest was not expensive.

Lu Zhou wanted to choose the latter because of the convenient parking spot, but the owner was a stubborn New Yorker who only wanted to sell and not rent. Lu Zhou only had $500,000 USD right now, and even though he had the money, he did not want to buy a house just for a few years.

After all, after a few years, he would return to China.

Although Lu Zhou wanted to consider other houses, they were either a bad fit or rented out already, so he put the situation of him moving on hold.

Fortunately, Xiao Tong was not picky about where she lived. She would ask Lu Zhou to drive her to Philadelphia and she would hang out with Chen Yushan. Other than that, she did not bother Lu Zhou much.

Lu Zhou's relaxed lifestyle would continue until the end of August when the new issue of Nature Chemistry would be released.

…

At the end of August, the Rio Olympics had just ended. The Olympics was still in the news when a piece of technology-related news quietly went on the newspapers.

The reason for this was because it was a thesis published in Nature.

The title was simple, but it grabbed the attention of the entire world.

It was not because of Lu Zhou.

Most people would not bat an eye if someone claimed to have come up with a new PDMS material that could solve the lithium dendrites problem.

The reason was that this was a Nature thesis!

The quiet and calm materials science field was suddenly attacked by a storm.

Although this was not the first time the materials science community was shocked by a lithium battery "breakthrough", this time was different. The reason was that the reviewer was Professor Bawendi, and according to Bawendi, he had repeated the experiment and received amazing results.

This was obviously breaking news.

Within a few days of the thesis publication, the thesis went into Science highlights.

The highlights were similar to re-tweeting.

For example, when a person published a thesis in journal A and made a major breakthrough, journal B would then find an expert in the field of the thesis to summarize the thesis and then post it in their journal.

This type of occurrence was common in the fields of biology and chemistry. It was nothing rare. However, a Nature thesis highlighted by Science was quite rare.

The academic community was almost fanatic.

If this thesis was real, then most of them would not suffer loses. Rather, they would receive gains.

The reason was simple. The battery industry was mainly focused on the problem of lithium dendrites. If the problem of lithium dendrites was solved, then there would be a large amount of research and development funds flooding into this field.

Even though some laboratories and experiments researching negative electrode materials would die off, more funds and grants would come in.

Therefore, within a week, almost 80% of lithium battery laboratories had ran repeated experiments on this thesis.

This grand occasion caught the attention of the press.

A reporter from the Columbia Radio and Television Science Technology section gave an interview to Professor Kerr from Cornell University.

Coincidentally, when the Colombian reporter arrived, Professor Kerr's laboratory was doing the final stages of the experiment.

Professor Kerr answered the questions seriously.

"… Our research team is repeating the experiment. If this isn't an accident, then this technology will undoubtedly change the face of the entire industry… "

"… Because neither the lithium-sulfur battery nor the lithium-air battery can solve the problem of dendrites. If the problem of lithium dendrite can be solved on the negative electrode material, we don't even have to make drastic changes to the battery design. We just have to change the negative electrode material."

The reporter's eyes sparkled with excitement when he heard Professor Kerr's answer.

There was no doubt that he was interviewing a piece of breaking news.

"But Professor Kerr, the feedback we received from the IBM lithium battery project group was pessimistic about this technology. What do you think about this?"

Professor Kerr thought and said, "This situation is normal. Every once in a while, a laboratory would claim to have solved the problem of lithium dendrites. It is necessary to be cautious. Honestly speaking, I'm still suspicious, because the ideas and solutions presented by the author aren't new."

The reporter immediately asked, "Why do you say this?"

Professor Kerr, "Because our current practice is to increase the viscosity of the electrolyte, or even use solid materials. To make a carbon material structure on the lithium negative electrode, the lithium metal has to be limited in shape after discharge. Therefore, when charging it, it can ensure that the negative electrode structure does not collapse after all the lithium enters the positive electrode. The design of the coating film used by Professor Lu on the negative electrode material has actually been tried many times in many laboratories 20 years ago. And…"

Reporter, "And?"

Professor Kerr shrugged and said, "And he's a mathematics professor. I don't know about this new computational materials field, but I also know that building models often isn't enough."

Suddenly, a cheering sound came from the laboratory.

Professor Kerr and the reporter were stunned.

Reporter, "What happened?"

Professor Kerr looked at his assistant before he turned to look at the reporter with a strange look.

"I don't know… I think the experiment is successful?"

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Chapter 266: Level 3 Materials Science

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Professor Kerr's speculation was correct.

He returned to the laboratory and was surprised that the sample placed in the scanning electron microscope did not have smokes and it did not explode.

From the interception of several SEM images, he could see that the lithium ions were gradually deposited on the electrode, and protected by the modified PDMS film, it looked like a beautiful silver tundra.

This layer of "tundra" did not grow as wild as other lithium batteries. Instead, the lithium dendrites laid quietly beneath the modified PDMS film, undulated.

The signs of nucleation did not seem to have happened, or if it did, it seemed to have been diverted.

If no accidents happened, this state would continue until the entire charging process was completed.

Without a doubt, they had successfully recreated the experiment.

"Incredible…"

Professor Kerr stood next to the computer and looked at the images generated. He could not believe what he was seeing.

Although he saw similar images in Nature Chemistry, it was different seeing the images in person.

The Colombian reporter standing behind him was confused. He did not know what the researchers were happy about.

Even though he was witnessing a great moment, he could not understand what the SEM images meant.

Out of confusion, he spoke out loud, "Professor?"

Professor Kerr looked at the reporter with a fascinated expression.

"What?"

He was very happy, very very happy.

If the lithium dendrites problem were solved, his laboratory would directly benefit from it. He believed that with one more MRS meeting, his laboratory would receive tens or even hundreds of millions of USD in investment.

The industry would reinvest into lithium batteries.

The reporter gulped and asked, "What is the situation?"

Professor Kerr looked at him with a positive look and said, "I can now responsibly tell you that it was successful."

Perhaps he thought his statement was not shocking enough, so he paused for a second before he continued, "In half a year, maybe a year, you'll be able to use your phone for a week straight. In a few years, you'll be able to drive a Tesla car for thousands of miles… Trust me, I'm definitely a lot more reliable than the media."

Although he was slightly exaggerating, he was not far from reality.

Lithium-ion batteries were mainly based on graphite anodes. The theoretical specific capacity of graphite could be calculated by the product LiC6, which was 372 mAh/g. This figure could be increased in the lab to 747 mAh/g with graphene technology.

As for the theoretical specific energy capacity of lithium?

It was 3860mAh/g.

Although these were all theoretical figures, it was still a good ballpark.

The lithium metal and polydimethylsiloxane were also affordable.

…

[Congratulations, User, for completing the reward mission!]

[Mission completion details are as follows: Solve the problem of lithium dendrites]

[Final mission evaluation: None (Reward missions have no evaluation)]

[Mission reward: 70,000 materials science experience points, 10,000 biochemistry experience points, debris.]

In a pure white system space…

Lu Zhou looked at the experience points on the holographic panel and could not help but smirk.

No wonder this thing was high tech. Even a small battery brought him a considerable amount of experience points.

The amount would not be much for mathematics, but since it was on biochemistry and materials science, Lu Zhou felt like he was sitting on a rocket.

This was probably the most enjoyable reward mission he had ever done.

"System, open my characteristic panel!"

A white light flashed and Lu Zhou's personal data appeared.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 5 (54,000/300,000)

B. Physics: Level 3 (53,100/100,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 2 (4,000/50,000)

D. Engineering: Level 1 (0/10,000)

E. Materials science: Level 3 (13,000/100,000)

F. Energy science: Level 1 (0/10,000)

G. Information science: Level 1 (3,000/10,000)

General points: 2,475

]

Materials science was now Level 3, same as physics. Biochemistry also leveled up, now Level 2.

However, even though Lu Zhou read a lot of materials science textbooks, he was not an expert in this field. Therefore, he did not feel that his knowledge had increased from the effects of leveling up.

At least, it did not feel like when he leveled up in mathematics.

Maybe, biochem and material sci were not as dependent on "inspiration".

After Lu Zhou closed his characteristic panel, he looked over to his inventory.

Debris No. 2 was in the inventory. It looked like a black cube, similar to a Rubik's cube. It had a very fascinating appearance.

Lu Zhou could tell that this was different than the battery debris. Lu Zhou took it out from the inventory and looked at it for a long time. He had no idea what it was.

High tech toy?

It doesn't look like it.

There's no way it is a weapon.

The most fascinating thing was that there were no markings at all on this cube. Lu Zhou almost thought that there was something wrong with it.

Lu Zhou put this thing aside and looked at his mission panel.

The reward mission was completed.

Now it was his "multiple choice question" time.

I hope that the system will give me some interesting missions.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and pressed the mission button.

[

Mission 1: Keep improving

Description: The technology of lithium anode materials is not only modified by the polydimethylsiloxane film, but also the carbon nanospheres with flat cross-section folds.

Requirements: Successfully prepare the product in a laboratory, and write a thesis.

Reward: 50,000 materials science experience points. 500 general points. 1 chance of lucky draw (85% garbage, 9% sample, 6% blueprints)

]

[

Mission 2: Even a great job needs economic support

Description: The laboratory is like a black hole. Before the project is completed, it sucks in money endlessly. Maybe you are confident in your work, but your partners might not be. Instead of being a liability, try to raise money.

Requirements: From the beginning of the mission until the end of the year (December 31, 2016), calculate the user's gain in assets.

Reward: 1-??? free experience points ($1000 USD = 1 experience point). 500 General points. One lucky draw ticket (80% garbage, 10% special, 7% samples, 3% blueprints).

]

[

Mission 3: Research isn't done by one person

Description: The value of a top researcher is not only how much research he has done, but also how much talents he has cultivated. Although many scholars have passed away, they have left their influence and changed the future.

Requirements: Help at least one student complete their master's thesis.

Reward: 1-??? experience points (experience point subject depends on the academic value of thesis and student participation). 500 general points. One lucky draw ticket (50% garbage, 30% samples, 20% blueprints)

]

Lu Zhou stared at these three missions for a long time.

The carbon nanospheres with cross sections were important, but it was not crucial.

For the advanced civilizations that created this defect, the folds were unacceptable. Still, for any battery manufacturer on earth, the folds were negligible.

After all, the modified polydimethylsiloxane film determined the vitality of the product while the former only determined the market competitiveness of the product.

The superiority of the lithium anode material would completely destroy the graphite anodes.

The most important thing was that, even if Lu Zhou knew the molecular structure and three-dimensional conceptual image, those hollow carbon nanospheres could not be created.

For these two reasons, Mission 1 could be eliminated.

As for Mission 3, it was attractive, but it was very difficult to accomplish in the short term.

Even though the Group Structure Method paved the way for many propositions in additive number theory, the Collatz conjecture was beyond the scopes of the ability of Lu Zhou's students. Even for Vera…

Although Lu Zhou could do it himself, he remembered that the experience points were determined by the student's participation. He could solve a major conjecture, but the experience points would be too low.

After some consideration, Lu Zhou chose Mission 2.

It was the end of August, not far from the end of the year. Although the 1000:1 conversion ratio was a bit low, Lu Zhou thought about his patents and how he could still earn a lot of experience points.

The only thing that he was curious about was what the 10% special was.

He had such a small probability of winning it…

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After choosing Mission 2, Lu Zhou exited the system space and regained his consciousness.

He stood up from his desk and was about to make himself a cup of coffee when he heard Xiao Tong screaming from the living room.

"Bro! You're on TV!"

"TV?"

Lu Zhou walked to the TV and looked at the screen.

The screen was showing Lu Zhou receiving the Crafoord Prize medal from the King of Sweden. The narration was his personal summary.

Then the screen changed to a university laboratory.

Professor Kerr, who was interviewed by a Colombian reporter, spoke in an excited tone.

"In half a year, maybe a year, you'll be able to use your phone for a week straight. In a few years, you'll be able to drive a Tesla car thousands of miles… Trust me, I'm definitely a lot more reliable than the media."

The interview continued.

Two minutes passed before the channel went onto the next piece of news.

When Lu Zhou turned around, he saw his sister staring at him with shining eyes.

"What?"

Xiao Tong asked excitedly, "Bro! What is the patent about?"

Oh, you're pretty smart.

So you know what a patent is?

Lu Zhou looked at his sister and said, "It's related to lithium batteries, materials science. You won't understand the specifics."

"Patent?" Xiao Tong's eyes lit up as she said, "Is it worth a lot?"

Greedy girl!

All you think about is money when knowledge is real wealth!

Lu Zhou shook his head and smiled.

Honestly speaking, he did not know how much the patent was worth.

However, since the patent was the key to the technology, it should be worth a lot.

"Do you want to know?"

Xiao Tong nodded and said, "Yes!"

"Go read some books if you want to know. In the future, you can manage my finances and you'll know how much it's worth."

"I'll give you a nice salary."

Lu Zhou laughed as Xiao Tong protested. He then turned around and walked to his computer desk.

Humblebragging is addictive.

…

Originally Lu Zhou thought that one thesis would not change his life that much.

When he proved Goldbach's conjecture and won the Crafoord Prize, even though the media continuously reported his name, his personal life did not experience much change. At least there was no one shaking his hand in public.

This was also why Lu Zhou did not reject media interviews.

However, this thesis in Nature was different.

The general public did not even know the difference between lithium batteries and lithium ion batteries. Therefore, this thesis was not as sensational as the Goldbach's conjecture. Still, for the entire battery industry, this thesis had produced a crazy sensational effect…

Although no one asked for his signature on the street, his phone was ringing non-stop.

"Hello, Professor Lu Zhou. We are Jermason Nano Materials Co from Silicon Valley. We're very interested in the modified PDMS film technology you published in Nature Chemistry. Are you interested in collaborating with our laboratory?"

Another collaboration offer…

Lu Zhou was annoyed.

"Sorry, I'm busy. I still have to give tasks to my students. If it's something important, try to say it a little more clearly. If not, I'll hang up."

When the other side heard that Lu Zhou was being impatient, they started to talk quickly.

"The thing is that we have an RD agreement with Umicore on electrode materials. If you want to sell your parents, you can get a higher price through our RD agreement."

Lu Zhou hung up the phone and threw it on the sofa. He then walked to his kitchen and took out two eggs.

Since Nature and Science placed highlights on his thesis, this was the 16th call he received.

Honestly, if the industry recognized this technology, Lu Zhou was willing to license it to a reliable company for production and to receive a certain return from it.

After all, he could not do the production himself. Laboratory experiments and industrial production were two completely different things. Even if the patent could give him a certain cost advantage, Lu Zhou knew that his inexperience in raw material channels, product development, product marketing, and etc was unsolvable.

He would rather spend his time doing something else.

The best choice was to license the patent to a reputable company and then charge them a patent fee.

However, he could consider registering an offshore company in a place like the Caymans and hired some experts to manage his patent.

He should forget about factory production.

What bothered Lu Zhou the most was that most of the phone calls were from "MIT XX Materials Science Lab", or "Silicon Valley Materials Science Research", and most of them wanted to discuss patent cooperation.

Yet, when he asked about the contents of the cooperation, most of them wanted to be a middle man on his patent.

Lu Zhou was not dumb. He knew that the patent rights was in his hands.

He knew the value of his patent. When the time arrived, he would negotiate with an enterprise directly. He did not have to bother dealing with a laboratory.

Xiao Tong rubbed her eyes and walked out of the bedroom in her pajamas. She asked while yawning, "Bro, who were you calling?"

"Nothing, insurance seller."

Lu Zhou made two bacon and egg sandwiches. He placed them on the table and poured Xiao Tong a glass of milk.

Xiao Tong sat down on the dining table, She tilted her head and said, "But I heard the word 'patent'."

This kid, you're not even fully awake yet, how did you hear that?

Lu Zhou: "…"

Xiao Tong proposed, "If you can't decide, why don't you ask Sister Shan Shan? She's an MBA student at the University of Pennsylvania, this thing should be easy for her."

Lu Zhou looked at Xiao Tong and asked, "How do you know about her major?"

He remembered that he had never told Xiao Tong what Chen Yushan studied.

Xiao Tong rolled her eyes and said, "I talk to her on WeChat. Didn't I tell you I'm applying for a finance major? Sister Shan Shan even gave me some useful advice."

Lu Zhou, "I'll ask her if it's necessary."

Xiao Tong ate her delicious sandwich and sighed. She chewed and said, "That's why, a real man has to take lead, otherwise when the time comes… Hey! What are you doing, it hurts!"

Xiao Tong was knocked on the head. She looked up at Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou did not use any force at all, so he knew Xiao Tong was pretending.

"What kind of pervert mind do you have?"

Lu Zhou, who just made breakfast for Xiao Tong, left her alone and walked into the kitchen.

He took his sandwich and sat down at his computer desk. He would then routinely checked his email.

Coincidentally, there was one unread email in his inbox.

Lu Zhou guessed that it was probably from some random laboratory. He nearly deleted the email.

MRS meeting invitation

His eyebrows jumped, a look of interest appeared on his face.

Interesting…

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Chapter 268: Hail Conjecture

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The MRS conference was one of the regular academic activities of the American Society for Materials Research and was the most influential conference in the field of materials science.

It covered almost all research directions in the field of materials science, and its status was probably equivalent to the "International Conference of Mathematicians", but in the field of materials science. Almost all of the material science scholars would attend the conference.

However, unlike the "International Conference of Mathematicians" which was held once every four years, the MRS conference was held twice a year, once in spring and once in autumn. Spring one was generally in Phoenix, Arizona, while the autumn one was usually in Boston, Massachusetts.

The main purpose of the conference was to show off the technology to the industry. Laboratories could connect with rich companies for funding. It also gave a chance for people to catfight with their peers.

Yes, catfight.

It would be strange for someone to throw a show on stage. If the conference was quiet, and everyone calmly exchanged ideas, praised each other's technology… Then the industry people would have doubts.

The nuttier people were, the more they would try to catfight others.

This type of situation would not be seen at mathematics conferences.

In some sense, the style of mathematics was different than other disciplines.

As a mathematics professor, Lu Zhou was not interested in catfighting.

However, this conference was still an opportunity for him.

Also, since MRS sent him an invitation, there must have been a lot of people interested in his research.

Of course, Lu Zhou did not forget who he was.

He was a mathematics professor.

No matter what, he was still a mathematician. He could not let his mathematics level fall behind because that level determined the upper limit level of his other subjects.

On the last day of August, Lu Zhou sat in his office at the Institute of Advanced Studies. He was testing his two other students.

10 questions, two-hour limit.

After handing them the test, Lu Zhou sat in his chair and picked up a book.

Time slowly passed by…

When Lu Zhou's phone rang, he closed the book and looked at the two people who were struggling with the test.

"Time's up, let me see the results of your studies for the past six weeks."

Hardy put down his pen reluctantly. Qin Yue did the same. They were both nervous.

"Professor, the time frame you gave was way too short," said Hardy. He got up and handed Lu Zhou the paper as he said, "I can definitely solve another question in 10 minutes."

"The time frame isn't important. I'm not asking you guys to solve every question. I want to test what you know."

Lu Zhou took the two test papers and looked at the questions.

For him, these were all very simple questions. He could ballpark the answer in his head.

Qin Yue was up to question six, and he was halfway through question seven. His thought process was correct.

In general, not bad. This was what Lu Zhou expected.

Hardy did five. He had barely completed the requirement. This was somewhat unexpected.

Lu Zhou thought that there would at least be one person failing the test and it would most likely be Hardy because he was the most impetuous student out of the three.

However, it seemed that all three of them were qualified to participate in his research project.

Lu Zhou placed the test papers aside. He then cleared his throat and said, "First of all, congratulations on joining my research project."

When Hardy heard this, his eyes widened in surprise. Qin Yue also had a strange expression.

Lu Zhou said in a relaxed tone, "My passing requirement is five questions. If you could complete five questions, that means you followed my task and didn't waste the past month and a half… "

"… As for the details of our research project, I'll explain it shortly."

Lu Zhou took a sip of his coffee before he stood up. He then walked over to his whiteboard and picked up a marker.

