Chapter 1346 Troubles of the International Union of Materials Research Societies

"Probably an illusion..."

Looking at the mission panel exuding a pale golden European atmosphere, Lu Zhou shook his head vigorously, driving away the strange feeling from his mind, and refocused on the mission itself.

It is required to complete the manned landing plan on Mars within this year.

This is nothing.

Manned landing on fire is one of Huaguo's space programs this year, and it is also a pre-project of the Mars scientific research station.

As for the rewards, it is determined by the number of people who log in and the remaining mission time...

Facing this strange reward standard, Lu Zhou couldn't help falling into silence.

If you throw a hundred people on it at once, wouldn't you earn tens of millions of experience points?

Of course, he was just thinking about it.

Not to mention the technical difficulty, risks, and accompanying humanitarian issues, even if so many people can be sent up at one time, the system may not allow him to earn more than 10 million experience points.

After all, the reward bonus may increase with the number of people, but it may not increase linearly.

"In short, just find a way to send people to Mars as soon as possible... If you say that, this task should be quite simple."

Not long ago, the Space Launch Center sent a spacecraft to cruise around the orbit of Mars and returned. Now it just needs to find a way to bring the life support device there, and throw the volunteers and the landing module down together.

Thinking so in his heart, Lu Zhou closed the holographic panel.

Although the feeling of uneasiness still lingers, it is not his style to worry about unknown and clueless things, so he just frowned and struggled for a while, then put the matter aside for the time being.

After exiting the system space, the sky outside the window has completely darkened.

He raised his watch and looked at the time, and saw that it was past ten o'clock in the evening. Lu Zhou was about to close his eyes and go to sleep, but found that the drone controlled by Xiaoai was lying on the bedside table next to him and staring at him.

After hesitating for a while, Lu Zhou asked.

"Any questions?"

Xiao Ai: 【...Master, I just got a call. (☆-v-)】

Actually off topic.

Still, business matters.

"I see."

Yawning, Lu Zhou reached out to pick up the phone, looked at the dozen or so missed calls, and thought about who was so bored and called more than a dozen calls in the middle of the night, so he dialed back the call.

The call was quickly connected.

It wasn't particularly unexpected, Director Li's voice appeared on the other end of the phone.

"Hello? Academician Lu, you haven't slept so late."

"..."

Hearing this sentence, Lu Zhou couldn't help complaining in his heart.

With so many calls bombarding him, even if he fell asleep, he would probably be woken up.

But thinking that he hadn't slept anyway, he didn't care about it, leaned his head back on the pillow, and asked casually.

"What's the matter, tell me."

"Haha, it's not a big deal—"

"Then I'll hang up first, and we'll talk about it tomorrow."

"Hey, wait, wait, don't hang up in a hurry, I just want to... consult with you about something, it won't waste a lot of your time!"

"Then tell me?"

"You've heard of space elevators—"

"beep--"

The busy tone of the phone rang suddenly, cutting off the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Ah... I accidentally pressed the hang up button."

Looking at the phone that had been hung up, Lu Zhou muttered to himself, turned off the phone and left it aside, then turned over and went to sleep.

At this moment, Director Li, who was far away at home in Shangjing City, was listening to the busy tone coming from his mobile phone with a confused expression on his face.

Why did you hang up suddenly?

Is the phone dead...

...

Just when Lu Zhou turned over and fell asleep, the headquarters of the International Union of Materials Research Societies far away in the Pacific Ocean was busy.

Sitting in his office, Chairman Swift was chatting with the Secretary-General, Professor Merifinch, about the selection of the annual society awards, while dealing with those piles of headaches.

However, at this moment, there was a knock on the door outside the office, and then a young assistant walked in quickly with an unopened letter in his hand.

"Director, here is a letter from the Max Planck Society."

Putting down the pen in his hand, Chairman Swift cast his weary eyes on him, and asked weakly.

"What does it say?"

"The letter is from Professor Gerhard Eitel, the director of the Fritz Haber Institute," the assistant opened the envelope at the scene, and after a quick glance, the assistant said with some hesitation, "He is in Greetings to you in the letter... hope to nominate Lu Zhou as a candidate for the annual academy award."

The moment he heard this sentence, Chairman Swift put his index finger and thumb on the center of his eyebrows with a headache on his face, and cursed in his mouth.

"Another one."

But no wonder.

The relationship between Lu Zhou and the Max Planck Society has always been good. Not only has he won a Hoffmann Medal issued by the German Chemical Society, but he also cooperated with those German guys on the stellarator project.

