Yangyang cheng biography of christopher

Cheng did, however, have a fair amount of exposure to the world beyond China. In her early childhood, her father had two stints abroad working as a visiting scholar. When the family returned to Hefei in the summer ofher father tried to improve her English by using a tape collection of famous speeches. She remembers reciting John F.

She was 15 years old. Cheng says she was drawn to experimental particle physics in part because it studies the most fundamental questions about the composition and history of the universe. But its international aspect was also attractive. When her professors explained that the project drew scientists from many different countries, she was sold. After she graduated from USTC inat the age of 19, Cheng packed her bags and left China for what would be the last time.

She worked for the summer at LHC in Geneva, where she got to know scientists from all over the world and spent long days analyzing data and doing unglamorous maintenance work on the equipment.

Yangyang cheng biography of christopher

She was a few years younger than most of her classmates, but even her PhD advisor, Melvyn Shochetsays he had no idea she was so young. She also saw her role as linked to the broader geopolitical environment — even then. The reactor had been built at the university and was one of the first achievements of the Manhattan Project. Cheng asked a friend to snap a picture of her in front of the sculpture.

When are scientists carried away by the technical curiosity or even arrogance and do things that cause harm? Though she spent her days in the lab researching dark matter, she was eager to understand more about American politics. By focusing on people, including herself, [Cheng] resists simple us-versus-them narratives in Sino-U. Axelrod even became something of a mentor to Cheng during this time; she thanks him in her dissertation acknowledgements.

Cheng was also hungry to learn more about Chinese politics now that she had access to the uncensored internet. After a classmate told her about Tank Man, she learned what had happened in Tiananmen Square the year she was born, and about the pivotal role that Fang Lizhi played in that era. She dreamed of one day meeting him at a physics conference and was heartbroken when he died.

This initial foray into politics, during the height of the idealistic Obama era, led her to draw a clear line between the U. But the same year Cheng moved on to a postdoctoral position at Cornell University, which is located in the rural New York town of Ithaca, Donald Trump was elected president. The unsettling changes were compounded as Cheng watched Xi Jinping consolidate power and eliminate dissent in her country of birth.

She felt compelled to write. In the fall ofCheng spent several late nights in her yangyang cheng biography of christopher in Ithaca weighing the risks of publicly writing about China — including for her mother and for her ability to go back home — but in the end, decided she had too much to say. At the time, there was growing momentum behind a proposal to build a supercollider, akin to the Large Hadron Collider, in China, and Cheng believed an international scientific experiment on Chinese soil deserved more scrutiny.

Collider experiments epitomize the international cooperation, transnational spirit, and camaraderie of science. The piece set off a debate in the physics community. Credit: Department of Justice. But Cheng leaned into her writing — insisting that scientists envision the broader political context and see themselves within it. I find how electrons move in a solid.

How can I envision this being used in dual-purpose electronics? As the China Initiative and its aftermath unfolded, Cheng urged her readers to resist broad characterizations about Chinese scientists and instead foreground the individual. Although Cheng fiercely guards some aspects of her personal life her scientist husband, for example, is off limitsshe is disarmingly honest about most others.

Skip to main content. Yangyang Cheng. Last Updated: October 15, Viewpoint When my friends and I coiled up our jump ropes and returned to class, we learned inspirational tales about the earliest generation of Chinese nuclear Notes from ChinaFile Li Wenliang, the young Chinese In the storied New England town, over a hundred of us had gathered for the candlelight vigil.

Download the ABC listen app to hear more of your favourite podcasts. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn and work. Program: China, freedom, science: The personal is political for this particle physicist. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Play Duration: 31 minutes 56 seconds 31 m.