Vera was sitting in the corner of the office, quietly reading documents. She stopped and as the other students, she looked at the whiteboard.

"Six weeks ago, I told you guys that the research project is related to hail."

"If you know your additive number theory, then you guys have probably already guessed what the research project is."

Qin Yue and Hardy nodded.

As per what Lu Zhou said, they already guessed what the research project was.

As for Vera, she obviously knew about it since she joined the research project two weeks ago.

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, "The so-called Hail conjecture, also known as the Collatz conjecture, or 3n1 problem, describes that for any positive integer N, after continuous iteration of fokn(n) = 1, it would fall into the trap of {4,2,1}…"

"… Simply speaking, start with any positive integer n. Then each term is obtained from the previous term as follows: If the previous term is even, the next term is one half the previous term. If the previous term is odd, the next term is 3 times the previous term plus 1. The conjecture is that no matter what value of n, the sequence will always reach 1."

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then smiled and added, "It's like a black hole."

Hail's conjecture was no doubt more popular than Goldbach's conjecture.

In the 1970s, almost all of the America Universities were delving into this magical "number game". This phenomenon was even reported in the "Washington Post".

Of course, for most people, this was just a game of numbers, but for mathematicians, this was something deeper.

"This is a number theory problem, and one of the classics in additive number theory. But, the essence is actually a complex analysis problem!"

"… The Collatz conjecture will be your mission for the next three years. I'm not asking you guys to fully prove this conjecture, but you should all at least complete one thesis worthy of publication…"

Lu Zhou picked up the pen and wrote down an equation on the whiteboard.

[h(z3)=h(z6){h(z2)λh(λz2)λ2h(λ2z2)}/3z] (where λ=e {2πi/3}]

When Qin Yue saw this line of equations, he took out his notebook. Even Hardy also started to pay attention.

As for Vera, she was as focused as ever.

"The community is pessimistic about this problem. In fact, the number theory community has made no progress on this problem."

"In 1994, Professor L. Berg and G. Meindardus proved that the conjecture is equivalent to the function h(z3), which is what I wrote on the whiteboard… "

"… This equation placed down the first brick to solving this problem…"

Some things could not be described in words.

Lu Zhou turned around and continued to write on the whiteboard.

[g(z)=z/2(1cosπz)(z1/2)/21/π(1/2cosπz)sinπzh(z)sin2πz satisfies: NΦ(g)]

[…]

Vera looked at the lines of equations and her eyes lit up.

Hardy and Qin Yue also have a thoughtful expression.

Lu Zhou finally stopped writing and placed the marker on the table. He smiled at his three students.

"This step is crucial… "

"… If you can prove that there is an integer function h(z), for each g(z) above, each branch of Φ(g) containing a positive integer has z0D, so that [gok(z0)] converges. To 1…"

Lu Zhou paused for a second and looked at the three faces of anticipation. He then smiled and said in a positive tone, "Therefore, we can prove that…"

"3n1 is true!"

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Chapter 269: Division of Labor

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou developed a big framework for the entire research project.

This framework contained the problems to be considered in solving this conjecture, and the most crucial problem of all was on how to expand the Group Structure Method on this problem.

After all, this was Lu Zhou's most powerful weapon.

After that, Lu Zhou began delegating work to his students.

Hardy's thinking was more active, so he was responsible for collecting research documents and presenting ideas.

Qin Yue was good at calculations, so he should be a good partner.

As for Vera, her style was similar to Lu Zhou. She was good at independent thinking. Forcing a person like her into a group discussion would actually affect her normal performance. This was why Lu Zhou chose to work independently when Deligne asked if he wanted to join his research project.

After some consideration, Lu Zhou decided to put her into Group B and to work on a parallel level with Hardy and Qin Yue, who were in Group A.

The groups would work independently and each of them would research on different issues involved in the proposition. Then, an exchange of ideas meeting would go on every two weeks, and a report presentation of the progress will go on every month.

This type of model was common on some large research teams. Some nutty boss would often take on many students, but putting those students into one giant group would actually decrease the efficiency of the research team.

Lu Zhou learned this from the other professors at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

While Lu Zhou was assigning everyone their tasks, he heard a knocking sound from his office door.

Lu Zhou was about to open the door but Hardy stood up and walked over to the door.

The door opened, Professor Chirik stood outside.

Professor Chirik walked in with a Brazilian guy next to him. He then talked to Lu Zhou with an excited tone.

"That thesis was yours?! The one on Nature? No I mean, 'Lu Zhou', that's you?"

He was too excited, so his sentences were a little incoherent. He even pronounced Lu Zhou incorrectly.

Lu Zhou was scared that this guy was going to hug him, so he took a step back and said, "Yeah, why?"

Is there another Professor Lu Zhou at Princeton?

Professor Chirik did not hug him, but he took a deep breath and calmed down.

Then, he spoke with disbelief.

"God… You're an absolute genius!"

This flattery caught Lu Zhou off guard.

Lu Zhou smiled embarrassedly as he said, "I'm not god…"

Professor Chirik, who was out of breath, nearly choked on Lu Zhou's words.

He said, "It's just a figure of speech, I'm not really saying you are god… Anyway, how did you do it? Analytically calculate the materials? Estimate a range?"

What surprised Professor Chirik was not how the modified PDMS produced such a magical effect, but how Professor Lu Zhou was the one to discover this material.

Although computational materials science had made significant progress as a field, major research results were unheard of. The mainstream practice was to repeatedly do experiments, then analyze the material, then do more experiments.

It was not just Chirik. Many people were curious about how Lu Zhou discovered this product.

Lu Zhou knew exactly what he was curious about, so he was not surprised.

In fact, he did learn some useful techniques when making mathematical models.

However, his material was discovered with a scanner gun…

Lu Zhou thought for a second before he said, "I can't explain it to you easily, plus I'm arranging tasks for my students. MRS has already sent me an invitation letter, asking me to report on this issue. If you're interested, come to my report."

"MRS? Rest assured, I won't miss it! Honestly, if I wasn't so busy these days, I'd come and study under you," said Professor Chirik said with a half-joking tone.

Lu Zhou obviously did not take this seriously. Instead, he smiled and said, "If you're interested in number theory, I don't mind accepting a professor as a PhD student, but I haven't planned the materials science course yet. Honestly, I don't know how to appropriately develop this course."

"In any case, Princeton 'birthed' another billionaire," said Princeton Chirik as he patted Lu Zhou's arm. He then said, "I know you mathematics professors aren't interested in money, but regardless, let me buy you a drink. Don't forget, I was the one that lent you the laboratory!"

Billionaire was a bit exaggerating, but multi-millionaire was no problem.

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "For sure."

Professor Chirik then left.

The three students stared at Lu Zhou's back.

When Lu Zhou turned around, he was stunned and he waved his hand.

"Why are you guys looking at me, go do your stuff."

Qin Yue and Hardy exchanged glances.

Although they did not know what their boss was talking about, they knew what a billionaire was.

They felt like…

They had chosen an incredible boss.

…

The other side of the Pacific Ocean.

At the carbon nanomaterials laboratory in the University of Jin Ling, the experiment had entered the second half stage.

Under Professor Li Rongen's direction, Qian Zhongming placed the battery sample under an electron microscope and connected it to the Bk-6808 battery tester.

As the image data came through, Professor Li Rongen's expression became more and more serious.

A long time passed by…

He stared at the computer screen and suddenly, he broke into a smile.

"Impressive…"

Professor Li Rongen shook his head and took off his glasses. He had only said two words but his heart was beating non-stop.

If it was a normal lithium battery, even with a tough film, the charging process would cause the battery to start generating dead lithium, due to the tip nucleation effect.

However, this unremarkable modified PDMS material was able to inhibit the growing of lithium dendrites by several uncomplicated processes, like the hydrofluoric acid treatment of polydimethylsiloxane and the final spin coating method.

This caused him to think back to 2013 when the ABX3 crystalline perovskite photovoltaic material was rated as one of the world's top ten scientific breakthroughs. Back then, it had greatly progressed the solar panel industry.

At that time, people were surprised. The steps to prepare the material was too simple. It was basically to mix the two salts, stir it, spin it, then dry it off.

This type of PDMS material was the same.

The production process was not complicated, and the raw materials that were needed were inexpensive.

This was exactly what the industry needed.

Liu Bo, who stood next to Qian Zhongming, could not help but speak emotionally.

"That guy really is a genius…"

"Yeah," Qian Zhongming pushed his glasses and nodded with approval, "Really is a genius."

Qian Zhongming remembered how he was the one to teach Lu Zhou how to use the equipment, yet he could not help but wonder.

Is computational materials science really so magical?

Maybe the next time I see him, I'll have to ask him to teach me mathematics.

Professor Li Rongen looked at the images produced by the electron microscope. He suddenly said, "This year I plan on going to the MRS Conference at America, who wants to come?"

Liu Bo and Qian Zhongming both put their hand up.

Neither of them wanted to miss the conference.

Professor Li shook his head. With a smile, he said, "Okay then, we're all going."

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Chapter 270: A Responsible Boss

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The autumn wind turned the leaves on the treetops yellow.

It was finally September, the students who were on a three-month long vacation began to return to campus. The empty Princeton campus finally became lively again.

At the same time, Xiao Tong, who has been vacationing in Princeton for the past two weeks, had to say goodbye.

Lu Zhou drove her to the airport and pulled out her suitcase from the trunk.

Xiao Tong took the suitcase and had a sad expression as she said, "Brother, I'm leaving."

"Yeah, be careful. Go back home directly after you land," said Lu Zhou. He felt a little worried, so he said, "Screw it, I'll go buy a ticket and send you home myself."

"No, no," said Xiao Tong as she waved her hand. She forced a smile as she said, "I'm not a kid anymore, I can take care of myself."

Lu Zhou had a smile of relief.

"Yeah, you're right, you're old now. Oh yeah, about mom… "

Xiao Tong said, "Don't worry about it, I'll tell mom not to worry!"

Lu Zhou nodded and joked, "Then thank you, Miss Inspector!"

After he bade farewell to Xiao Tong, Lu Zhou stood on the sidewalk and watched her walked into the airport.

Xiao Tong stopped at the entrance of the airport. She then looked back and waved her hands.

Lu Zhou smiled at his sister and waved back.

Coincidentally, while he was waving, an acquaintance approached him.

Molina was dragging her suitcase out of the airport when she noticed Lu Zhou waving. She was stunned.

Obviously, she had not expected to see Lu Zhou because she did not tell anyone which flight she was taking.

She clearly misunderstood the situation.

Molina had a smirk on her lips as she walked toward Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou noticed her as well.

He was about to say hello, but she spoke first.

"Thanks, I really didn't expect you to come to pick me up."

Molina walked past Lu Zhou and put her suitcase into Lu Zhou's car trunk.

She then looked at him and with her blonde hair gently swaying, she said, "Since you gave me such a nice surprise, I won't ask where you got my flight information."

She opened the car seat and sat on the passenger seat.

Lu Zhou looked at her and did not react. Molina was stunned. She frowned and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "No problem, I'm going back to Princeton anyway…"

Although Lu Zhou sounded a bit weird, Molina was in a good mood so she did not care.

Lu Zhou opened the door and sat in the driver's seat. He was about to start the car but he hesitated.

Although it was not a big deal to pick someone up, and Molina had picked him up before, Lu Zhou did not want to have any misunderstandings so he felt it was necessary to clarify.

Therefore, before he started the car, he said, "By the way, I was actually here to send my sister back to China."

Molina, "…?"

…

After Xiao Tong returned to China, Lu Zhou's life returned to normal again.

Over the next few days, he would either be at the Institute for Advanced Study, Frick Chemistry Laboratory, or his apartment.

In order to build a logically self-consistent mathematical model, and to complete his PowerPoint, he needed to do more experiments.

Although this sounded cumbersome, it was not that bad.

For a mathematician, especially one who was involved in mathematical physics, building the model after obtaining the results from the experiments was a piece of cake.

Of course, this was not only for those materials scientists that did not understand mathematics.

A rigor mathematical model could accurately predict the physical properties of an untested material. It could also provide a reference to the experimenter.

For example, it could narrow down the scope of the experiment.

Also, Lu Zhou needed to perform multiple Coulomb cycles on this sample in order to promote the technology. He had to compare the performance of the two materials by using a graphite negative electrode as the control group.

The academic community was concerned with breakthroughs. The market was concerned with a series of production issues such as safety and costs. More results meant a higher bargaining power for Lu Zhou.

The only thing that annoyed him was that the experiments took a long time. As for the experiment that required expensive types of equipment, he had to personally keep an eye on the progress.

Normally a boss would not personally do this stuff. Instead, they would delegate it to someone down under. However, Lu Zhou was a mathematics professor. Since all of his students were in the field of mathematics, they could not help him at all.

Thankfully, Professor Chirik solved this problem for him.

He had a lot of students and except for a few who often did experiments and attended conferences, most of them were free.

When Lu Zhou heard that he had more than a dozen master's students, he nearly choked.

"A dozen? How can you manage so many at once?"

Professor Chirik said nonchalantly, "Find a few talented ones and train them. For the rest, don't bother with them."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Sure enough, a good scholar doesn't mean you are a good supervisor.

This guy must've sent offers out like candies, and ruined the academic careers of some students.

Lu Zhou suddenly wondered if as a boss, he was a bit too responsible…

…

In any case, he had found his helper.

The next day, Professor Chirik brought his student over to Lu Zhou.

This young student was tall and well-built. It did not look like he did research. Instead, he looked like he was a rugby player.

However, Lu Zhou was not too weirded out.

Professor Chirik walked in and said, "This is Connie, the one I told you about. He's well versed in computer science, organic chemistry, and applied mathematics, he should be able to help you."

That Connie guy warmly reached out his hand and looked at Lu Zhou with worship reflected in his eyes.

"Hello, Professor Lu, very nice to meet you!"

Lu Zhou shook his hand and smiled.

"Hello."

Professor Chirik patted Connie's shoulder and said, "Okay, Connie, I already explained what you need to do. You're facing the top computational materials science professor at Princeton, so study hard, and don't humiliate me."

Connie smiled and said, "Rest assured professor, I won't let you down."

Lu Zhou coughed and said, "I'm not exactly the top, I just did a little work."

"No no no, don't need to be humble," said Professor Chirik as he waved his hand. He then said with a serious tone, "There have been many theses published in Nature over the past decade, but not many have caused such a sensation. It's no exaggeration to say that you have changed the industry personally. The work you did was undoubtedly great."

Lu Zhou smiled and did not respond.

It would be up to the world to decide if it was great.

With the addition of Connie, Lu Zhou was finally freed from the tedious and boring repetitive work.

Maybe it was because this guy had been benched by Professor Chirik for too long, he worked quite hard for Lu Zhou.

No matter how late he worked, he would still arrive at the laboratory at six o'clock the next morning.

Two and a half busy months passed by quickly.

Finally, before Black Friday in November, Lu Zhou made six samples of lithium batteries after completing the Coulomb cycle 1000-2000 times.

The results were gratifying. Other than a small dent in the negative electrode material, there were no lithium dendrites forming.

The No. 7 control group sample did not use the PDMS material. The copper foil was already filled with lithium dendrites, and the battery was completely destroyed. It was obvious how amazing Lu Zhou's research results were.

At last, he finished all of the preparations. As for now, he just had to wait for the conference to begin…

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Chapter 271: MRS Autumn Conference!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

In the fourth week of November, two days after Black Friday, the MRS Autumn Conference was held as scheduled.

Since Lu Zhou was invited to the conference, he was able to enjoy the VIP treatment. A car picked him up from the airport and sent him to his five-star hotel.

Normally, an MRS conference would usually last at least a week or 10 days at most.

However, this time the situation was different.

After the lithium dendrites problem was solved, theses related to lithium batteries grew exponentially. These theses brought new innovations to other new energy photostatic materials.

Many research institutes modified their previous reports and requested to do another report at the conference. Thus, the conference organizers extended the conference period to twelve days.

Lu Zhou's report was on the afternoon of the second day.

He had just flown into Boston and did not have a plan for the day. Therefore he planned to wander around and listen to a few reports to get familiar with the style.

Lu Zhou placed his suitcase near his bed and went to the toilet to wash his face. He then went downstairs and walked to the conference venue, which was near the hotel.

Lu Zhou had been to many conferences by now, yet he still could not help but be impressed at the MRS Autumn Conference.

The MRS Conference was ginormous, and it was on a completely different level than mathematics conferences.

Dozens of venues, hundreds of topics, tens of thousands of participants…

Every year, at this time, all of the hotels and motels near the venue would be booming. Since the meeting was free, some people would come just to see the action. The organizer was not responsible for their accommodation.

In a sense, the MRS conference model was similar to the Federal Mathematics Society conference held in Princeton.

Every venue was divided into two parts, an oral report, and an academic poster.

Most of the big names did the oral report, which contained many high-quality theses. Not only was this part the essence of the conference, but it was also the "battlefield" for schools like MIT, Harvard, and Cornell.

Especially for those cutting edge areas, the discussion would often be extraordinarily "fierce", so physical conflicts was not unusual.

As for the academic posters, the requirement threshold was relatively low. As long as one had a thesis that was submitted in a journal, one would get a poster booth in your corresponding topic.

As such, there was a high disparity in skill level. However, most people were enthusiastic when discussing topics, so it was generally restrained.

Lu Zhou walked through the venue and looked around. Everyone looked very friendly, and they were taking photos and smiling…

In short, it was not as intense as what Professor Chirik had described.

Lu Zhou felt relieved.

When he got off the plane, he was wondering if he should buy a self-defense weapon, but now it seems that was unnecessary.

However, to be safe, he still wore his "nitrogen shield" watch that the system gave him.

Even though he probably would not need to use it.

…

Lu Zhou walked around in the poster areas and wandered into the lithium battery section.

When he passed the first lecture hall, a report was going on.

Lu Zhou looked at the poster outside the lecture hall. The report was about the legendary lithium-air battery. Suddenly, he had a look of interest in his eyes.

It looked like the report had just begun. The professor on stage was still preparing the PowerPoint. Lu Zhou walked in and found a seat to sit down.

Strictly speaking, lithium-air batteries could not be considered in the field of materials.

However, just like the concept of photovoltaics, the main problem was the material, so it naturally became a materials science problem even though it was actually more of an energy problem.

Soon, the report began.

A very neat looking professor stood on stage. He looked as if he was in his 50s.

From the PowerPoint, his name was Sarrot and he was from Cornell University.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am honored to be standing here. You must all know that not long ago, Professor Lu Zhou from Princeton University published a paper in Nature Chemistry on PDMS materials, which solved the most critical problem in lithium batteries!"

"If this was the Spring Conference half a year ago, you might laugh at the concept of lithium-air batteries, but I promise you that this new era has arrived!"

Professor Sarrot stood on stage and wrote various chemical reactions on the whiteboard.

Some people listened intently while some people sneered.

Sitting in the back row, Professor Kerr from Columbia University crossed his arms and waited until the QA session. He could not help but ask in a satirical tone.

"How do you solve the reaction between the lithium anode and nitrogen in the air? What about water vapor? Even the cleaners know how vivacious lithium is. In my opinion, you're not building a battery, you're building a rocket."

He researched lithium-sulfur batteries, which was the main type of batteries. Although it had a lot of downsides, it was a lot more reliable than lithium-air.

Some people in the lecture hall laughed, but Sarrot did not care.

He cleared his throat and replied, "Professor Kerr's question is good. Interns in our laboratory often asked this question. However, formal researchers usually don't ask this question because we are too busy thinking about how to solve this problem."

The people that were laughing stopped.

The people that were not laughing started to laugh.

There was a drama now.

Sarrot did not give Kerr a chance to refute as he continued to speak, "We all know that Kerr is in the field of lithium-sulfur batteries. But, honestly, I'm also curious how he plans on solving the shuttle effect caused by the dissolution of polysulfide intermediates into the electrolyte and diffusion from the positive electrode to the negative electrode through the separator. Even a retard would know that you can't stick the negative and positive poles together."

