On Nov. 20, the 19th “Academic Life” interview series was held in the Academic Conference Hall. Prof. HOU Xinmei from the Collaborative Innovation Center of Steel Technology was invited to share the keynote speech titled “Dedicating Youth to Scientific Research”. More than 1,500 students and teachers participated in the event through online and offline channels.

In the interview, Prof. HOU spoke of her academic life regarding three levels of scientific research related to herself, youth and China. She said that today’s youth is standing at a historical juncture of building an innovative country, and they should cherish the hard-won achievements in learning and academic environment and be pure research worker.

Professor HOU Xinmei shares her experience of studying

Prof. HOU also shared her experiences in her master’s and doctoral studies. She believes that scientific research will inevitably face difficulties, and the first step to confronting such challenges is to have a positive attitude and address them in a logical fashion. She said that there is no shortcut on the road of scientific research, and the only way is to make progress by examining those ideas that have been “abandoned” and make incremental progress in your studies.Only then will you be able to reap the full fruits of your efforts.

As a graduate advisor, Prof. HOU also has unique views on student training. She said that in undergoing the transformation from an undergraduate to graduate student, students should first cultivate the quality of daring to be courageous, so that they can dare to imagine, dare to seek evidence, withstand pressure and remain optimistic no matter what difficulties they encounter. Only then will they be able to find their own scientific research path. In addition, she believes that graduate students should also seek cooperation, not only with their advisors, but also with classmates and friends, which is the most direct and effective way to break through bottlenecks in scientific research.

Students interacting with Prof. HOU Xinmei

In the interactive section the video “Prof. HOU, I want to tell you”, which was carefully prepared by the program team, was played while students presented flowers to Prof. HOU in tribute.