Professor Merifinch standing next to him shrugged his shoulders, and the expression on his face seemed not at all surprised by the contents of the letter.

In fact, there is really nothing surprising.

Even without considering the past friendship, in terms of the academic value of that paper, it is indeed worthy of the German Chemical Society to do so.

During this period of time, they have received at least ten nomination letters from top experts in the field of materials science or society organizations, hoping that they can include Lu Zhou's name in the selection list for this year's Society Alliance Award.

In fact, it would have been nothing.

But for Chairman Swift, it is a headache.

Although the International Federation of Materials Research Societies is nominally a joint organization of materials science societies of various countries, because the center of the world materials science community is in Boston, this organization is actually somewhat similar in nature to IMCRC, both of which are nominally international, but actually In fact, it is still a cooperative organization that is more influenced by a single country.

Under such circumstances, even if they really should seriously consider Lu Zhou's research results, they have to worry about the diplomatic stance of their own authorities.

What's more, they had already discussed that they planned to award this year's Society Alliance Annual Award to Professor Kohlhardt of Stanford University in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of corrosion electrochemistry of complex systems.

If Lu Zhou is allowed to come in at this time, the whole selection will become a matter of no suspense.

"You go out first."

"Okay, okay..." Seeing Chairman Swift waving to him, the assistant standing at the door hesitated a little, and left the opened letter in his hand on the cabinet next to him. Then exited the office.

The door of the office meeting was closed, and Secretary Merifinch, who had been standing beside him without speaking, spoke thoughtfully.

"It seems that our European friends are beginning to feel dissatisfied with our small actions."

It is not an open secret that the annual awards of the Association of Societies are tricky. Whether it is acquiescence or no way, other societies have no good way of manipulating the selection of this award.

After all, this kind of partiality within a limited range is really difficult to define and it is difficult to find evidence.

Under normal circumstances, the candidates they push up are not weak, but at the same level, or not far behind other candidates, they will be more inclined to choose scholars who are native to North America or intend to stay in North America. .

In this way, it is a bit interesting for Professor Eitel to nominate Lu Zhou in the name of the Max Planck Society.

After all, research institutions with a regional nature like the Max Planck Society usually nominate scholars working in Germany, even if they are not domestic scholars.

I can't blame him for thinking too much. The nomination proposed by Professor Eitel really feels like putting pressure on them.

Apparently thinking of this, Chairman Swift gave him a look of asking for help, and asked with a headache on his face.

"What should we do now?"

"If so many nomination letters are rejected, it will definitely cause dissatisfaction among other societies," Secretary-General Merifinch said after thinking for a while, "Why don't we be more generous and admit his research."

"It's impossible!" Chairman Swift said without hesitation, "It's fine if it's someone else, but it's Lu Zhou...not to mention Stanford University and Professor Kohlhart, the Congress will not be satisfied with our choice,"

"not necessarily."

Director Swift cast a questioning look at Secretary Merifinch who said this, waiting for his explanation.

Without making him wait for a long time, Secretary-General Merifinch paused for a moment before explaining.

"Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the United States has lost the space race and has chosen to compromise with China on a series of issues left over from history because of controllable fusion technology. Even NASA is still using the space on the other side of the Pacific The weapon-as-a-threat argument is asking Congress for funding, but haven’t you noticed? Official opposition has actually been getting quieter.”

"so what?"

"The people are gradually tired of this fruitless confrontation, and the White House also knows that it is difficult to win support for itself in the short term by winning staged victories in the confrontation. Successive failures will make voters gradually lose Confidence," looking at Chairman Swift, Secretary-General Merifinch said seriously, "If Lu Zhou can visit North America, maybe this can be used as an opportunity to repair the relationship between the two countries."

Director Swift frowned.

"I don't want to bring politics into academia."

"Is it still meaningful to say this now? Don't forget who is supporting our funding," Secretary-General Merifinch shrugged, "Besides, this is not bringing political matters into academia, do you think With his thesis and his quasi-Nobel Prize-level achievements, isn’t he worthy of an annual award from the Association of Chinese Academy of Sciences?”

"As for Stanford University and Professor Kohlhart, if you really care about their feelings... I don't think it's a shame to lose to Professor Lu."

Seems to be convinced, Chairman Swift was silent for a long time this time.

After about five minutes, he finally spoke.

"Go to the White House and ask for their opinion."

"If they plan to use this opportunity to restore relations with Huaguo..."

"I believe that Professor Kohlhart will understand our situation."