Kerr was furious.

Sarrot continued to speak, "I've talked with Professor Lu Zhou from Princeton about this issue. Theoretically speaking, it is unrealistic to separate pure oxygen from the air, but through a wonderful mathematical model, we can infer many potential products that can accomplish our goals."

Sarrot paused for a second. He then continued with a sturdy tone, "I'm saying that if we can find a diaphragm that can be used to screen the passage of oxygen molecules, then we can perfectly solve the problem of lithium-air batteries."

"And this research project is exactly what we are trying to solve!"

Lu Zhou: ? ? ?

When did I talk to him?!

Once Sarrot finished speaking, no one was laughing in the venue.

Professor Kerr and the other professors had a dignified look on their faces.

A few men wearing suits started to whisper.

These people did not look like researchers. Lu Zhou heard them talking about "investment", "costs", and "feasibility".

He knew that he could not stay silent anymore.

Someone was bullsh*ting about his knowledge.

Someone was defrauding investors!

Lu Zhou coughed and stood up.

When Professor Sarrot saw Lu Zhou, he did not recognize this Asian man. He squinted his eyes and asked, "Sir, who are you…"

"I am Lu Zhou," said Lu Zhou. He coughed and said, "I am here to testify that I have said no such thing."

Lu Zhou had not even finished speaking before someone threw a shoe onto the stage.

Then came the pens, cups, even a computer. The lecture hall was a mess.

"Scammer, f*ck off!"

"Shove your PowerPoint up your ass!"

Before Lu Zhou spoke up, they were convinced by Professor Sarrot's "Mathematical Model". For half a minute, they had doubts about their life.

This doubt made them extra furious as they had been fooled!

Although Professor Sarrot was being attacked by the crowd, it was clear that he was used to it. He avoided the projectiles and packed up his stuff before he left the lecture hall.

The organizers who heard the news arrived in time and stopped the group of angry researchers.

The staff members looked helpless. Obviously, this was not the first time they had to deal with something like this.

Lu Zhou sat at the back of the lecture hall. He was dumbfounded.

Is this industry…

Really this ruthless?

Speaking of which, his report was tomorrow.

Lu Zhou suddenly panicked…

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The next afternoon, the lithium battery MRS Conference report hall was packed with people.

Many people arrived here early and patiently waited for the report to begin.

Lu Zhou stood at the entrance of the lecture hall and as he looked at the crowd, he could not help but feel nervous.

He did not know why, but meeting Professor Sarrot yesterday ignited in him a sense of admiration.

Sarrot brought the incomplete project that cost millions here to this conference, for the sake of his researchers. That required courage.

In this game, your peers were your enemy.

Take the lithium-sulfur battery as an example. It seemed that the manganese dioxide nano-layer and polymer solid electrolyte were completely unrelated, but they both explained lithium-sulfur batteries.

In fact, everyone's technology had downsides, and it was just a matter of how much.

Everyone wanted their own industry to adopt their solutions, to invest in their research, and to let their technology inventions thrive.

In the same way, although Lu Zhou's thesis saved the lithium battery industry, he also destroyed many researchers' jobs. A lot of people probably hated him.

As Lu Zhou stood on the podium and glanced across the audience, he was surprised to see that no one looked like they were out to get him.

At least no one in the front row looked like they were here to cause trouble.

Instead, their pairs of eyes were full of…

Hope?

Lu Zhou wondered if he was wrong. The report was about to begin.

Lu Zhou pumped himself up and walked to the podium. He plugged in his USB into the projector and signaled the staff members to bring out the three whiteboards.

Normally, a materials science report would not contain this much information, but his report was mathematically based.

Lu Zhou faced the quiet crowd and tested the microphone. He then spoke in a simple and concise manner, "I've made a fairly complete description of the properties and preparation methods of the modified polydimethylsiloxane film. I believe that most of you have read it before this report, so I won't go into details here."

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he then said, "Compared to the production process of the PDMS film, I believe that you are more interested in how I discovered it."

Many people in the crowd nodded.

Not everyone here was lithium battery researchers or in the industry of lithium batteries, some of them were big names in organic materials.

For people in different fields, they were not interested in the PDMS material itself. Instead, they were more interested in how Lu Zhou discovered this material using mathematical modeling.

Lu Zhou did not waste time on his opening remarks. He went straight into the main course.

"In the initial stages of deposition, lithium ions typically acquire electrons and deposit them on the current collector, which is considered to be a heterogeneous nucleation behavior. Because of this initial nucleation, the final lithium deposition pattern has a strong influence. So, my initial idea was to solve the problem of irregular growth of lithium dendrites by taking the initial stage of the nucleation stage as an entry point."

"Using the SEM electron microscopy, I could see the root of the crystal nucleus in the electrolyte. We can see it as a spherical cap-shaped nucleus deposited on a flat substrate. It is like a three-dimensional spherical surface. We can set θ as the contact angle, r Is the radius of curvature, a is the radius of the contact surface, and γ is the surface tension…"

Some things could not be explained with words.

Lu Zhou picked up the marker and started writing on the whiteboard.

[Sv=(π/3)(2cosθ)(1-cosθ)2]

[Gt=(GfzFη/Ω)Svr3γSAr2(γSN-γSE)πr2sin2θ]

[…]

The whiteboard was slowly being filled with equations.

The marker danced on the whiteboard as it produced lines of equations.

The mathematical model was the skeleton of the research.

Although Lu Zhou did not memorize every step, he understood every detail so he was able to recite it easily.

The researchers in the crowd stared at the whiteboard intently. They were scared to miss a single detail.

However, fewer and fewer people were able to keep up with his rhythm.

Professor Kerr already could not keep up. He sighed and looked around with a worried look.

He noticed that Professor Bawendi from Massachusetts Institute of Technology was still staring at the whiteboard, so he could not help but ask.

"Do you understand?"

Professor Bawendi did not answer this immediately.

After some consideration, he gave his answer in a relaxed tone, "Of course, it's an interesting method."

Professor Bawendi was studying quantum dot technology, not just chemistry, so he was well versed in condensed matter physics.

Anyone with a physics background was naturally good at mathematics.

When Professor Kerr heard Bawendi's evaluation, he looked helpless.

He did not understand most of what was on the whiteboard.

He was not clueless in mathematics, but he had never studied it deeply. After all, materials science was an experiment based subject, and most data was collected, not calculated.

However now people were telling him that computational materials science was not just an assisting tool in materials science, but it was the main tool. He started to have some doubts about his life.

Perhaps he should take some time and learn mathematics.

Time slowly passed by.

Lu Zhou was in the zone. It was like he was back at the Princeton classroom, like everyone in the crowd was his students, and they were listening to his lecture intently.

Lu Zhou responded to those who were seeking knowledge and he explained his thought process.

[τs=πD(C0EZc/2j)2({uauc}/ua)…]

Lu Zhou wrote down the last line of equations and stopped writing.

He took two steps back and glanced at the whiteboard. He did not speak immediately.

The audience stared at Lu Zhou's sturdy posture and stayed silent. It was like they feared to interrupt Lu Zhou's thought process.

Five minutes passed…

Lu Zhou finally turned around and placed the marker on the podium.

"That's the jist of it."

"Next up is the QA session, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them."

The crowd was still silent.

No one stood up, no one raised their hands, no one even coughed.

Even the most ruthless experts stayed silent, making people wonder if this was actually the MRS Autumn Conference.

The silence gradually ended.

Someone started to clap.

"Clap clap clap…"

Then someone else clapped.

Soon the venue was filled with thunderous applause.

As Lu Zhou looked at the crowd, he was stunned.

He was surprised that no one asked any questions.

He felt a little weird.

I guess…

I'll pretend they all understood it.

The American Materials Society will release a thick stack of theses related to the topic. If they're interested, they can study it themselves.

I've already finished what I have to do here.

Lu Zhou gestured to the staff member that the report was over.

He was about to unplug his USB when he suddenly remembered something.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. The PowerPoint presentation has not finished yet."

Lu Zhou was so immersed in his calculations that he had almost forgotten what he was here for.

He pressed the button on the laser power and went to the next powerpoint slide.

"There is not much else to say with regards to the modified PDMS film. In the past two and a half months, I've done six experiments. Here are the macroscopic conditions inside the battery and the SEM image of the cross-section of the negative electrode material, after a Coulomb cycle of 1000 to 2000."

This experiment was not difficult to do, but it was time-consuming.

In order to completely remove the concerns of the industry, this experiment was a must.

The PowerPoint presentation was on the second to last slide when Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then said, "I'm sure that a lot of people are interested in this."

Indeed, many people were interested.

When the businessmen sitting in the back saw the 2000 Coulomb cycle images, their eyes went eyes wide opened.

This was because the images contained "treasure". "Treasure" that they have yet to explore.

That was the future.

And right now, there was someone pointing them to the future…

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Chapter 273: Actually This Is Only My Hobby

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Before the report began, Lu Zhou ran many scenarios in his head, but he had not expected this to happen.

While he was leaving the venue, the crowd applauded him again.

Even though most big names liked to catfight at the MRS Conference, they fought on the premise that they understood the report. If one did not understand the report, one did not have a right to speak. This was the same at mathematics conferences.

Although Lu Zhou's report was on lithium batteries, the computational materials science field was still very new. As such, many veteran researchers did not study computational materials science at all.

Thankfully, the computational chemistry field still had people like D.E Shaw. However, Lu Zhou did not realize that his report and thesis had just set a benchmark for the computational materials science field.

Even though many people were confused about his mathematical model, no one had the confidence to stand up.

The reason was that the result of the experiments was clearly there, and it was a huge result.

Just like how Jack Ma said he did not like money, one could not do anything to attack that claim.

It was because the results were irrefutable.

Liu Bo stopped applauding. He sat at the back of the lecture hall and stared at the whiteboard.

"Interesting…"

Professor Li Rongen interrupted him before he could say anything else.

"Interesting your mom. Did you understand it? Explain it to me."

Since Liu Bo was exposed by his boss, he could only smile and shut his mouth.

He was different from Qian Zhongming and Professor Li Rongen. He studied applied chemistry, and compared to those that studied condense matter physics, his mathematics was at a level behind.

Since his boss did not understand it, there was no way he could.

Qian Zhongming sat next to him and stopped writing. He stared at the three whiteboards on the stage for a long time.

After a while, he finally sighed and said, "Strong…"

Professor Li Rongen smiled and said, "Understood?"

"Understood half of it, so I guess not."

Qian Zhongming shook his head. He then closed his notebook and stood up.

Professor Li, "Where are you going?"

Qian Zhongming, "I've got a few questions that I don't understand, so I want to ask him."

Professor Li shook his head and said, "Wait a few days. He might be too busy for you."

Qian Zhongming was stunned. He did not know why.

Professor Li did not explain. Instead, he stood up and said, "Let's go, it's time to eat. I'll take you guys to eat some Boston lobsters. As for the University of Jin Ling's Professor Lu, go and visit him after a few days."

This was correct. Although Lu Zhou was technically a professor at Princeton, he had an honorary professor title at the University of Jin Ling. Who could say that an honorary professor title was not a professor?

As for the other point, Professor Li was very perceptive.

At the moment, Lu Zhou really did not have time to discuss some computational materials science problem.

The moment Lu Zhou walked out of the lecture venue, he was surrounded by people.

"Professor Lu Zhou, do you have time right now? I want to discuss the mathematical model you just presented."

"Hello, I am the CEO of Digilen. Are you interested in taking the role of a material development director? We can give you a million dollar salary, and 5.6% options…"

There were people asking him academic questions, people offering him jobs, and even people begging to become his apprentice.

A sweet lady, which was rare in the field of materials science, grabbed Lu Zhou's hand.

"God Lu! Are you teaching this class at Princeton? Can I apply as your PhD student? I'm graduating this year. Can I get your WeChat?"

Lu Zhou looked at the master's female student and said, "Of course Princeton has a computational materials class, but I'm a mathematics professor. I mainly teach number theory."

The girl's eyes widened and she said, "Are you not planning to teach a computational materials science course? You can undoubtedly become the leader in this field."

Lu Zhou said, "Although my research direction includes functional analysis, complex analysis, and harmonic analysis, I'm only doing computational materials science as a hobby. Before I perfect my knowledge in this area, I'm not taking any students."

Lu Zhou knew he was humblebragging, and both the PhD and master's students in computational materials could not help but roll their eyes.

F*ck sake!

What do you mean it's your hobby?

Why don't you go fly as a hobby?

After half an hour, Lu Zhou finally got rid of the crowd.

He dragged his tired body back to his hotel and took a shower. He then changed into some fresh clothes before he went downstairs to the first-floor lobby.

Although the MRS organizer provided meals for all of the presenters, they clearly had a more special arrangement for Lu Zhou.

All of the invited speakers and important guests were arranged at the five-star hotel next to the venue. This meant that the dinner was invitation only.

The reason for this was so the big names could eat in quiet, and it separated the academic community and the businessmen from the general public.

After all, no one wanted to be interrupted when talking about multi-million dollar deals.

So far, the industry was tempted, but past lessons have taught them to be patient.

However, Lu Zhou estimated that their patience was running out.

At the hotel buffet, Lu Zhou placed a lobster onto his plate. He then found a comfortable place to sit down. Suddenly, a major player walked up to him with a smile.

"Hello, Professor Lu, I am the CEO of Umicore from Belgium, Marc Grynberg. Can I sit here?"

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded.

"Sure."

Grynberg sat across from Lu Zhou and handed him his business card.

"Thank you, here is my business card."

Lu Zhou took the business card. He looked at it before put it into his pocket.

After all, Umicore was an industry giant. Lu Zhou had heard of this company. This Belgium chemical giant began to produce cathode materials after purchasing the patent for lithium iron phosphate in 2011 for millions of dollars.

Then within a year, they signed a giant cooperate contract with 3M. With the help of 3M's customers, they surpassed Nichia to become the world's largest lithium battery cathode producer.

Lu Zhou knew why a positive material company wanted to talk with him.

Right now, the anode material of lithium-ion batteries was mainly composed of artificial graphite and natural graphite, which had nothing to do with lithium materials.

Precisely because of this, the giant company that produced cathode materials was keen on the research and development of lithium batteries.

In 2015, Umicore reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Argonne National Laboratory for lithium battery research and development. Umicore had always been ambitious toward lithium batteries.

If the industry eliminated graphite anode materials, which had been used for more than 20 years, and switched to the more advanced lithium anode materials, it would allow a company like them, who were experts in lithium material production, to get into the anode material market.

No matter what, they could not fall behind their rival company, Nichia.

As such, Mr. Grynberg did not want to wait a single day. As soon as the report finished, he rushed to visit Lu Zhou.

It would be best for him if he could purchase the patent with a premium.

Of course, getting the patent authorization ASAP would be nice as well.

After all, getting the patent earlier would mean major orders from customers like Panasonic, BYD, LG, Sony, and etc.

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Chapter 274: Overseas Patent Authorization

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Since Grynberg often dealt with people from RD, he was skilled in doing this type of business talks.

The more one bragged the more one would be hated.

Therefore, when he introduced himself, he kept it short. He said he was the CEO of Umicore, and he went straight to the point.

"I'm just going to ask. Do you have plans to sell the patents?"

"Nope."

Grynberg, who planned out his question, nearly choked on Lu Zhou's answer.

He coughed to cover his embarrassment before he said, "Are you not going to ask for a price? What if we can give you a satisfactory offer?"

"It doesn't make any sense to talk about this," said Lu Zhou as he gently put down the fork and knife. He then said with a relaxed tone, "How high can you offer? $10 billion? $20 billion? The lithium negative electrode industry only just began, no one knows how big the market can get. Even if I wanted to sell the modified PDMS film patent, I wouldn't do it right now."

$10 billion was obviously impossible. Lu Zhou was only exaggerating.

Perhaps the lithium-sulfur batteries in the laboratories were worth this price, but the lithium anode material definitely was not.

After all, the global annual output value of lithium-ion battery anode materials was only $10 billion USD, and this was because graphite materials were expensive.

Grynberg was given a hard time by Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou obviously did not want to negotiate with him.

However, he could not just give up like this.

"But have you thought about substitutability?" said Grynberg. He smiled and said, "We all know that technology develops very fast. Maybe in a few years, another potential material appears. Are you sure that by then, you'll still be able to sell your patent at a higher price?"

Lu Zhou smiled at Grynberg's prediction of the future, but he was not concerned about it.

"I'm willing to take this risk."

Grynberg: "…"

Seeing that this Belgium dude stopped talking, Lu Zhou started to peel the lobster.

What a joke.

Do you not know how much the industry spends on negative lithium electrodes?

After decades of burning money, this problem still hasn't been solved. Do you think that in just a few years someone can come up with a better solution than mine?

It's not impossible, but it would be damn close.

Seeing that Lu Zhou did not budge, Grynberg sighed and asked, "Okay then, let's put buying off the table. What price are you willing to authorize the patent?"

When Lu Zhou heard this question, he had a smile on his face.

He had been waiting for this.

He had been thinking about this question two months ago. He even did some investigation on the lithium battery market.

The total estimated global demand for lithium battery anode materials in 2016 was 138k tons. From current statistics, the actual demand this year should be in line with expectations.

Although this data corresponded to graphite materials and not lithium anode materials, it was a good estimate and reference.

After all, the lithium anode materials had cost and performance advantages. The speed at which the industry eliminated graphite anodes could be much faster than Lu Zhou had imagined.

For Lu Zhou, the biggest way to maximize profits would be to earn a certain patent fee percentage for per ton of material.

Taking the increase of demand into account, in five years, he could earn a nine-figure USD salary.

The downside was that the system mission would not wait for anyone.

If Lu Zhou used this patent authorization method, his asset growth this year would only be the $400,000 USD salary from Princeton.

Therefore, he came up with a new idea.

It could guarantee both short term and long term gains.

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then voiced his proposal, "I'm willing to grant you three years of use and agency rights for the modified PDMS patent, for $200 million USD. This is for use outside of China only."

"In this three year period, you'll receive an exclusive patent license for the global market outside of China. I'll not make any additional authorizations to third parties. You'll need to give me half of both direct and indirect income and bear all legal obligations and responsibilities.

When Grynberg heard the $200 million asking price, he somewhat disapproved it.

However, when he heard the second half of Lu Zhou's request, a look of excitement could be seen in his eyes.

In principle, the patent itself was exclusive and monopolistic. However, each country had different laws of interpretation and the exclusive right of IP was not unlimited.

In theory, even if Umicore gave Lu Zhou an offer that he could not refuse to buy the patent, they still could not monopolize the production and exclude other companies.

In addition to [Patent Law, each country also had its own [Anti-Monopoly Law]. This clearly defined the abuse of intellectual property rights.

Simply speaking, if a patent had "irreplaceability", and the market share of a company counted as a monopoly, then it may face antitrust investigations.

For example, if the lithium anode material had a huge advantage over graphite materials, then the modified PDMS film technology would undoubtedly count as "irreplaceable".

For a patent of this kind, refusal of authorization, price discrimination, price gouging, and etc could infringe anti-monopoly regulations.

As for the exact boundaries of the law, it would depend on various factors. To test the limit, an excellent team of lawyers would be needed to cooperate with the top managers of the company.

Lu Zhou was unable to do this.

However, Umicore was different.

Compared to him, this multinational chemical giant was much more familiar with regulations.

For its own benefit, they would certainly increase the licensing fees and extend its advantages in the anode material market while they remained within legal regulations of course.

In three years, Lu Zhou could receive a large sum of patent licensing fees, and Umicore could receive the market competitiveness it wanted.

This was in the interests of both parties.

Grynberg hid the excitement in his eyes and put on a hesitant face.

"Three years is too short, I could maybe accept it for five years. You should know that we got the Clariant Group's LFP materials license for only $10 million USD…"

"You can't compare it like that," said Lu Zhou as he smiled and shook his head. He added, "LEP is only a cost-effective cathode material. Do you think that I don't know that your $10 million USD is only a barrier of entry? For every ton of LFP you produced, you have to pay Clariant Group another $20 million USD."

Grynberg was called out but his facial expression did not change at all.

He looked at Lu Zhou. As if he had made some decision, he only said two words.

"$400 million!"

Lu Zhou's heart popped out of his chest when he heard this number.

$400 million US dollars!

It was not just about money for him. There was the 400,000 in experience points attached to it…

Honestly speaking, he was intrigued.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and said, "Four years at most, that's my bottom line. If after four years we can still cooperate well, I can consider renewing the contract at a new price. Otherwise, I'm sure that Nichia and 3M are definitely interested in negotiating with me."

That last sentence played a decisive role.

Grynberg still wanted to fight, but he did not have the cards for it. After all, Lu Zhou did not need scientific research funding, and he was a well-known scholar in the academic community.

Especially when he thought that Nichia could offer a higher price, he loosened his shoulder and made a decision.

"Fine, you win. Four years it is."

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Chapter 275: Financially Free Without Knowing It

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Actually, this was not a matter of who wins or loses. Lu Zhou's proposal was a win-win situation.

Otherwise, Grynberg would not have agreed so easily.

Still, it was $400 million USD.

Even for a giant company like Umicore, this was by no means a small number. Especially because Lu Zhou asked for full payment before the end of the year.

After signing the letter of intent, Grynberg did not even eat dinner. He had to persuade the board of directors as soon as possible. He opened a bottle of champagne with Lu Zhou before he left the hotel to make a phone call.

He promised Lu Zhou that he would fly back to his headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to persuade the board to sign the patent cooperation agreement before the end of the year.

Grynberg said he would try his best.

After all, for a public company, a hundred million dollar deal was a big deal.

Regardless of whether the contract was ultimately signed, the moment the letter of intent was signed, the relevant information must be disclosed to the securities market.

The phone call Grynberg made was to the secretary of the board of directors.

Lu Zhou quietly finished his dinner and left the hotel lobby. He then went to the elevator and went straight to his room.

His footsteps were light as he was in a good mood.

After Lu Zhou went into his room, it was like he had been awakened from a dream. He had just only just realized what he had done.

"$400 million USD…"

As Lu Zhou sat on the bed and looked at the cooperation letter of intent, he could not calm down.

He had never expected that within one night, he could jump from the middle class to financial freedom.

When he was a child, even though he had dreamed of winning a five-million-dollar lottery, he did not even dare to dream of hundreds of millions…

What should I buy?

Another assistant?

A small computer for Xiao Ai?

Ask my dad to buy a few houses in Beijing?

Or…

Post it on Weibo first?

Thankfully his intelligence prevailed.

Lu Zhou took out his phone but in the end, he resisted the urge to share his joy with his fans.

It was better to be humble when it came to money.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He then went to take a shower to cool off his hot brain.

As for what to spend the money on, he would decide when the contract was signed…

After his shower, he laid in bed.

He thought he would be able to fall asleep easily after the busy day. However, as he rolled around in bed, he realized that he was not tired at all.

Without him knowing it, the sky started to light up.

Lu Zhou's alarm went off, and he just realized that he did not sleep all night.

Actually, Lu Zhou did not know that he was not the only one who stayed up all night.

Many people were like him.

The reason had to be traced back a few hours ago.

In the early hours of Washington time, the head office of Umicore in Brussels, Belgium, suddenly disclosed a $400 million USD patent cooperation plan on its official website.

This news disturbed the dreams of many investors.

Although the media had repeatedly reported on "major research results" in the field of lithium anode material, not a single chemical company had begun industrializing lithium anode materials yet.

This time, Umicore suddenly took the lead to obtain the anode material patent license.

The sensitive stock market reacted immediately.

This day finally came.

…

MRS was still going on the next day. Lu Zhou was still sleeping in bed, but the conference continued.

However, a few hundred miles away from Boston, Wall Street was going crazy over the lithium battery sector.

Almost all of the companies involved in lithium batteries had a few points increased on their stocks.

This situation was not only contained in the lithium battery industry. It even affected the futures market of lithium materials.

Lu Zhou underestimated the market's enthusiasm for lithium batteries and the influence of Umicore.

When it came to market value and fame, Umicore could not compare to the likes of BYD, Sony, and Panasonic. Much rather less the $100 billion USD tech companies like Samsung and Apple.

However, in terms of influence, these chemical giants with hundreds of years of history were not inferior to them.

The reason was simple.

Tesla was created in five years. Apple or Microsoft was created in 20. However, if their technology fell behind, they could easily be replaced by a new high-tech company.

However, for those enterprises upstream of the industrial chain, even though their prospects were relatively small, their risks were also relatively small.

After all, no matter what kind of technologies were invented, there would always be a demand for chemical raw materials.

However, Lu Zhou had nothing to do with the capital markets.

At least for now, he did not have the energy to pay attention to it.

Lu Zhou slept until the afternoon. When he woke up and looked at his phone, he saw numerous missed calls.

There were calls from Professor Chirik, from China, and some unknown callers.

Just as Lu Zhou was contemplating which he should call back first, another phone call came through.

Lu Zhou picked up and placed his phone next to his ear.

"Hello?"

"It's me."

Lu Zhou instantly recognized the familiar voice, but he asked in an uncertain tone, "Professor Li?"

Laughter traveled through the phone.

"Haha, it seems that you haven't forgotten me yet."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "How could I forget? Did you change your phone number?"

Lu Zhou could never forget Professor Li. If it was not for him, he would not have finished his system mission back then. It was an unknown number so he did not know what was going on.

Professor Li smiled and said, "I didn't change numbers. I'm on a business trip so I'm using a temporary number."

"Business trip?" said Lu Zhou. He had a weird expression on as he asked, "You're not in Boston, right?"

"Of course I'm in Boston, I even listened to your report yesterday. It was quite wonderful," said Professor Li. He then teased, "How was it? Partying all night last night? Did you rest well?"

Lu Zhou coughed and said, "What do you mean partying? I went to bed last night… I just can't fall asleep. Oh yeah, where are you now?"

Professor Li smiled and said, "I'm downstairs sitting in the hotel lobby. It's almost dinner time. If you're free, let's grab dinner together. If you're still tired, we can meet up tomorrow."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Of course I'm free, I'll come down right now."

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Chapter 276: Personal Status Meeting

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou did not expect to see the two other people in the hotel lobby.

One of them looked familiar while the other one was a complete stranger.

Lu Zhou asked Professor Li, "These two are?"

Professor Li was actually quite helpless.

Originally he planned to contact Lu Zhou in a couple of days to inquire about the patent authorization. However, he did not expect to bump into the head of the chemistry department, Dean Li, and his big-name friend.

According to Dean Li, he had been trying to contact Lu Zhou since the morning.

Professor Li remembered that Dean Li had helped him a lot, so Professor Li gave him a favor.

It seemed that he would have to wait until next time to talk about the patent.

"Let me introduce you, this is the leader of our energy-related department, Lu Kaimin…"

"Titles aren't needed, I came here as myself. Just call me Mr. Lu," said Mr. Lu as he shook Lu Zhou's hand. He then smiled and said, "I've heard a lot about you, Professor Lu Zhou. You're even younger than they say you are."

Lu Zhou was surprised by the enthusiasm of this big name, but this was not unusual for him. He shook hands with him politely.

"You're too kind, Mr. Lu. Nice to meet you!"

Professor Li said, "This is our head of chemistry department, Dean Li Shuwen."

"Hello hello…"

It was time for dinner.

The squad found a restaurant near the hotel.

Even though the restaurant was not a high-class restaurant, but the standard was not low either. It served authentic Boston dishes.

During dinner, Lu Zhou learned that Dean Li was here to attend the MRS Conference.

As for why the head of the energy department, Mr. Lu, applied to come was for an academic visit.

During dinner, Lu Zhou, Professor Li, Mr. Lu, and Dean Li started to talk about lithium batteries.

Soon, they started to talk about the problem of the patent.

Mr. Lu said, "So, I heard Professor Lu authorized the negative electrode materials to Umicore?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Yeah, is there a problem?"

"No, professor, I just have a little suggestion. Please don't misunderstand me," said Mr. Lu with a smile. He then said with a serious tone, "The thing is that we support your legal rights and interests of the PDMS in China. We hope that no matter what company you choose, you won't sell the exclusive rights to a foreign company."

Making such an abrupt request was a helpless move.

China was the world's largest consumer for electric vehicles. Without the breakthrough of lithium battery technology, it was foreseeable that the domestic lithium battery industry would enter a booming stage.

The positive electrode materials were easy to deal with, the LiMo2 patent had expired a long time ago, so they could use it however they want.

However, the key to lithium battery technology was the anode material, not the cathode material. If the patent of the anode material was in the hands of a foreign company, then it would undoubtedly hinder the development of domestic battery companies.

The reason why Mr. Lu pointed out foreign companies specifically was not because of trade discrimination. The reason was clear in the case of the drug artemether, which had become a classic intellectual property right example. It was even on the website of National Knowledge Bureau.

The technology was created by Chinese people, but the drug patent rights were controlled by foreign companies. This kind of injustice was unacceptable.

Of course, the energy department did not want Lu Zhou to simply license the patent at a low price to domestic companies. After all, the intention of patent law was to protect innovation, let resources flow into the research and development field, and to encourage the society to create wealth through IP rights.

However, in this case, the state hoped that he would be conscious of his technology's "irreplaceability", and to avoid giving international companies the tools to monopolize the domestic market.

After all, the existence of the WTO and the deficiencies in relevant domestic laws gave huge power to the domestic anti-monopoly investigation of international capital.

Compared to other departments, this type of in-person conversation was undoubtedly more euphemistic.

Lu Zhou obviously knew what Mr. Lu meant. He had even guessed it back at the hotel lobby.

"You can rest assured that the cooperation between me and Umicore does no involve the Chinese market. As for the patent authorization in China, I'll authorize all companies intending to produce anode materials at a fair price."

"Since you put it like this, I am relieved," said Lu Kaimin with a smile. He then said, "Professor Lu, don't worry, the country will not let you down!"

Lu Zhou smiled and said with a relaxed tone, "Don't tell me you came all the way to Boston for this, Mr. Lu. You could have just called me."

Lu Kaimin shook his head and said, "It's not just because of this. An unexpected situation happened. Actually, my original purpose of meeting you was to ask you something."

Lu Zhou said, "What?"

Lu Kaimin said seriously, "In the 13th five-year plan from the Chinese government, the energy department plan was to increase the battery capacity to 500Wh/kg by 2020. But now it seems that with this breakthrough in lithium batteries, this goal can be easily completed. However, the world is improving as well, so we cannot be satisfied. Therefore, I'd like to consult your opinion on the next development strategy."

Lu Zhou said, "I'm a mathematician. I might not be suitable to give you any advice. You should ask battery engineers for your future country development plan."

Lu Kaimin insisted and said, "I don't agree with this. Who said that mathematics professors' opinions don't have value? Just like our collider, Mr. Qiu's opinions are important to the country. We need to integrate everyone's opinion and wisdom to create a suitable plan. Professor Lu, please enlighten us on the future of lithium batteries."

But it's still totally different…

Lu Zhou was a little helpless.

He did not know how to explain to Mr. Lu that although Qiu Chengtong was a mathematician in differential geometry, he was in mathematical physics as well. Qiu Chengtong was basically a scientist. It would not be surprising if Qiu Chengtong won a physics award one day. After all, he was one of the founding fathers of modern string theory.

Furthermore, although Lu Zhou had been titled an "industry benchmark" or "father of computational materials science", his research was not in the field of lithium batteries. Most of his calculated data only had theoretical value.

Lu Zhou knew that he was far less knowledgeable than battery engineers.

However, Mr. Lu was persistent, and he had to say something, "… Then I'll just say a few words, don't take it seriously."

Lu Zhou thought and said, "In my opinion, the lithium-sulfur battery is a type of lithium battery with good potential. The Li-S theoretical specific heat capacity is 2600Wh/kg. Of course, there are many problems, like the shuttle effect, or the poor electronic conductivity of sulfur."

Lu Kaimin then asked, "What about lithium-air batteries? Are they reliable?"

Lu Zhou immediately knew what Mr. Lu was thinking.

Preparing in advance on future technology could give them an edge against western countries.

After all, whether it was lithium, sodium, magnesium or the legendary silicon, companies like Sony and Samsung had already laid out patents in advance.

In a situation like this, even if one developed the technology, one would still be bounded by other people's patents. It would be wise to choose a key research and development direction.

Even then, leaping too forward on research was not advisable…

Especially for something like lithium-air.

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "It's difficult, very difficult… Simply put, spending money on researching lithium-air batteries is just a scam."

The energy density of lithium-air batteries was attractive, and it was easier to develop one's own core technologies compared to lithium-sulfur batteries. This was because people have been studying lithium-sulfur batteries for many years.

Without mentioning the giant company IBM, even the former energy minister appointed by Obama, and comrade Zhu Xiwen who won the Nobel prize, were almost fooled into researching lithium-sulfur batteries.

Lithium-air batteries had even worse problems.

It was not just the issue of lithium dendrites. The problem was a series of complex side oxygen separation reactions. Solving any of them would not only affect the battery industry.

With the current technology, no one even knew where to begin tackling the problem of lithium-air batteries.

Lu Zhou knew clearly that someone would put his name and thesis into a PowerPoint to defraud investors to fund lithium-air battery research.

Although it was not technically fraud, Lu Zhou still hoped that China would spend money on projects that were more realistic.

Even though those projects were less exciting.

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Chapter 277: I, Lu Zhou, Do Not Like Money

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After listening to Lu Zhou, Lu Kaimin thought for a bit.

After a while, he said, "Thank you for your valuable advice, we'll consider it seriously."

Lu Zhou nodded and did not say anything else.

He did not need to rely on gimmicks to receive funding, so his words were relatively straightforward.

He had already given his advice; whether it would be used was none of his business.

However, Mr. Lu would not just take his words at face value. He would also have to integrate the opinions of many experts; people from production, performance, safety, and battery engineers, all had valuable advice.

The group of people continued to eat; they basically talked about life and nothing serious.

Dean Li and Mr. Lu started to tease Lu Zhou about "getting a girlfriend" and "Chinese or white girl".

After talking with Mr. Lu, Lu Zhou suddenly realized that his anxiousness had calmed down.

It was not that he was suddenly fulfilled.

Rather, he found out that his academic reports were not only valuable in the academic community, but also in the industry.

The rise and fall of a company, the development of a country, and even the future of the world were influenced by his thesis.

He did not even need to publish a thesis.

It was no exaggeration to say that he only had to lift his finger and type "Lithium batteries are good" then upload it onto his Weibo and by the next day, a batch of research funds would instantly be poured into this direction. If he did a PowerPoint presentation, then the stock price of a company could go up a lot… Of course, experts would ridicule his PowerPoint presentation if it was not legit.

Although his work was minuscule compared to the world, the effects were visible by the naked eye.

In contrast, $400 million USD did not seem so exciting anymore…

Emm…

Fine.

Just a tiny bit exciting.

…

The next day, the MRS Conference continued. Lu Zhou paid attention to many interesting reports.

This was a good opportunity to learn the cutting edge research of this field. Anyone that wanted to get into the industry would not miss this chance.

It was not just exchanging academic ideas.

Lu Zhou met many interesting people at the reports, and there was one who was especially legendary.

The person was D.E. Shaw, the leading expert in computational chemistry.

He became a professor at Columbia University when he was 30 years old, and he was an expert in the study of large scale parallel computing. In other words, he was quite famous in the academic community.

Columbia University was located in New York; the center of the world's elite businesses, million-dollar transactions every minute, extravagant girls and cars…

Anyone would be affected by living in this kind of environment.

David Shaw was no exception. After teaching as a professor for a few years, he could not stand it anymore. He decided to get into the major league on Wall Street.

Most people believed that like most professors, he would fail.

However, the end result stunned everyone. In less than a decade, he made a name for himself on Wall Street.

Through his massive parallel computing high-frequency trading company, David's quantitative hedge fund was worth $4.1 billion USD.

Obviously, by this time, he had already achieved what he wanted.

If this was the case, his legendary name would have remained on Wall Street, among bankers.

However, while he was at the peak of his career, he had a sudden realization.

Yes, this guy found out that he did not want a rich hedge fund manager lifestyle!

He found it meaningless.

While he was at the peak of his career, David took off his Patagonia fleece vest and put on a pair of jeans.

For a rich guy like him, he did not have to ask NIH 1 or the NSF 2 officials for research money. He had almost unlimited money and he could personally fund any academic research that he wanted.

Chemistry bio-tech supercomputer?

Did he rent one? Buy one?

Nope, he built one!

The starship of the molecular dynamics world, super-computer "Anton" was born.

Anton's special purpose was to conduct simulations for protein bindings.

"… You're a genius who studies mathematics, I'm a genius who studied massive parallel computing. We can work together to build a new framework for the entire computational chemistry industry. Think about it, 100 years later, people will mention our names in the computational chemistry hall of fame. We will be the founders of this field!"

At the dinner party hosted by MRS, David was talking to Lu Zhou.

Although most self-proclaimed geniuses were a manifestation of narcissism, David might be the only man on Wall Street who had the ability to do this. In fact, no one would even flinch when he called himself a genius.

Lu Zhou laughed and said, "Then 100 years later, a group of teenagers will complain about us being in a textbook."

"You're right, that's the feeling," laughed David. He then said, "How does it sound, interested?"

"I'm interested," said Lu Zhou. He smiled and added, "If you have some more specific ideas, you can find me at Princeton."

"No problem," said David. With a smile, he added, "If you find some interesting mathematical model that you can use in a polymer experiment, make sure to find me in New York."

Lu Zhou was intrigued. He said, "Actually, I've always been interested in supercomputers. I even plan on buying on myself."

"This is a good idea, but it's not cheap," said David. He suddenly remembered something and asked, "Oh yeah, did you sign the patenting licensing agreement with Umicore?"

Lu Zhou said, "I signed the letter of intent. Why?"

David poured himself a glass of wine and said, "If I was you, I'd take some time to think about the tax issue."

Lu Zhou frowned and said, "I have to pay tax?"

David said with a serious tone, "Of course! As long as this money enters the United States, you won't be able to escape from the taxman… Honestly, the taxman always gets what he wants. Now that you're a Princeton professor, I'm sure you have changed your visa situation."

Lu Zhou nodded his head seriously.

Indeed, Lu Zhou had to pay tax on his Princeton salary. However, the $400,000 USD per year salary was after tax.

Lu Zhou asked, "Is there a way I can avoid it?"

David smiled.

"This is easy, just find an island and open an account there. My suggestion is to set up a patent management company in the Cayman Islands. Then hire some accountants. This is how Microsoft and IBM avoid taxes on IP. Many firms in Wall Street also does this…"

"… As long as the flow of funds occur between offshore companies, and the money never enters the United States, you won't have to pay tax. The federal tax bureau won't go after you…"

National Institutes of Health

National Science Foundation

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In the past, Lu Zhou had had similar plans, but he never got to it.

David's words gave him a reminder. The taxman would take at least $100 million USD from his $400 million USD income.

Lu Zhou would die if someone took $100 million USD for no reason.

The Cayman Islands was undoubtedly the perfect choice for this situation.

On the islands, there were only a few simple taxes such as import tax, industrial tax, and commercial registration tax. For companies registered on the islands, not only that the company officials did not have to pay business tax, but the islands would not even audit the company's accounts. Other than the yearly licensing fee, the company did not have to pay anything else.

There were many companies set up in the Cayman Islands; Microsoft, Google, BAT – the big three. Even though the licensing fee was not high, this had become the main income for the government of the Cayman Islands.

According to David, New York had a special office that could handle the registration of an offshore company as well as handling the series of auditing services.

Lu Zhou could have a "multinational company" without ever having to step foot on that small Caribbean island.

After the MRS dinner party ended, Lu Zhou returned to his hotel room.

"Can I outsource opening companies these days?" Lu Zhou looked at the business card that David gave him. He took out his phone and dialed the number.

According to David, this "AM" company was famous in the materials science field. It mainly served major universities and tech companies. It also helped with offshore company registration and IP related services.

Basically, they could solve Lu Zhou's problems perfectly.

The phone quickly connected, and a female voice traveled through the phone.

"Hello sir, this is AM office. What business are you planning to do today?"

Lu Zhou stated that he needed an offshore patent management company to cooperate with overseas companies on intellectual property rights and to make certain "tax planning" requests.

The lady instantly knew what Lu Zhou meant. After hearing that Lu Zhou was serious, her voice became serious.

"… Can I ask what is your expected business range? For example, is the yearly profit less or more than one million USD?"

Lu Zhou thought for a bit.

"… Like more than $100 million USD."

The phone went silent for three seconds.

"Sir?"

Lu Zhou, "What?"

"Sorry, I didn't hear you properly, did you say…"

Lu Zhou, "Like more than $100 million USD. Is there a problem?"

There was a small commotion on the phone, followed by footsteps, and the sound of documents flipping.

Then the call was transferred to someone else.

"Hello sir, I'm Woolf Witt. I'll provide full consultation for you here. Please, may I ask what's your name?"

This voice was obviously more enthusiastic.

"Lu Zhou."

"Okay, Mr. Lu Zhou," said Woolf as he quickly filled in the customer information form. He then said, "Here's the deal. If you want to set up a patent management company with a large amount of money, even though the Cayman Islands does no personally audit corporate accounts, the banks will require you to provide a company business statement."

Lu Zhou frowned and asked, "Is it complicated?"

"No, not complicated at all. We can offer you three options."

He started to explain the three options and Lu Zhou was starting to get a headache.

"Sent the three options to my email and attach a price. I'll contact you myself. I don't want to talk about it on the phone."

Woolf quickly said, "Okay sir, your email is…"

Lu Zhou gave him his email and hung up the call.

…

The company that David Shaw recommended was very efficient.

Except for the blabbering agent named Woolf, there was nothing to complain about.

Since their business was centered on intellectual property, their customer base was mainly universities and research institutes. After AM got Lu Zhou's name, they quickly found his background information.

After Woolf found out that Lu Zhou was a big name, he instantly gave Lu Zhou his full attention. Woolf spent the entire night writing out the three options and sent them to Lu Zhou's email.

When Lu Zhou woke up the next morning, he found the mail sitting in his inbox.

It was 12 pages in total. It had the three proposals and a quotation for the price of each proposal. In addition, it also had a model agency contract.

According to the solutions provided by AM, Lu Zhou only had to pay $500,000 USD in service fees to get a well-structured patent company. AM would also provide two years of legal support.

In America, as long as one had money, one could do anything.

Woolf considered all of the problems that Lu Zhou had not even thought of.

Lu Zhou did not hesitate, and he chose the least troublesome option three.

Since he still had not used his Crafoord Prize money, and that he had the Princeton salary money, he was more than able to afford the $500,000 USD.

Not to mention that he did not have to pay it all at once. He could pay the rest after the project was completed.

By that time, a couple hundred thousand would be nothing for him.

After AM received a $200,000 USD deposit, Woolf immediately set foot to Boston.

Although the contract did not have to be signed in person, Woolf wanted to show his sincerity to his customer. He brought the contract and his assistant along.

Lu Zhou saw Woolf outside the hotel. Woolf walked over and gave him a warm handshake.

"You must be Lu Zhou, I'm the agent responsible for your case… This is my business card."

After shaking hands with Lu Zhou, Woolf continued to speak, "If you haven't eaten yet, we can chat while eating. I know a good cafe nearby. Their tuna sandwich is the best."

Lu Zhou took the business card and said, "You come here often?"

Woolf said, "Of course, I have many customers in Boston. I've been here over a dozen times."

After some small talk, the two didn't hang around the hotel for long. They found a quiet cafe nearby and began to talk about the specific details of the patent management company.

According to the contents of the contract…

AM would help him set up the patent management company in two weeks.

Then Lu Zhou would pay the rest of the balance before January next year.

There was no room for sneaky moves in a contract like this, and a formal office would not want to hurt its credibility. Lu Zhou briefly went over the cooperation rules and signed the contract.

Woolf spoke in a professional manner.

"Oh yeah, we noticed that your cooperation with the Belgium Umicore company is still in the stage of letter of intent. We must tell you that for a giant chemical company like this, they have a team of sneaky lawyers, so they might hide traps in the contact…"

Woolf cleared his throat and continued, "In order to eliminate all dangers, I sincerely recommend you to choose our team of lawyers to help you with the signing of the contracts. Our lawyers are experts in intellectual property…"

Lu Zhou put down the pen and said, "One thing after another, Jesus. Help me with the patent management company first, then we can talk about other stuff."

Woolf smiled confidently.

"Rest assured sir, AM's business ability will definitely satisfy you. Whether it is legal or accounting services!"

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Chapter 279: US$400 Million

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

December came in the blink of an eye. The 12 days long MRS Conference finally came to an end.

Lu Zhou was invited by the organizer to present the Best Poster Award.

Since this conference had 63 topics, and topics could not be compared fairly, so there were 63 awards.

Normally speaking, the young scholars were involved in the poster presentation stage, and well-known scholars were responsible for giving out the awards.

Lu Zhou was responsible for giving out the award for best poster in photovoltaic materials and photovoltaic devices. The winners were master's student Wang Chen from Cai University, and his supervisor Xu Lijun.

Although Cai University was not that famous, its materials science department was top-notch, especially in the field of photovoltaic materials.

Under the guidance of Professor Xu, Wang Chen used a mixed continuous deposition method to synthesize a film of CH3NH3PbCl3 with good crystallinity and obtained a coplanar insert type CH3NH3PbCl3 film visible light blind ultraviolet detector.

Although this research result was not enough for an oral report, it was undoubtedly the best posters among young scholars.

As such, her work won the favor of the judges and stood out from many other posters.

On the podium, Professor Xu Lijun shook Lu Zhou's hands.

The old professor then said with a smile, "Congratulations! After this MRS Autumn Conference, you're the leading person in the field of computational materials science!"

"No way," said Lu Zhou as he shook the old professor's hand. He then smiled and said, "I'm only a mathematics professor, I still need more insight to carry forward the computational materials science field and make achievements."

The two released their hands after the brief exchange.

Lu Zhou then turned around and took the award certificate and souvenir from the conference staff. He then handed it to the winner Wang Chen and shook hands with her.

The female master's student excitedly shook Lu Zhou's hands and said, "God Lu, do you really not plan on teaching a course in computational materials science at Princeton?"

Lu Zhou was stunned.

Why do I think she…

Looks familiar?

Lu Zhou carefully looked at her. He finally remembered that he met her outside the report hall.

However, he did not change his answer.

"Maybe in the future, but there are no plans for this in the short term."

The girl said, "Then… I'll apply to MIT."

Lu Zhou said with an encouraging tone, "Yes, do it!"

Master's girl: "…"

After the award ceremony, the conference finally came to an end.

Lu Zhou ended his two weeks long business trip and returned to Princeton campus.

At the same time, good news came from the AM office.

The company in the Cayman Islands had been successfully registered. It was named "Star Sky Technology Co. Ltd" as per Lu Zhou's requests. Its main business of operation was intellectual property services and overseas investment, and the logo was three-interlaced Mobius rings.

Like this, Lu Zhou finally started his multinational company…

This company was somewhat different than the others. It only had US$100,000 in the bank account and did not even have an office. Lu Zhou was still in the process of hiring patent management staff. The only business partner they had was an accounting firm.

However, this situation ended in the second week of the MRS Conference.

Soon, Star Sky Technology quickly welcomed its first customer.

It was a customer worth $400 million USD.

"I did not expect you to be so fast. I thought it would have to be after Christmas," said Lu Zhou. He was at a hotel in Philadelphia. As he read the contract handed over by Grynberg, he asked, "Only one copy?"

Grynberg said, "Christmas gifts have to be prepared before Christmas. Plus, the one in your hands is only a draft contract. I sent the electronic file to your email. I'm guessing you won't sign it without looking at it, so I only printed one copy."

Of course, no one would be that dumb.

Lu Zhou read the contract in its entirety. He then handed it over to the AM lawyer sitting next to him.

Reading this stuff was a waste of time, so it was better to give it to the experts. Since the lawyer from Umicore was also here, the two lawyers could discuss among themselves.

This was the final step of the patent authorization, so Grynberg was not in a hurry. However sitting here was boring, so he started to chat with Lu Zhou about the future of lithium batteries.

Since the problem of lithium dendrites was solved, industries such as mobile phones and electric vehicles had quickly started RD on new products. Other major battery manufacturers were also accelerating their lithium battery research.

Even if they did not create lithium-sulfur batteries, and ended up with Li-MoS2 batteries, it could still change the entire industry and increased the battery density by several folds.

The company NEC bought the patent rights to Li-MoS2 batteries at a high price years ago, but it had since expired. Almost all other major battery companies were ready to jump on the bandwagon.

In a huge market like this, it was crucial for Umicore to obtain a patent license as soon as possible.

This was why Umicore was in a hurry.

They hated the idea of being sneaky and did not play any tricks on the contract.

The AM lawyers took all day to inspect the contract. After some arguments, the lawyers at Umicore confirmed their revision of the contract.

Although Lu Zhou knew he probably did not understand anything, he still read the final contract from beginning to end. He then took the pen and signed his name.

From now on, Umicore would receive a four-year exclusive license for the PDMS film technology outside of China as well as a secondary patent authorization from Star Sky Technology.

Star Sky Technology would no longer license this patent to third parties, and half of the proceeds from this technology would go toward Star Sky Technology.

As for what Umicore would do to their competitors with their excellent team of lawyers, it was none of Lu Zhou's business.

The reason why he signed the complete authorization contract with Umicore was that he did not want to spend time to handle negotiations and lawsuits from other companies.

If someone used his patent without authorization, Umicore would be angrier than him. Umicore would undoubtedly go after any competitor that infringed on their IP rights.

In addition, Lu Zhou could still receive half of the settlement from the lawsuit.

Grynberg looked at the two identical sets of contracts on the table. He finally had a smile on his face.

With the help of this contract, Umicore would have a significant advantage in the lithium battery industry.

For him personally, this was an excellent performance.

Grynberg put away the contract that belonged to him and reached out to shake Lu Zhou's hand.

"Happy cooperation."

Lu Zhou held Grynberg's hand and smiled.

"Happy cooperation!"

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Chapter 280: Joy Of A New Home

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

December was not a calm month for the lithium battery industry.

In Apple's scheduled winter press conference, they announced a new concept line of mobile phones.

In addition to some minor improvements, the most eye-catching improvement was undoubtedly the four times increased standby time.

More specific information would be announced next spring.

The moment this news came out, the entire internet was shocked.

On a mobile phone forum…

Arguing about major phone manufacturers here had become a daily norm. As long as it was not too ridiculous, the netizens would be heavily biased toward their favorite phone brands.

Normally, the battlefield of the phone manufacturers was evenly matched.

However, after that Apple press conference before Christmas, this balance was broken.

[F*ck, four times battery?!]

[Nutty!]

[Apple is crazy!!!]

Even though new tech products had been coming out every year, there was not much difference between each generation of products. After all, due to the degradation of Moore's Law, CPU and GPU speeds were bottlenecked. Most phone manufacturers could not surprise anyone with their new iteration of phones.

However, the announcement of the 400% increase in battery life shocked companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Samsung.

A certain mobile phone user could not take it anymore. He could not help but make a post.

[Stop bragging about Apple, they don't even make lithium batteries. Lithium battery technology wasn't invented by Apple. I'm willing to bet that in a year, every phone will have a significantly increased battery life.]

This post would undoubtedly be attacked by Apple fanboys.

In fact, hundreds of Apple fans were criticizing this guy in the comments section.

However, the original poster took the attack well. He linked the Nature highlights and the Washington Times as well as various other media articles. He calmly made his arguments.

However, the original poster did not expect people to focus on something else.

[F*ck me, did I read it right? God Lu solved this? Isn't God Lu a mathematics professor?]

[Lithium dendrites… I was learning this stuff a month ago. It was solved half a year ago?!]

[Amazing, half a year ago this guy was bragging about changing Science using mathematics. I thought he was just bragging, I didn't expect his IQ to go beyond my imagination.]

[You're not the only one…]

Although Nature and Science highlights caused a sensation, and the Columbia TV station even did an exclusive report, all of the news was in the science section, so there were not that many tech people who paid attention to it.

After all, the more scientific the breakthrough, the less it was connected to customers.

Most people did not even know what lithium dendrites were. Their confused reaction would be, "Haven't we begun using lithium batteries long ago?"

However, as the research result slowly spread to the industry and changed people's lives, some curious people would eventually trace back to the roots of this change.

The sensation caused by the thesis half a year ago was contained in the academic community and the industry. However, this time, after major electronics manufacturers released their announcements, the news was spread to the general public…

…

Actually, it was not just Apple. A year ago, Warwick, Samsung, and other mobile phone companies had already begun new product line up plans. They just had not announced it yet.

However, after the MRS Conference, the lithium dendrites problem seemed to have been conclusively solved. This coupled with the enthusiasm of the stock market for lithium batteries caused the companies to start announcing it.

After Apple fired off the first shot, Warwick, Samsung, and other phone manufacturers began their next-generation product announcements as well. This year, everyone's concentration was on one aspect of mobile phones.

That was the insanely long standby time.

It was not just phones, computers, cars, and other 3C battery using companies also jumped on the bandwagon.

As the head of the lithium battery market, 3C had experienced tremendous growth over the past few years. It had even grown to be one of the top three consumer terminals of lithium batteries.

Numerous tech companies made PowerPoint presentation type of press conferences. However, the automotive industry was different than tech. Due to a higher safety standard, their RD cycle took more than a year to complete.

While the battery industry was undergoing huge changes, so did Lu Zhou's life.

He was now worth over $400 million USD. He could not live in student apartments anymore.

Lu Zhou was reluctant to buy a house last time but he was not so distressed about it this time.

After all, Citibank gave him a four percent annual interest rate for his large bank account. Princeton's salary was nothing compared to this.

The stubborn old white man finally gave in and handed the house keys to Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou sat on the neat lawn of his new $300,000 USD house. He could not help but smile.

In addition to the 260-square meter size, the house had a front yard and garage as well. The surrounding neighborhood was quiet and peaceful. The neighbors were mainly foreign students or professors of the Institute for Advanced Study. Einstein's former house was close by.

Other than it was slightly too big, Lu Zhou was happy with the rest.

Especially the decoration of the house; he liked that the most.

Perhaps it was because the former landlord was a history professor, he had good taste in furniture. Particularly, Lu Zhou liked the fireplace in the living room as it gave people a comfortable feeling.

It would be a pity to rent this artistic house out. Lu Zhou finally knew why the old man did not want to rent.

The only major change Lu Zhou did was to the kitchen. Everything else remained more or less the same.

Although he mainly ate at the Ivy Club, he still liked to cook for himself.

Lu Zhou looked at the kitchen being refurbished by renovation workers and suddenly, he had an idea.

It was almost Christmas.

Most Chinese people treated Christmas like Valentine's day.

As a tall handsome loner, he had yet to celebrate this holiday before.

Maybe he should tidy up his new house and invite a few friends to have a housewarming party.

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The breakthrough of lithium batteries continued to impact the stock market.

The world's largest producers of lithium materials were SQM in Chile, Albemarle in the United States, and Chemetter in Germany. These three companies had control over 80% of the world's lithium salt.

The last trading day before Christmas, the second the bell rung, the three lithium mining giants received an amazing Christmas gift.

The shareholders of the three companies were overwhelmed by this sudden surprise. When the highlights from Nature and Science were released, there was no movement in the stock market. No one thought that one MRS conference could bring this result.

However, as the development of lithium-ion products fulfilled people's expectations, the capital gains brought by technological breakthroughs had finally come to an end.

After all, once the primary industry felt the heat, there was no doubt that the secondary industry would begin to calm down.

Lu Zhou was not interested in the changes in Wall Street capital market. He did not pay attention to them at all.

Firstly, he had no knowledge in the finance market. Secondly, he did not have to worry about money for a while.

His financial freedom would allow him to purely dive into scientific research. He did not have to worry about funding, market value, and any life problems.

Honestly, Lu Zhou finally knew how David Shaw felt.

Although Wall Street gave him beautiful women and mansions, it did not give him any satisfaction.

Although the trillion dollar stock market was stimulating, this type of stimulation would only last for a few years. Eventually, the numbers would become meaningless, like a loveless marriage.

Especially for a parallel computing expert, the numbers had just become a digital game. David did not get any excitement from it.

However, science was different.

The joy that science brought was more than any money, woman, or car could bring.

Imagine that the whole world changed because of your research. You knew that the world was revolving around you.

Feeling empty?

Meaningless?

Impossible.

The universe was like a Mobius ring. It would never end.

Science was the same.

…

The entire town of Princeton was filled with a Christmas festive atmosphere.

On the contrast, Princeton campus was deserted.

Winter vacation had begun two weeks before Christmas and it would last until the second week after Christmas.

Other than some international students, most mathematics students chose this time to go on a holiday or to go back to their home town.

Lu Zhou planned to have a Christmas housewarming party. However, none of his friends were available.

Luo Wenxuan and his new girlfriend went back to China. He was a "hoes before bros" type of guy.

David Lawrence returned to his hometown Boston for a vacation. The second Lu Zhou came back from Boston, David took a flight to Boston.

As for his old friend in Philadelphia, even though she wanted to come, she was too busy with school.

According to her, her supervisor had just received a large outsourcing project from a client. The project was about planning a cooperate organizational structure for a nine-figure company. The deadline for the project was the end of January.

Chen Yushan's supervisor left a ton of work for her. Her excuse was that since Chen Yushan was not a Christian, she did not need a holiday.

While Chen Yushan was on the phone with Lu Zhou, she could not help but roll her eyes.

Lu Zhou expressed sympathy for Chen Yushan. However, her situation was beyond the scope of his abilities so he could only comfort her.

Three of Lu Zhou's close friends could not come. He suddenly realized that there was no one else he could invite.

These three were the only friends he had that lived close to Princeton.

As for those old professors from the Institute for Advanced Study, although Lu Zhou was close to them, their age difference was too big.

Thankfully Lu Zhou's three students decided to stay on campus, so Lu Zhou was not completely alone.

It was soon Christmas day.

The fireplace was burning with flames, and the streets were filled with snow.

Lu Zhou sat on the long dining table in front of the fireplace. He opened a bottle of champagne and slowly said to his three students.

"Next year is a new year."

Hardy raised his hand and said, "Professor, that's a useless statement. That's like using an equivalence proof on the same thing."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Shut up!

Lu Zhou ignored him and continued to recite his Christmas speech, he then expressed his vision for the new year.

"… From next year spring onwards, some newcomers will be enrolled. I hope that as experienced students, you will set a role model for them."

Vera nodded seriously, remembering the words of her professor.

Qin Yue was more rigid. He did not change his expression.

As always, Hardy was obnoxious and he said, "Professor, don't worry about it, I will set an example!"

Lu Zhou said, "Especially Hardy. I hope you can keep up the progress and keep up with your schoolmates. Otherwise, I might forget your name when new students come."

Qin Yue nearly choked on the champagne and he quickly hid his laughter.

Hardy said with a painful face, "Oh, Professor, please, not like this!"

Laughter was heard around the living room. The atmosphere gradually became warmer.

Lu Zhou looked at his student and could not help but smile.

"Then you have to try your best."

He was obviously joking. He would never forget the name of his own students.

Since they chose to hand their future to him, as long as they did not disappoint him, he would be responsible for them until the end.

However, if someone had made an academic misconduct, Lu Zhou would be disappointed with their character.

Lu Zhou raised his champagne glass, looked at the burning fire and said a final message to his students.

"I wish you the best for the new year, I also wish our research project a success. Toast!"

Hardy, Qin Yue, and Vera also raised their glasses, "Toast!"

The group continued to chat and drink.

Although the church bell rings were not heard, the laughter was filled with warmth.

Hardy, who was bragging about his alcohol tolerance, was defeated by Qin Yue in a few rounds.

Then after another few rounds, Qin Yue also passed out.

No one expected that in the hail research project team, Vera was the one that could handle her alcohol.

A row of empty bottles sat on the table. Vera's white cheeks were only slightly blushing. No one knew where the alcohol in her body went.

Lu Zhou did not believe in the Slavic's tolerance, but now as a mathematician, he did not even know what drink he was on.

Lu Zhou gazed at the dimly lit fireplace and started to think.

What if Santa suddenly climbs down that chimney?

Would he and his reindeers be burned to death?

Gradually, his consciousness drifted and slowly passed out.

Lu Zhou who had not been drunk in this foreign country for a long time finally collapsed…

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Chapter 282: Self-praising Pioneer

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

When Lu Zhou felt a warm and moist feeling on his forehead, he opened his eyes in confusion.

As usual, Vera was not good at confronting people. Her face was slightly flustered and she quickly looked to the side.

Lu Zhou noticed that he was lying on the sofa in the living room with a blanket covering his body. There was a warm wet towel on his forehead. He knew that Vera probably took care of him all night.

When he remembered that he was outdrank by a little girl, he could not help but sigh.

I'm an embarrassment!

The sky outside was bright.

Feeling dizzy, Lu Zhou shook his head before he got up from the sofa.

He looked around the living room. He saw that the table was cleaned up except for Hardy, who was still passed out on the table.

Qin Yue on the other hand was also laying on the sofa. He was sound asleep.

Both guys were sleeping well. They would probably feel the pain after they wake up.

As for Lu Zhou, other than his stiff neck, he felt ok.

After all, the genetic agent improved his metabolic function. Although it did not increase his alcohol tolerance by much, it still improved his hangover recovery time.

Honestly, Lu Zhou started to feel the effects of the potion after staying at Princeton for a long time.

In Princeton, the amount of hair was negatively correlated with the amount of academic achievement. Edward Witten was half bald while Deligne was completely bald.

Every time the professors see Lu Zhou, they would ask him why his hairline was not receding.

Lu Zhou did not know how to explain either. He only said that it was part of his "Asian powers".

"What time is it?"

"It's only six o'clock, you can sleep for a little longer," whispered Vera quietly. She then added, "I wanted to carry you upstairs, but you were too dead."

Lu Zhou, "It's fine, the sofa is quite comfortable… Oh yeah, thanks for cleaning up last night."

"You're welcome," said Vera as she shook her head and smiled softly. She then said, "I'm the one that should be thanking you."

Lu Zhou did not understand the reason for this gratitude. Vera did not explain either. Instead, she went into the kitchen and started to prepare breakfast.

…

Vera's cooking skills were decent. Lu Zhou could tell that like him, she was a skilled cook.

Vera was independent, caring, did not complain, and she was grateful for the small things in life… The only problem was that she was not confident enough.

Vera asked Lu Zhou three times if her sandwich, milk, and omelet "taste good"?

However, this did not matter too much. Confidence could be cultivated through achievements. Lu Zhou believed that he could teach her to become a qualified scholar.

Lu Zhou enjoyed his student's breakfast and gained some energy. He then went out and started to run for a few laps.

When Lu Zhou came back sweaty as a pig, he threw his clothes that smelled like alcohol into the washing machine and took a shower. He then went back to the living room to wake Hardy and Qin Yue up.

Qin Yue was a good kid. When he saw that the table was clean, he apologized to Lu Zhou while blushing.

It was polite to help clean up after parties, whether one was a student or a guest. Qin Yue immediately realized his mistake.

However, Lu Zhou was not that stingy. After all, he let Vera clean up everything, so he did not have the right to be angry at Qin Que.

However, someone was not apologetic at all.

Hardy rubbed his eyes and looked at the time before he suddenly asked, "Isn't it only eight?"

Lu Zhou rolled his eyes and said, "Go back to your dorms to sleep!"

As if it mattered, Hardy said, "I don't live in a dorm, I rented a place outside with my girlfriend… She's back in Canada now."

Lu Zhou: "…"

What are you trying to say?

Showing off?

Seeing that this kid was still half conscious, Lu Zhou let this matter go.

…

After the three students left, Lu Zhou sat in his spacious living room and looked at his beloved fireplace. He was inexplicably happy.

He suddenly realized that he had not shared this joy with his fans.

Lu Zhou smiled.

He took out his phone and found a good angle of the fireplace that showed his spacious living room. He then took a photo.

However, just as he was about to post it on Weibo, he suddenly saw a ton of notifications from people tagging him.

Not only that, he was getting a bunch of direct messages from unknown ladies.

Lu Zhou was stunned. He did not post his photo but instead, he looked at the trending page.

On top five trending topics, he saw the words [$400 million USD].

He clicked on a media blog post.

[Shocked! Famous mathematics professor solved a decade old battery problem, and received a $400 million USD patent authorization profit!]

Lu Zhou skipped the exaggerating post and read the comments section.

[$400 million USD… F*ck me, that's $2 billion in RMB? What kind of patent is this valuable?]

[Lithium battery patent… Something to do with lithium dendrites. Anyways, phone companies are able to upgrade their next generation batteries because of this technology.]

[God Lu, sent out something! How about a screenshot of your daily interest returns.]

[Are you still missing a girlfriend? How about a boyfriend? Do you think I'm good?]

[Ah, although God Lu has never posted a photo of himself, in my mind, he must be a handsome man with glasses.]

This… I'm embarrassed.

Lu Zhou could not help but smile at the comments section.

Other than the fact that he did not wear glasses, he fit the description to a tee.

Lu Zhou saw that no one liked the comment, so he gave it its first like.

However, he did not realize that people were able to see the comments he liked.

Within minutes, new comments were popping out.

[I clicked on "Recently liked by" and thought it was a fake, didn't know it was Lu Zhou himself!]

[God Lu hasn't posted in a while, but I'm satisfied after seeing this like.]

[I have never seen such a shameless person… I'm following.]

[Shameless.]

[Shameless.]

[…]

The blogger's comments section exploded with a hundred new comments.

The small blogger was surprised by Lu Zhou's activity. They immediately sent out another post and even took a screenshot of Lu Zhou's "like".

[Wowww! Excited! I can't believe God Lu reads my page! I'm definitely passing my classes next year!]

Lu Zhou: ? ? ?

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Chapter 283: 400 Thousand Experience Points!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Time slowly passed by, and it was soon New Year's Eve.

Lu Zhou still had things to do in America, so he could not go back home. He had to wait until Chinese New Year to reunite with his family.

Although his New Year's Eve was a bit lonely, thankfully the system gave him a big present which made his mood a lot better…

[Congratulations, User, for completing the reward mission!]

[Mission completion details are as follows: From the beginning of the mission until the end of the year, User's personal net worth growth was $400,115,000 USD.]

[Mission final evaluation: S]

[Mission rewards: 400,115 free experience points. 500 general points. One lucky draw ticket. (80% garbage, 10% special, 7% sample, 3% blueprints)]

Lu Zhou stood in the pure white system space. He looked at the experience points number on the screen and took a deep breath. His heart burst with ecstasy.

The system rounded Lu Zhou's net worth by the thousands. Although the system's calculation was off by $100k or so in USD, the conversion rate into experience points was only a hundred or so, therefore Lu Zhou did not care.

On the other hand, these experience points also confirmed his previous speculation.

The system did not take loans and company evaluation into account. It did not even take "fixed assets" such as real estate into account either.

Lu Zhou looked at his characteristic panel and thought for a moment. He then immediately made a decision on his experience points distribution.

Information science had the technology branch of "artificial intelligence", so it could gain experience through channels other than the "mainline mission". As long as there were no bottlenecks in the technology branch, there was no need to upgrade this discipline.

Engineering and energy science were both at Level 1. They only needed 10,000 experience points to upgrade, so they had the highest return on investment. Therefore, Lu Zhou leveled up them both.

Although the system did not set a maximum level difference between the Level 2 biochemistry and Level 3 materials science, the two disciplines were closely related.

Therefore, Lu Zhou did not hesitate and spent 50,000 experience points upgrading biochemistry to Level 3, the same level as materials science.

Lu Zhou assigned 250,000 experience points to mathematics, which upgraded his mathematics to Level 6.

As for the remaining 80,000 experience points, he spent it all on physics and upgraded it to Level 4.

Although Professor Frank gave up on the 750 GeV characteristic peak issue, Lu Zhou had not given up yet. Level 3 physics was not enough for him to solve this problem, so he needed to strengthen his physics thinking ability and mathematics logic.

These experience points were all earned through materials science, so it was a bit ruthless not to spend any on materials science.

However, after careful consideration, Lu Zhou determined this was the best solution he could think of.

A blue loading circle spun on the information screen, and the updated characteristic panel soon appeared in front of Lu Zhou.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 6 (4,000/600,000)

B. Physics: Level 4 (33,215/200,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 3 (4,000/100,000)

D. Engineering: Level 2 (0/50,000)

E. Materials science: Level 3 (13,000/100,000)

F. Energy science: Level 2(0/50,000)

G. Information science: Level 1 (3,000/10,000)

General points: 2,975 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

The experience required for Levels 3, 4 and 5 increased linearly by 100,000 each level. However, the Level 6 increased by two-fold. Lu Zhou remembered that his Goldbach's conjecture only rewarded him 200,000 experience points.

"I guess it's getting more and more difficult to level up."

Lu Zhou shook his head and looked at the lucky draw button. He prayed in his mind as he pressed the button.

The wheel spun at a rapid speed, Lu Zhou made a command and it slowly began to stop.

Then, magic happened.

[Congratulations, User, you won the "special" prize.]

Lu Zhou: … ?!

Honestly, with a 10% probability, Lu Zhou did not expect to win this at all.

He could not help but feel excited…

[Received: "Patronage Appreciated"]

Lu Zhou: ? ? ?

What the hell is patronage appreciated?

Lu Zhou was instantly pissed.

I'd rather receive a f*cking garbage!

At least I can drink the coke!

Lu Zhou turned off the prize wheel. If this system space was not an illusion, Lu Zhou would definitely kick the system.

Lu Zhou was in a bad mood as he clicked on the mission panel.

He received an S evaluation on his last mission, so this time it was a reward mission.

The mission panel quickly appeared in front of him.

[

[Reward mission is activated! (Give up at any time without spending general points)]

Description: As a scholar, you should always be curious about the unknown. Any inference based on common sense should undergo rigorous experimentation. Otherwise, it is open to questioning.

Requirements: Analyze the carbon nanospheres under the modified PDMS film.

Reward: 1~??? Subject experience points, one lucky draw ticket. (???).

]

This reward mission was average. Perhaps it was because Lu Zhou had not solved debris No.2 yet. This time the system did not give him new debris to play around with. Instead, it gave him an unknown lucky draw.

However, this was not the main point. Lu Zhou read the mission requirements and description. He had a frown on his face.

Normally, the mission descriptions were all nonsense, but this time a whimsical piece of information was revealed.

That "open to questioning" phrase – was it hinting at him that the carbon nanospheres could do more than just solving lithium dendrites?

Lu Zhou frowned and thought for a moment.

This mission was not simple. In fact, it could even be said to be difficult.

With his current conditions, it was not easy to figure out how to prepare the carbon nanospheres.

However, Lu Zhou had a sudden moment of realization when he figured out a good way to solve this problem…

After leaving the system, Lu Zhou felt a strong stinging sensation on the back of his head. He almost passed out from it.

Not only did the discipline levels unlock permitted him to access the database, but it also transformed specific areas of his brain.

Normally, this process was a pleasure. It was like his brain and soul was immersed in warm water.

However, this time it was too intensive. It did not feel like pleasure. It was more like torture.

Lu Zhou persisted through the sensation and stayed silent.

That five minutes felt like an hour.

Finally, the pain from his head faded and Lu Zhou took a deep breath.

He suddenly noticed that his back was soaking wet…

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Chapter 284: Spherical Problems

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The office of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

Lu Zhou sat in his office desk and meticulously stared at the three-dimensional graphics image on his computer screen. His right hand would write on the draft paper from time to time while his left hand was tapping on the keyboard.

The data collected by the scanner gun was in Xiao Ai's server. He stored what he needed on his laptop.

Which was the carbon nanospheres under the PDMS material.

The molecular structure of the carbon nanospheres was available, but everything else was unknown.

Whether it was the mechanical or electric properties or the method of creating carbon nanospheres, Lu Zhou had to find these things out himself.

He first had to establish a mathematical model and analyze the physical properties of the model. Only then, could he inversely synthesize the carbon nanospheres material. After that, through a large number of experiments, he could find a way of producing carbon nanospheres.

However, Lu Zhou had no idea where to start.

This was like two large prime numbers, multiplying them was simple, any calculator could do it. However, finding two products of the multiplication of the two numbers, was almost impossible.

Lu Zhou stopped writing and took a deep breath.

At first glance, the carbon nanospheres were similar to C60, C50, and C240. They all had a hollow spherical structure. However, upon further inspection, there was something fundamentally different about the carbon nanospheres compared to fullerenes.

First of all, it was not strictly a "sphere".

Some people may argue that neither was fullerenes since a group of six-membered rings also had pentagon and heptagonal carbon atom rings.

However, the difference in carbon nanospheres was the reflection symmetry. It had no translational symmetry, so it could not even be represented by the traditional Bravais lattice.

This small ball was like two carbon nanomaterials that have been reassembled to create a new chemical bond.

The image of the ball was like two wool balls taken apart and re-twisted together.

If this was really the case, Lu Zhou could be facing a quantum mechanics problem involving chaotic system. Perhaps only Schrodinger's cat could solve this problem.

This was only the geometric issue.

He had a lot more problems in terms of chemistry.

Lu Zhou sighed and patted his forehead as he tried to calm himself down.

The problems had to be solved one by one.

He should start with his best area, mathematics.

Although geometry was not an area he was good at, he still knew a little about it.

Abstractly, this was a topology problem. He needed to disassemble this asymmetrical "cage structure sphere".

Lu Zhou stood up and walked to his office whiteboard. He thought for a while before he drew a composite structure cage ball composed of points and lines. He then marked down the known parameters next to each point and created a simple mathematical model.

[Set AX;f,gC(X,Y), if there is homotopy of f to g, such that when aA, H(a,t)=f(a)…]

[…]

More and more formulas were being written.

Lu Zhou finally stopped writing and took a step back. He looked at the whiteboard filled with equations and started to think deeply.

He thought about many possibilities, but he always felt like all of the possibilities were missing something.

Suddenly, footsteps sound came from outside his office.

Vera pushed open the door while holding a stack of A4 papers.

When she saw Lu Zhou staring at the whiteboard, she hesitated. She decided not to disturb his thoughts, so she placed the documents on his desk and went to make a cup of coffee for him.

When Lu Zhou smelled the coffee, that was when he finally realized that someone was in his office.

He looked at Vera and asked casually, "Is there a problem?"

"The education office asked me to give you this list of interviewees," said Vera as she pointed at the documents on the table. She then added, "I was afraid to disturb you so I didn't knock."

"It's fine, my thought process isn't that easily disturbed. Just don't suddenly touch me from behind," said Lu Zhou in a joking manner.

Vera smiled when she realized that she did not disturb Lu Zhou's thinking.

She took a curious look at the shapes and equations on the whiteboard and asked, "What is this?"

"Nothing, some random question."

Lu Zhou returned to his desk and turned on his computer. He then picked up the interview list and glanced at it.

This cohort of students was not bad, but just academic grades were not enough. He would have to spend time interviewing them.

The only thing that surprised Lu Zhou was that there were non-mathematics students applying to him.

Like an applied chemistry major from the University of Jin Ling, who wanted to research Fourier inversion transformation problems.

Even though it was not unusual for someone to jump disciplines, most people jumped from mathematics to chemistry, instead of the other way around.

While Lu Zhou was flipping through these resumes, Vera, who was staring at the whiteboard, frowned and said, "This 3D structure is very strange."

Lu Zhou looked up from the resumes and asked, "What do you think about it?"

Vera, "Can I use a pen?"

Lu Zhou said with pleasure, "Of course."

Vera picked up a marker and walked to the whiteboard.

She drew a few lines on the caged sphere and marked the pentagons and heptagons. She then drew an irregular curve to divide the figures.

Then, a miracle happened.

After a three-dimensional disassembly and recombination, the asymmetrical cage structure sphere was disassembled into a circular tubular structure and a symmetrical sphere!

Lu Zhou looked at the 3D drawings on the whiteboard and was stunned. His eyes began to light up.

He had considered a myriad of possibilities, the combination of spheres and surfaces, sphere of different sizes, but he had not thought of this combination.

However, the disassembly came to an end.

Vera was confused. She did not know how to continue the transformation.

However, for Lu Zhou, this train of thought was enough.

"You're an absolute genius…"

Vera was stunned as she looked at Lu Zhou. She then looked at the whiteboard filled with topology drawings. A smile emerged on her face.

"I'm glad to help…"

She only thought that this shape was very interesting. Although it looked like a regular sphere, it was asymmetrical, which made it full of mystery.

Due to this mystery, Vera tried to make a topological transformation of the structure and finally found out that the structure was a combination of a symmetrical sphere and a cylinder.

This was an unimaginably difficult elementary geometry problem.

However, this was only an interesting topology phenomenon.

Even though she did not complete the transformation, she had already done enough!

"Of course you helped! You helped a lot!"

Ideas were flowing from Lu Zhou's brain. He took a photo of the whiteboard and closed his laptop before he said to Vera, "I'll have to go away for a few days, so take care of the office for me."

Lu Zhou walked to this office door and suddenly remembered something. He then looked back at the girl and said, "Oh yeah, if anyone comes to find me, just give them my address and tell them to find me there."

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Chapter 285: Being Rich Is Different

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"An asymmetrical cage structure can be disassembled into a tubular structure and a symmetrical cage structure. The cage structure has a point group symmetry, and the surface of the tubular structure contains two Stone-Wales defects… "

"… The overlap of π and π* energy levels is due to the Stone-Wales topology effect. This causes an energy band gap of 0.06eV and 0.04eV to be created on the surface, so that explains it…"

"… Which is saying that the carbon nanotubes enhances the properties of the carbon nanospheres."

"I'm an absolute genius!"

Lu Zhou spoke to himself while walking. His eyes were shining with excitement.

The students and even professors walking in the hallways walked away from him.

They were not afraid of bumping into Lu Zhou, but they were afraid to disrupt his thought process.

This was a common occurrence for the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. Who would not be excited about sudden inspiration?

Since everyone at Princeton was the same type of person, they knew exactly how Lu Zhou felt…

…

Lu Zhou went back home and locked himself in his small house. He started his new retreat session.

Although Vera did not solve the problem completely, her ideas brought great inspiration to Lu Zhou.

If this idea was feasible, it could solve the problem of creating carbon nanospheres in the laboratory.

Both carbon nanotubes and fullerene materials could be prepared with current methods. The difficulty was how to reconstitute the chemical bonds and combine the two structurally distinct macromolecules into a larger, more complex molecule.

A week went by.

Lu Zhou spent almost all of his time either sleeping, eating, or building his mathematical model.

Finally, the second Monday after New Year's Eve, he completed the initial build of the mathematical model.

"The only thing left is to perfect this mathematical model. Then I have to get a research team to verify these possibilities through repeated experiments."

Lu Zhou stretched his back and leaned against his chair. He looked at the research results for the past week and could not help but smile.

Being rich is really different.

Before this, he had to borrow equipment from other people. Now, if he wanted to do an experiment, he did not even have to do it himself. He could just buy a few pieces of equipment and hire a few PhD students to do it.

Of course, Lu Zhou had other options that could save him money. For example, he could publish the mathematical model in a thesis, and make other research teams do his work.

With his achievements in computational materials science, there should be a lot of research teams who would be interested in any thesis he put out as well as people who were willing to do these experiments.

However, if he did this, the patent rights could land in the hands of another research team.

Even though Lu Zhou was unsure if this was worth as much as the modified PDMS film, this still came from the high tech system. Lu Zhou wanted it in his own hands.

What if it would be useful one day?

In twenty years, anything could happen.

Lu Zhou got up from his chair and stretched his limbs. He was about to go make himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen.

However, his doorbell suddenly rang.

Lu Zhou had an idea of who was here as he walked downstairs and opened the door.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Woolf stood outside his door with a briefcase in his hands and a beaming smile.

"It's nice to see you again, Professor Lu. How was your Christmas?"

Lu Zhou shook his hand. He then smiled and said, "It's not bad, come inside… Do you want to drink anything?"

"Thanks, water is fine."

The two sat in the living room. Woolf opened his briefcase and took out a stack of documents before he handed them to Lu Zhou.

"According to your request, we have already prepared the company organizational structure for you. There's also a list of future expenses. If you think this is all fine, we'll rent an office in Philadelphia for you, and hire staff according to the standards of this document…"

Lu Zhou took the stack of documents from Woolf and briefly flipped through the pages.

Lu Zhou requested AM to register a patent company for him in the Cayman Islands and to register a branch in the United States. The branch was primarily for dealing with intellectual property.

Although Star Sky Technology only had one customer, Umicore, Star Sky Technology still had the Chinese market to expand upon.

Lu Zhou did not want to waste time on analyzing the market size, patent pricing, and negotiating patent fees with chemical companies. Therefore, the best choice was for him to hire someone to handle his intellectual property.

Plus, the cost he had to pay was minuscule for him.

"I'm satisfied with your plan, let's just follow it. Also, arrange a time for business executives to come meet me at Princeton."

Lu Zhou placed this project plan aside. He suddenly remembered something so he spoke.

"Oh yeah, what if I acquire a research institute in the United States using my Cayman Islands company as a parent company… If I then receive profits generated by the intellectual properties from the research institute, will I be obligated to pay tax on this profit?"

Woolf smiled and said, "Of course not. When have you ever seen Microsoft and Google pay taxes on their IP income? They even enjoy tax rebates from overseas IP income."

F*ck me, are they really that daring?

Lu Zhou was shocked by this new piece of information.

However, Woolf, who sat opposite him, was not focusing on this.

Woolf smelled money talk from Lu Zhou, so he continued to ask eagerly, "If you need legal help on intellectual property, please be sure to contact me. Our intellectual property services are world class!"

Lu Zhou did not believe him, so he just laughed.

Originally, he did not want to sign this deal with Woolf. After that, Lu Zhou remembered that most of AM's clients were in the materials science industry, so there really was no one better than Woolf to make this deal with.

Therefore, Lu Zhou was tempted. He asked, "Do you have any materials science research customers that are on the verge of bankruptcy or shortage of funds? Or maybe a company with carbon material research and development capabilities?"

Woolf was stunned by the questions. He said, "Verge of bankruptcy? Honestly, I'm not sure about my client's financial situation. But a lot of them are research teams… Is there anything I can help you with?"

Although Lu Zhou was unsure if AM handled mergers and acquisitions, he still asked, "Actually, I want to acquire a research team with carbon nanomaterials research and development capabilities."

When Woolf heard Lu Zhou, he had a bright smile on his face as he said, "This is easy! Leave it to me."

Really?

Lu Zhou was stunned, and he could not help but ask, "Do you also provide services for corporate mergers and acquisitions?"

Woolf smiled confidently and said, "Of course. Although our main business deals with patents, our lawyers offer a wide range of other services. If you ever get sued and need to go to court, please contact me. We have the best lawyers in the United States…"

Lu Zhou: "…"

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Chapter 286: Ten Science and Technology Progress Of The Year

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Two major events took place two weeks after New Year's Eve.

The famous [Science] journal selected the top ten scientific and technological progress of 2016.

The research on gravitational waves was the last piece of the general relativity theory puzzle, so it was not surprising that it won the top spot.

If the invention of the electromagnetic telescope was like the human eye, then the gravitational waves detector was like the human ear. Humans could finally listen to the sounds of the universe.

Ranked second was Mycoplasma laboratorium 3.0, also called Syn 3.0. Contrast to gravitational waves, most people did not know what Syn 3.0 was. However, Syn 3.0 was the closest humans had ever gotten to becoming gods.

Sitting at 473 genes, tt contained the minimum amount of genes necessary for life-sustaining activities. At the same time, this was the simplest living organism humans had ever created.

The modified PDMS film that solved the problem of lithium dendrites sat at third place.

The materials science community had not seen a "major breakthrough" in years, so this was undoubtedly an excellent result. Since "finding the seventh line of the periodic table" was also nominated, this year's chemistry community was full of high spirits.

Also ranked was Google's AlphaGo, a deep learning system built by a Monte Carlo decision algorithm. It had become the father of modern artificial intelligence.

Also awarded was a breakthrough in space exploration technology where the seeds of humans were gradually sprouting in space…

However, these research results were not ranked in any particular order. After all, achievements in different fields could not be compared fairly.

However, [Science] journal editors still had the power to input their subjective opinions on the rankings.

A lot of people speculated online that with the [Science] rankings, Lu Zhou had the hope to become the second mathematician after John Pope to win a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Of course, this was only the opinion of the non-experts.

After all, [Science] only reflected the opinions of [Science, not the entire scientific community.

The Nobel Prize committee had very strict judging criteria for the selection of brilliant achievements in the applicable field. As an outstanding achievement in the applied sciences, the modified PDMS film was not treated like the discovery of gravitational waves, which won the Nobel Prize immediately in the year following the confirmation of results.

Only time could tell whether or not an applicable technology was great.

However, just like the "Father of Artificial Life", Craig Venter, if one day the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the medal of chemistry to Lu Zhou, no one would be surprised.

After all, the lithium dendrites problem had troubled the entire materials science community for decades.

Another major event that occurred at the beginning of the year was Trump's inauguration declaration at the White House.

However, this had nothing to do with Princeton, and Lu Zhou was not someone who was interested in politics.

…

The second week after New Year's Eve, Professor Lu gave his students a long holiday break.

The first reason was to make up for their Christmas vacation. The second reason was that until Chinese New Year, Lu Zhou was going to be very busy and he did not have time to deal with his students.

As for how the students would spend their hard-earned holiday, Qin Yue said that he would go back home for Chinese New Year while Hardy said that he wanted to go travel in the Mediterranean with his girlfriend. Lu Zhou had wanted to give Hardy some "holiday homework", but in the end, he restrained the impulse and smiled, wishing Hardy a happy vacation instead.

When Lu Zhou asked Vera if she had any holiday plans, the little girl did not have anything to do, so she had a blank look on her face.

Lu Zhou sighed at seeing Vera like this.

If it was something else, Lu Zhou would recommend them to see their parents and to enjoy a relaxing family reunion.

But for her…

He could only find something meaningful for her to do.

Lu Zhou thought for a moment. He then said, "Mathematics is a subject that needs inspiration. Studying in the library all day could mean ending up in a thinking pit. This year the American Mathematics Society will hold an academic exchange conference for young scholars at Berkeley. The thesis you gave me last time was pretty good, I recommend you to submit it."

When the little girl heard that she might be doing a report, she suddenly panicked and nervously said, "I… I haven't done a report before."

"No one is born to do this. You have to learn to adapt," said Lu Zhou. He looked into her eyes and said, "If you're worried about travel expenses, you shouldn't. Registration fees, plane tickets, etc, can all be paid for with the research project fund. If you're afraid of going on stage, I hope you can overcome this fear. Trust me, this is good for you."

Among his three students, Vera was the most talented and Lu Zhou had the highest expectations for her.

One day, she would be standing on the stage of the International Congress of Mathematicians and report her results in a one-hour presentation. If she could not overcome her stage fright, then she would never become a world-class scholar.

When Vera heard Lu Zhou, she started to blush. She was overwhelmed by it.

Lu Zhou waited for a long time and when he did not hear a reply, he did not want to give her any room for retreat, so he continued to ask, "Your answer is?"

"Okay…"

Although she sounded hesitant, this was a huge improvement.

Lu Zhou sat in his office chair and nodded with satisfaction.

"Then go and prepare. There are still three days left until the deadline. You don't have to come to my office for the next three days. Just focus on editing your thesis. I'll take care of your flights, so you only have to apply."

Lu Zhou forcefully made these decisions for her before he kicked her out of her office.

Vera stopped at the office door. She hesitated for a bit before she turned around.

When Lu Zhou noticed Vera's expression of hardship, he asked, "Is there anything else?"

Vera lowered her head and smiled embarrassedly. She said, "Nothing, I just wanted to thank you… No one has ever cared for me before."

Just this?

Lu Zhou said, "You're welcome. After all, I'm your supervisor."

…

Lu Zhou finished his work at Princeton and drove his Ford Explorer to Princeton. He went to Star Sky Technology's North American branch office building.

He had to admit that AM's service was satisfactory. Not only did they solve all of the problems he thought of, but they even solved some unexpected problems.

Of course, the charges were not cheap.

Since the office was still under renovation, the floors were filled with construction materials, and there was nothing much to see.

Lu Zhou walked around for a bit before he left the office building and went back to his car.

Visiting his company building was only to satisfy his curiosity. It was not his main reason for coming to Philadelphia. He came to Philadelphia to meet with a consultant that AM arranged for him.

Apparently, the woman was a professor at Wharton, an expert in business administration with a double-degree in international trade.

Although the relevant plans had already been made, anything on paper was not enough. Some things had to be discussed face to face.

Lu Zhou arranged a time to meet with this expert and planned to talk with her face to face.

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Chapter 287: Not All Students Are This Lucky

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"… Ah, I feel like I missed out on the whole world."

At an office in the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Chen Yushan laid on the table.

It had been two weeks since New Year's Eve, and the Chinese New Year was in two weeks. However, she was still sulking over missing out on the Christmas party.

Compared to her supervisor at Yan University, her supervisor at the University of Pennsylvania was basically the spawn of Satan. Since she arrived, she had had an endless amount of project work waiting for her, and she could never take a break.

At first, she felt quite fulfilled by this lifestyle. After all, she learned a lot during this time.

However, as time went on, even though she was passionate about studying management, it gradually became less and less palatable.

Chen Yushan believed that her situation was definitely an exception because most of the other international students at Wharton expressed sympathy for her.

Although everyone was being used as free labor for their supervisor, few people were being exploited as much as her.

Suddenly, the office door was pushed open. Michelle Parsis walked in wearing a fur coat.

This sophisticated woman dressed elegantly and her professional makeup perfectly covered the wrinkles around her eyes.

She looked at her student with her head down on the table and said blankly, "I'm about to go meet with a customer. Did you finish preparing the graphs for the Chinese lithium battery anode material market?"

Chen Yushan, who was still lying on the table, tiredly opened the drawer and took out a USB before she said, "It's basically finished."

Management was a very broad subject, this meant that its scope of studies could be very narrow or very wide.

On one day, one could be planning a company's organizational structure while on the next day, one could be conducting market research on China's lithium battery anode material market. The types of service people in management offered would depend on the requests of the customers.

Although AM only offered company structure planning, Parsis was able to sniff out that the contract between the Cayman Islands Star Sky Technology company and the Belgian Umicore company excluded the Chinese market.

This discovery was a huge surprise for her. People like her were the ones that conducted market research and developed plans to maximize intellectual property profits.

This type of "value-adding services" was her way of expanding her customer base.

After all, customers did not come for free. The Wall Street elites not only had to meet the needs of their customers, but they also need to help their customers and to find out what else they needed.

Mr. Parsis took the USB from Chen Yushan and stuffed it into her purse. She then said blankly,

"I'll check your homework, but for now, go take a nap. Say hello to Los on the way out. Ask her to hand in her report by tomorrow."

Chen Yushan obviously did not regard her words as compassionate. Parsis only wanted her to rest so she could work better.

"Okay, professor, I'll go right now."

Chen Yushan stood up from her desk and wobbled out the door.

…

At the same time, Professor Sarrot was facing the toughest moment of his life in a small Silicon Valley research institute.

Facing a man sitting in front of him, fifty-year-old Sarrot argued in a fierce tone.

"… Our team in the field of organic synthesis is world-class! Cornell University provides us with technical support, do you know what this means? Buying my team for $10 million, why don't you go rob a bank instead?"

Facing this furious professor, Woolf only smiled and spoke in a calm voice, "Of course I know that Cornell University is one of the Ivy League schools and has given birth to 54 Nobel Prize winners, and there are many famous professors there as well… But what does that have to do with you?"

Professor Sarrot froze, so Woolf continued to speak slowly, "From what I know, professors at Cornell University usually don't have to worry about funding, and they usually wouldn't set up their company in Silicon Valley. So, Professor Sarrot, have you sent out this month's paychecks?"

Lu Zhou's asking price was $20 million USD, but the lower Woolf negotiated, the higher his commission would be.

If it was not for the few pieces of valuable equipment, Woolf would not want to pay a single penny.

AM was serving the scientific community?

Nope, that was the only advertisement.

AM only served the rich.

Sarrot turned bright red and he did not speak.

If he was facing an ignorant person, he could speak out of his ass. He would not be fazed even if he was facing investors at the MRS Conference.

However, Woolf was an investor that knew this industry inside and out, so his child's play would not work here.

Woolf's ability in negotiation was on another level.

In fact, Woolf knew exactly what Sarrot's weakness was.

The reason why Sarrot set up his company in Silicon Valley instead of New York was that it was easier to get funding there.

Any famous materials science professor normally would not do something like this because funding was not a huge issue for them. Plenty of companies were willing to cooperate with them, so they needed talent more than money.

Materials science was different than computer science and materials science talent in Silicon Valley was no match for universities on the east coast.

As for Sarrot…

A few years ago, he could still get funding. After all, that was the golden era of lithium batteries.

Microsoft, IBM, Tesla, and even the US energy department jumped on the lithium battery train. There seemed to be no shortage of funds in this industry, and billionaires were being created left and right.

However, the situation turned sharply in recent years.

P.G Bruce, a big name in the field of lithium-air batteries, was criticized for his Nature Chemistry thesis. No one could replicate his research results. Professor Bruce was so close to success but failed in the end.

Although most people believed that Bruce made an "honest mistake", some people labeled him as a "liar". Because of this, the entire lithium-air battery industry was hit hard.

Sarrot was only a small name in the field of lithium-air batteries. He wanted to pick up the crumbs left by the big names, but now he was left to feed himself.

Honestly, with the financial situation of his current research team, he could not even pay the researchers' salary, much less conducting experiments.

"I guess you still need some time to think about it…" said Woolf. When he saw that Professor Sarrot was still frozen, he shrugged and stood up from the sofa. He then said, "I'll go take a walk nearby."

When Sarrot saw that the opportunity was slipping away from his hands, he suddenly changed his mind.

Finally, he could not hold it anymore.

"Wait a second."

Woolf stopped walking and turned around before asking in a relaxed tone, "You changed your mind?"

Sarrot uttered, "You're a villain."

Woolf smiled and said, "Same, same."

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Chapter 288: Take Care Of It For Me

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"Meet up?"

Lu Zhou was in a coffee shop in Philadelphia. He was stunned after hearing Woolf on the phone.

Woolf had an impatient tone as he said, "Yes, I pushed the price down to US$10 million for you, and the opposing party agreed to my offer. However, he said he can't hand over his research team's future without seeing the buyer. He insisted on meeting with you before signing the contract. How about… I arrange for him to come over?"

Honestly, Woolf rolled his eyes when he heard the old man's reasons.

A research team that did not have funding would not have a future. The research team would love to change their boss. At the very least, they could get back the salaries that were due.

Lu Zhou thought for a second then said, "No need, I'll go over there. I wanted to check out the situation of the equipment anyway."

Woolf smiled and said, "Ok, it's best if you're willing to come."

The inspection of the equipment could not be done sloppily, Lu Zhou wanted to be safe and see it in person.

Compared to the research team, Lu Zhou needed the equipment more.

In a high talent-density area like Silicon Valley, Lu Zhou could hire a carbon nano-material and organic synthesis engineer for $100,000 USD per year. He could then hire a few laboratory assistants, interns, and that would be a research team right there.

However, the equipment was different. It was a seven or even eight-figure investment.

Even a slightly better SEM electron scanning microscope would cost millions of dollars. For example, an entire of instruments for a CVD vacuum tube furnace for preparing carbon nanotubes which were commonly used for preparing fullerene materials would cost at least $20 million USD.

From a cost-saving perspective, it would be more efficient to purchase an entire research laboratory, as opposed to buying equipment from manufacturers.

Lu Zhou did not have to pay a particularly expensive price to get a decent amount of good quality second-hand equipment. Compared to second-hand equipment that was eliminated from research institutes, these equipment were a lot more reliable.

Not only that, Lu Zhou did not need to find or train new staff.

Once Lu Zhou hung up the phone, he looked at Professor Parsis and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. That was a work-related call."

"No worries. I'm sure time is valuable for a distinguished scholar like you," said Michelle Parsis. She smiled and asked, "Can we start now?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Of course."

Lu Zhou had to admit that the University of Pennsylvania really was the incubator for the world's business elites, as both the students and the professors were highly skilled.

With the explanation from Parsis, Lu Zhou already had a general framework idea for the Star Sky Technology organizational structure.

This included the functions of the various departments in the company, which talents were needed in which positions, the employee salary system, and etc. Any problems Lu Zhou could come up with, she had already considered them for him.

If she wanted to go into the business world, with her skill set, she could get any management position.

Of course, working in a company would not be as comfortable as a professor.

Especially for the kind of professors with a double doctorate in business administration and international trade. Not only could she receive a salary from the University of Pennsylvania, but she could also do consulting for outside companies at an hourly rate.

She could teach students, and occasionally she could publish theses. She could even use her students as free labor for her big cases. This kind of life was definitely better than a nine to five work in an office.

"… This is the basic situation. Since your company mainly deals with intellectual property, I recommend you set up several offices around the world and use them to supervise the use of patents in these overseas markets. Also, if the budget allows for it, I recommend you to hire a team of 10-20 professional lawyers to specifically deal with intellectual property infringement cases."

Lu Zhou took note of her advice. As he put away the documents, he said, "I'll seriously consider your opinion."

After this meeting, his cooperation with AM on his patent management company came to an end.

All he had to do now was hire a manager and hand in this document to them. This manager would then set up the Star Sky Technology framework according to this document, and the Star Sky Technology North America branch would start running like a well-oiled engine.

Then he could extract himself from the cumbersome entrepreneurship process and focus on his research.

However, for Michelle Parsis, what she talked about just now was specific in the AM contract. For her, the main purpose of her trip had only just begun.

"I noticed that you haven't developed into the Chinese market. Actually, I have a report on the Chinese anode material market, I don't know if you're interested or not."

Lu Zhou joked, "Is there a charge?"

Michelle Parsis smiled and said, "Of course not. But if you think my research report is good, I can provide a much more detailed analysis of this market. Also, I can help you developed an intellectual property licensing strategy for the Chinese market… Of course, this part is not free."

Lu Zhou took the research report document and briefly skimmed through it.

He thought that this research report was pretty well done. However, he was not an expert in economics, so he could not understand the specifics behind this report.

Lu Zhou liked to let professionals do professional things.

Michelle Parsis quietly waited for Lu Zhou to finish reading the report. She then said, "What do you think?"

"It's mostly good," said Lu Zhou as he placed the document down on the table. He then said with a smile, "I can see that you're a professional."

"Of course," said Michelle Parsis. She smiled and said, "Anyhow, I'm an expert in this field."

"Then I'll follow your plan, but for the follow-up details, I hope you can contact Star Sky Technology directly. I'll ask the managers from Star Sky Technology to contact you around mid-January," said Lu Zhou.

Professor Parsis smiled and said, "No problem, then I wish us happy cooperation?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Happy cooperation."

After the meeting, the two walked to the parking lot together.

Before Lu Zhou went in his car, he suddenly remembered something and he looked back at Professor Parsis to ask, "Oh yeah, you're a professor from the University of Pennsylvania, right?"

Michelle Parsis smiled and said, "Yeah, why?"

"I have a friend that is studying there, I wonder if you know her?"

Michelle Parsis asked, "Sure, what is her name?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Her name is Chen Yushan and she's studying a master's degree at Wharton. I heard that she has encountered some difficulties with her research project. It's also in the area of management. I can't really help her, but I'd appreciate it if you could help and take care of her."

When Michelle Parsis heard this name, she was instantly stunned. She had a subtle but weird expression.

She coughed and tried to change her facial expression as she said, "I think I've heard of her before, but I don't know her well. I'll check it out when I get back."

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. He then said, "Then thanks so much."

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Chapter 289: This Is For Justice!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Chen Yushan has been panicking over the past 2 days.

Ever since she handed in her chart assignment to her supervisor, she had not gotten any new tasks.

Although this type of relaxed feeling was good, she was starting to get worried and wondered if she had somehow offended Professor Parsis.

Students were vulnerable to supervisors. If they accidentally offended their supervisors, the students would have a difficult two years of school. They might not even graduate.

Chen Yushan was especially worried because Professor Parsis would occasionally glance at her, giving her goosebumps.

Chen Yushan was thinking about if she should ask Parsis when the latter suddenly broke the silence and asked first, "You said that the Chinese New Year is on the 28th?"

This is…

Talking to me?

Chen Yushan gulped and asked her boss, "Every year is different, but this year is on 28th… Why?"

Professor Michelle Parsis looked at her with a blank expression.

Suddenly, Parsis squinted and a smirked appeared on her face.

This smile was almost horrifying enough to scare Chen Yushan.

Thankfully she did not actually jump out of her chair. Otherwise, she definitely would have offended this woman who was going through menopause.

Professor Parsis paused for a second and looked at the calendar on her desk. She then said, "You've worked hard over the past few months. Chinese New Year is in two weeks. From now until then, take a good break and rest a little."

Chen Yushan: "…"

Is she…

Giving me a holiday?

This fortune came so sudden that Chen Yushan started to doubt if she heard it wrong.

She was just calling her family yesterday to tell them that she could not go back home this year.

Several master's and PhD students in the office looked at her with envy.

Professor Parsis had never used this tone to speak with her students before. For a strict woman like her, her students were her employees – the kind of employees with a $300 per month salary.

The younger and prettier the student was, the colder and more demanding her attitude was.

However now…

The sun was rising from the west!

Michelle Parsis paused for a second and her smile started to become warmer and warmer as she said, "Oh yeah, one more thing. I've reconsidered the thesis research report you did on the Indian retail market. Your work in that thesis was tremendously helpful, so I moved your author position from fourth to first."

Chen Yushan was still frozen and she looked at her professor as she said, "But Professor, I only helped to collect the documents and graphs…"

"Only?" Michelle Parsis looked at her with a serious expression and said, "Miss Chen, I have to tell you that the auxiliary work of collecting documents and graphs are just as important as writing the thesis. This work can not be described with 'only'. This is justice, I will stick to my decision and put you side by side as the first author."

Chen Yushan: "???"

…

The third week after New Year's Eve, Lu Zhou took a flight to the West Coast.

Lu Zhou did not know if it was because his student's name was in the conference submissions list, but he was invited to attend the Berkeley mathematics conference by Mr. Francis, the president of the American Mathematical Society.

Lu Zhou originally did not plan on attending this conference.

However, Francis was too enthusiastic. Since Lu Zhou had to go to San Francisco anyway, he accepted the invitation. He promised to attend the conference and see how his little apprentice was doing.

After all, this was her first report ever, and Lu Zhou was a little worried.

He landed at SFO and was picked up by Professor Tao Zhexuan.

Ever since the academic conference last year, the relationship between the two had been good.

Since Professor Tao's research direction was broad, whenever he encountered problems in number theory and functional analysis, the two would chat online about the problem. When Professor Tao heard that Lu Zhou was attending the Berkeley conference, he immediately asked to pick Lu Zhou up from the airport.

Professor Tao sat in the car and asked, "So I heard you have been studying Collatz conjecture recently?"

Lu Zhou smiled and replied, "Yeah, are you interested as well?"

"Sort of. I used to research it a long time ago, but unfortunately, I didn't succeed. My intuition tells me that this is a complex analysis problem, but after some in-depth research, I found out that I was wrong. It even has a connection with the Langlands program," said Tao Zhexuan. He smiled embarrassedly while driving and said, "But you should be able to solve this problem with your capabilities. You're the leading figure in number theory right now. If even you can't solve it, then it might take centuries before the next mathematician can."

Although Tao Zhexuan's statement was a bit exaggerated, it was not outrageous. Not many people were in the field of additive number theory. The classical number theory problems were Goldbach's conjecture and Waring's Conjecture.

Now that Goldbach's conjecture was solved by Lu Zhou, unless someone made significant contributions to Waring's conjecture, Lu Zhou would be the top leading number theory mathematician.

Lu Zhou smiled and explained, "You're exaggerating too much… Actually, I'm not the one doing this research project. It's mainly done by my students. I'm only giving them suggestions. I've got no idea what the end result will be."

"Oh I see, I thought you were the one researching this problem," said Tao Zhexuan with a disappointed expression.

If Lu Zhou was the one solving this question, he would be looking forward to it.

It seemed now that he should not have such high expectations.

…

The American Mathematical Society arranged the hotel for this academic conference to be near Berkeley. As an invited scholar, Lu Zhou was booked a room by Mr. Francis. He only had to check in at the hotel counter.

Professor Tao sent Lu Zhou to the hotel. Since he still had a class to teach, he invited Lu Zhou to visit his house someday and promptly left.

Lu Zhou put his luggage in his room and did not stay at the hotel for long. He went downstairs and called a taxi.

Professor Sarrot's research institute was in the south part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It wasn't far from his hotel so he wanted to resolve this matter as soon as possible.

After Lu Zhou got on the taxi, he called Woolf and arranged a time to meet at the institute.

Lu Zhou thought that he would arrive first.

However, when he arrived, Woolf was already waiting for him at the entrance.

Woolf greeted Lu Zhou and said, "I didn't expect you to come today. If you had told me earlier, I could have picked you up."

Lu Zhou replied, "Something happened so I had to change my schedule. Who cares about this. Let's deal with the matter at hand."

Lu Zhou let Woolf led the way into the institute.

Compared to those large research institutions, this private research institute was undoubtedly a lot smaller. It was only three floors and the location was not optimal and it was difficult for commuters.

However, it still contained the essentials.

This laboratory had all of the equipment for any experiment Lu Zhou wanted to do.

Lu Zhou walked into the third-floor office and was prepared to greet the man in charge. However, he suddenly saw Professor Sarrot sitting on a sofa.

The two made eye contact.

Professor Sarrot did not expect that the person who was going to buy his research team was Lu Zhou, so he was pleasantly surprised.

Lu Zhou did not expect that Professor Sarrot was the "Lithium-air battery" guy from the MRS Conference. He knew that this name sounded familiar…

Lu Zhou confirmed that he did not misrecognize Sarrot.

Then…

Without hesitating, he turned around and started to leave.

However, Professor Sarrot exclaimed before Lu Zhou could even take a step.

"Wait a minute! I'll sell it to you for eight million dollars, no, five million dollars! Please don't go!"

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"Let go of me!"

"I'm not letting go unless you promise you won't leave!"

"…"

Lu Zhou looked back at Professor Sarrot, who was holding his thigh. He thought, "Is this guy really a professor at Cornell University?"

I definitely wouldn't do something this embarrassing…

Woolf was muddled as he quickly rushed over and started to help his employer.

However, he was too slow as Sarrot let go on his own.

That was because Lu Zhou promised Sarrot that he would give Sarrot five minutes to give a reason.

Professor Sarrot did not waste any time. He sat back down on the sofa and said, "I'll sell my Sarrot's Research Institute to you for five million dollars. I know that you won't be able to find a research institute in Silicon Valley cheaper than this. I don't want anything, all of the patents and research results are yours. I just want you to let me stay in the research institute."

He was right. Five million dollars for the entire research institute was like paying 10 cents on the dollar.

It would be impossible to find cheaper second-hand equipment than this. Also, second-hand equipment could be unreliable, especially for cutting edge instruments. A slight error could cause an experiment to fail.

Sarrot was hurting inside when he quoted this price.

Even if he sold the equipment as second hand, he could at least get seven or eight million dollars.

However, this was not about money.

Lu Zhou would not be convinced so easily. After all, their first impression of each other was too aggressive. He only remembered people throwing shoes on the podium.

"So that I can watch you defraud people with my name?"

Professor Sarrot argued, "What do you mean defraud? Have I ever used research funds to buy cars? To pick up girls? Never! I spent all of the money on experiments! Everything I do is for science! If I don't exaggerate my experiments to outsiders, then no one would fund my research…"

Lu Zhou did not take Sarrot's argument seriously. However, the five million dollar price was far below his expected price, making it difficult for him to refuse.

In fact, as a professor at Cornell University, Sarrot was definitely skilled.

In a place like Silicon Valley, one could easily hire an expert in SEM images research. Finding a research team that could complete projects smoothly was a lot more difficult.

After all, everyone had their own projects to do. Most people did not want to jump ship and give up on their own project.

Although Sarrot was not a big name in the materials science industry, he was definitely still mildly famous. Although he liked to bullsh*t, he did not have a bad academic record.

However, he was no saint.

After weighing the pros and cons, Lu Zhou decided to give him a chance.

As for whether Sarrot could perform, it would depend on himself.

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he slowly said, "I can give you a chance."

Sarrot was willed with joy, he was about to speak but was interrupted by Lu Zhou, "But I have to tell you, you only have one chance. If you want to stay in my research team, you have to be honest. Don't try to fool me with those 'honest mistakes'."

Without hesitation, Sarrot patted his chest and said, "I swear, on the name of God."

Lu Zhou said, "Unfortunately I'm an atheist, so I'll have to write your words on a contract."

Sarrot made a helpless expression. He then shrugged his shoulders to show that he did not care.

Lu Zhou gave Woolf a look, signaling him to give out the contract.

Woolf looked at Lu Zhou with hesitation, as if he was asking, "Is this okay?"

However, Woolf saw that Lu Zhou nodded, so he did not say anything else. He took out the contract from his briefcase and quickly filled in the contract prices.

Lu Zhou stood up from the sofa. He then looked at Sarrot and said, "I'm sure you have already read the contract, the only thing that changed is the price. Of course, you can look at it carefully. I'll look around the research institute. Once you read it over, you can call me."

…

Sarrot was very smart.

He knew exactly what he needed. He also knew what a scholar needed.

The reason why big names are big names was not because of their big brains. It was because they could always receive research funding. Someone was always willing to pay for their research.

For the materials science industry, almost all of the results were made from enormous amounts of research funding.

Without the money, researchers could not publish in [Science]. Without the [Science] publication, there would be no research results, and no one would be willing to invest without research results.

Therefore in some sense, the relationship between academic status and research funding was like the chicken and the egg theory.

The latter was easy to obtain as long as you had the former.

Hence, when an investor wanted to sell their stock in Sarrot's Research Institute. Sarrot would borrow a loan from the bank and bought back the equipment in his research institute.

This was why he was willing to sell the research institute to Lu Zhou for only a loss of five million dollars.

He did not care about the research team as it would only rot as time went on.

He did not care about the money either. Five million dollars was enough for him to pay back his loans.

Although this meant that he would have nothing at all, he believed that starting from the beginning was the correct decision.

Doing research for Lu Zhou would mean that he would never have to worry about research funding again. Even if Lu Zhou ran out of money, there would be tons of companies willing to fund the research project.

He would be happy to work for free, as long as he produced results, and as long as his name was in the thesis.

When results were out, no one would talk about his past or his previous lack of integrity. He would become Cornell University's leading expert in lithium batteries, bringing glory to his name…

His instinct told him that this day would eventually come. This investment was definitely worth it!

Sarrot did not make Lu Zhou wait for long. He read the contract from beginning to end and signed his name.

In addition to the research institute transfer contract, there was also an employment agreement and confidentiality agreement.

Lu Zhou hired him as head of the research institute for a $100,000 USD salary. As for bonuses or other benefits, it would depend on Sarrot's future performance.

Once the contracts were signed, it was time to talk about the research.

After letting Woolf leave, Lu Zhou plugged his USB into his laptop and pulled up the molecular model using the program "Hyperchem".

Sarrot looked at the spherical structure on the screen and showed interest.

"This is?"

Lu Zhou said, "You don't need to know what this is. I'm not even sure if it has any value other than some interesting mathematical properties. I need you to complete a set of experiments for me to verify my calculations of this material. If you do what I say, I'll include your name in the thesis."

Lu Zhou clicked the mouse.

The graphics on the screen began to change as he continued to speak, "I can't give you any more information. I can only tell you that this image is obtained from the combination of carbon nanotubes and fullerene materials. Chemically speaking, the two materials are π bonded, forming carbon nanospheres."

Sarrot frowned and stared at the model for a second. He then said, "It sounds like a good project, but how will we fuse the fullerene and carbon nanotubes together?"

Actually, he wanted to ask what this thing was for, but Lu Zhou clearly did not want to explain it to him, so he gave up on asking.

Lu Zhou looked at Sarrot like he was retarded as he asked, "Good question. If I knew how to synthesize this thing, why would I ask you?"

Sarrot smiled when he realized that his question was nonsense.

Lu Zhou continued and said, "The people from Star Sky Technology will contact you in a few days. I'll email you regarding the research. Also, I'll come here and inspect your research progress every month…"

"… I will be at the University of Berkeley for a few days. If you have any questions, you can call or visit me. Any questions?"

Sarrot immediately nodded and said, "Nope."

Lu Zhou nodded as well.

Once the contracts were signed, the research project was explained, there was no reason for him to stay here any longer.

Professor Sarrot would contact Star Sky Technology regarding the research funding. The experiment would start by the end of this month.

Once Lu Zhou copied the USB data on the computer, he was ready to leave.

Suddenly, Sarrot remembered something and asked, "Oh yeah, since this research institute is yours now, would it be a bit inappropriate calling it my name? I'm saying, do you want to change it to Lu Zhou research institute?"

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Chapter 291: Pleasures Of Being A Professor

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

This does sound like a good idea…

But there's no way I will do it!

"No no no, this is still your work from blood sweat and tears. Let's just call it the Sarrot's Research Institute."

Lu Zhou refused Professor Sarrot's offer and walked away without giving Sarrot a chance to reply.

What a joke, do you really think I will attach my name to this research institute? What if you defraud investors again?

Also, Lu Zhou felt it would be weird to have his name on the research institute.

It would be as if the research was not about the materials but about himself.

Therefore, he decided not to go through with the name change.

The next day, the first American Mathematics Society conference of the year kicked off at Berkeley.

The university students from California even postponed their protest to a week later, to accommodate this conference.

Although Princeton professors did not care much about politics, not all professors were like that.

For example, Professor Tao.

Although his students describe Tao as a tolerant, awkward, and humble person, he was a completely different person online. His online persona was completely different than what he was like in real life; Tao loved to discuss world politics.

Not long ago, he used logic to prove that Trump could not be a good president. Many media outlets reported on this piece of news. Trump's reply on Twitter was interesting, "Tao Zhexuan claims that I'm not a suitable president, but the liar Hillary is. The truth is that Tao Zhexuan is targeting me because he's a failed analyst. He can't even prove the Kakeya needle problem, sad!"

Of course, that was what it was.

Tao Zhexuan had not posted on his blog recently. It seemed that he was not in a good mood.

Of course, although the students and professors in California did not like this president, that did not affect the atmosphere of the academic conference. After all, academia was pure, it did not involve politics.

Lu Zhou received a pen and other small souvenirs from the entrance and walked past the poster display area. He went directly to a lecture hall on the second floor. When he found a seat on the back row, he then sat down.

He discovered that Professor Tao was sitting next to him.

Lu Zhou looked at him in surprise and asked, "You're here as well?"

Professor Tao smiled and said, "This is a good chance to look at your progress. Of course, I wouldn't miss it."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "It'd be best if you can help us solve it."

The report began.

The audience in the lecture hall stopped talking and turned their attention to the speaker on the podium.

Vera had a blonde ponytail and wore a student-looking outfit. She stood nervously on stage as she squeezed her tiny hands.

With the help from the staff, she opened the PowerPoint presentation and the thesis problem appeared in the center of the projector screen.

[Complex analysis study on the angular valley conjecture equivalence equation h(z3)=h(z6){h(z2)λh(λz2)λ2h(λ2z2)}/3z]

"Come on Vera, you can do this…"

Vera thought about her supervisor's expectations of herself and took a deep breath. She cheered herself on in her mind.

Then, she spoke.

"The analytic function solution in the unit disc {z:zamp;lt;1} takes the form h(z)=h0h1z/(1z), where h0 and h1 are complex constants…"

Although Vera was very nervous in the beginning, as the report continued, she found out that the pressure was starting to lesser.

She felt surprised.

The ideas and thoughts were flowing out of her brain, conveying them was as easy as breathing.

She did not need to worry if the audience understood her as she could it to the QA session.

Right now, what she had to do, was to portray her viewpoint to the audience in the lecture hall…

Lu Zhou sat in the last row of the lecture hall, and like the audience, he was also listening intently to the report. Gradually, a smile appeared on his face.

He could see that Vera spent a lot of effort to overcome the fear in her heart and stand on stage.

The results were quite satisfactory. She was totally in the zone.

It seemed that his worries were redundant.

Tao Zhexuan sat next to Lu Zhou and looked at Vera; his face was full of surprise.

"Are you sure this was your student's work?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Of course, I have been busy with computational chemistry recently. At most, I gave them a direction to work toward."

Lu Zhou had no reason to lie, and Tao Zhexuan believed him.

However, Tao Zhexuan still could not help but feel astonished. This thesis really did not look like work from a master's student. Even though Tao Zhexuan knew Vera, he was the one that wrote her Princeton recommendation letter.

Her rate of improvement was too amazing.

Tao Zhexuan said emotionally, "Yesterday, you said that you planned on making your students solve Collatz conjecture, I thought it was a joke. But now it seems that you are serious."

Lu Zhou smiled as he said arrogantly, "She is my student after all."

For this kind of young scholar reports, most of the big names were more tolerant. They would not point out anything unless it was an obvious mistake.

Mathematics conferences and MRS materials science conferences were completely different in this regard.

After answering a few questions, the report was successfully concluded and the audience broke into applause.

Vera sighed in relief and smiled at the audience to show her gratitude.

Perhaps it was because of her dazzling smile, the applause started to get even more thunderous.

Some young guys even whistled.

Lu Zhou looked at Vera on stage and smiled with satisfaction.

It was like Vera was his small sapling – one that he carefully cultivated to grow stronger and stronger.

Maybe this is one of the joys of being a professor?

Tao Zhexuan looked at Lu Zhou weirdly, and he felt something was off.

Lu Zhou noticed his friend's expression and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Tao Zhexuan shook his head. He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Although it's none of my business… I announced my relationship with Laura after she graduated."

Lu Zhou:…?

What the hell?!

…

After the report, Lu Zhou stood outside the lecture hall and saw Vera.

The little girl's face was blushing and her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

Lu Zhou knew exactly how she felt. That kind of excitement could not be contained no matter how many deep breaths she took.

He walked over and greeted her.

When Vera heard the familiar voice, she turned around and saw Lu Zhou. Her eyes suddenly widened and she looked at Lu Zhou with a surprised expression.

She originally planned to call Lu Zhou and tell him the good news. She did not expect him to be watching her in the lecture hall!

She did not know what to say.

"Professor?! You, you are here?!"

"Of course," Lu Zhou smiled. He then added, "My cute student finally took the courage and did a report on stage. How can I ever miss this moment?"

The little girl's cheeks were fiery red, and she seemed to have a lot to say.

However, she could only mutter out one sentence.

"I did it, I really did it!"

"You did. Nicely done," said Lu Zhou. He gave her an encouraging look and said, "Keep up the good work. Maybe one day you'll be on the stage of the International Congress of Mathematicians conference!"

Vera's golden ponytail swayed back and forth like a squirrel.

She looked at Lu Zhou with a grateful expression as she nodded: "…"

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