Chapter 271: Being a Disciplined Boss

The autumn wind dyed the treetops yellow.

With the arrival of September, students who had been on vacation for more than three months began to return to campus one after another. With the students returning to school, Princeton, which had been empty for a long time, finally became lively again.

At the same time, Xiaotong, who has been playing with Princeton for two weeks, should also prepare to report.

After driving her to the airport entrance, Lu Zhou helped her drag the suitcase out of the trunk.

After receiving the suitcase, Xiaotong expressed a bit of reluctance: "Brother, I'm leaving."

"Well, be careful on the road, get off the plane and go home directly..." Lu Zhou thought about it, but still felt a little uneasy, "Forget it, why don't you wait for me to buy a ticket, and I'll take you back."

"No, no, no," Xiaotong waved his hands quickly, and smiled shyly, "I'm not a child anymore, it's time to learn to take care of myself."

Lu Zhou froze for a moment, and then a gratified smile appeared on his face.

"Well, that's right, you should have grown up a long time ago. By the way, Mom's there."

Xiaotong raised the corner of her mouth: "Don't worry, I will tell my mom so she doesn't have to worry!"

Lu Zhou nodded, and said in a joking tone: "Then thank you Miss Prosecutor for your kindness."

After saying goodbye to Xiaotong, he stood by the side of the road for a while, watching her walk into the airport.

When he walked to the airport entrance and stopped, Xiaotong turned around and waved vigorously.

Seeing his younger sister waving goodbye to him, Lu Zhou smiled, raised his hand and waved.

Coincidentally, just as he was waving his hand, an acquaintance happened to be walking towards him not far away.

Molina, who was dragging her suitcase out of the airport, was slightly taken aback after noticing Lu Zhou's waving gesture.

Obviously, she didn't expect Lu Zhou to appear here.

Because she never mentioned to anyone which flight she took back to school.

Clearly something was wrong.

Molina, who had a big brain hole, smiled at the corner of her mouth, and walked straight in the direction of Lu Zhou.

At this time, Lu Zhou also noticed her.

However, just when he was about to say hello, she spoke first.

"Thank you, I really didn't expect that you would come to pick me up."

After passing Lu Zhou, Molina lightly stuffed the suitcase into the open trunk, and at the same time closed the lid of the trunk.

Looking back at him, she gently shook her beautiful blond hair, pursed her lips and smiled.

"Since this surprise really surprised me, I won't pursue where you found out about my flight."

He consciously opened the door and sat in the passenger seat.

Seeing Lu Zhou standing outside the car looking straight at her without any response for a long time, Molina couldn't help but froze for a moment, and frowned in confusion.

"……Any questions?"

When he came back to his senses, Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "No problem, I'm going back to Princeton too..."

Although he thought his statement was a bit strange, but Molina was in a good mood, so she didn't take it to heart.

Opening the door, Lu Zhou sat in the driver's seat, took out the key and was about to start the car, when he hesitated for a moment.

Although it's okay to take someone back on the way, and Molina once sent him to the airport, but in order to prevent unnecessary misunderstandings, he felt that he still needed to clarify.

So, before driving on the road, Lu Zhou finally said what he was holding back in his heart.

"By the way, I actually came to send my sister back to China just now."

Molina: "...?"

...

After Xiaotong returned to China, Lu Zhou's life gradually returned to the right track.

In the next few days, he spent almost three o'clock every day, going back and forth between the Institute for Advanced Study, the Frick Chemistry Laboratory, and the dormitory apartment.

In order to build a logical and self-consistent mathematical model and complete his PPT at the same time, he needs more experimental samples.

This may sound like a hassle, but it's actually not bad.

For a mathematician, especially a mathematician whose research involves mathematical physics, knowing the result and inverting the mathematical model is simply too easy.

Of course, this is not entirely to perfunctory those "do not understand mathematics" material scientists.

Although a regular mathematical model cannot accurately predict the physical properties of an untested material sample, it can provide a certain reference for experimenters.

For example, narrowing down the scope of experiments in a probabilistic sense.

In addition, considering the promotion of technology, Lu Zhou also needs to perform multiple coulombic cycles on the samples, and set up a control group of graphite negative electrode batteries to compare the change curves of the two materials in various properties such as coulombic efficiency.

Academia focuses on breakthroughs, while industry focuses on a series of production issues such as cost and safety. Preparing more materials will help increase the bargaining chip in patent negotiations.

The only thing that bothers him more is that it takes a lot of time to do experiments, especially for dangerous goods experiments on expensive instruments, and people must be guarded in the laboratory.

The boss usually does not do this work himself, and usually leaves it to the younger brother. But Lu Zhou's job is a mathematics professor, and the three students he leads are all engaged in mathematics, so they can't help at all.

Fortunately, Professor Chiric helped him solve this problem.

He leads a lot of students, except for a few apprentices who often take part in meetings and do experiments, the rest are basically idle.

When Lu Zhou heard that he brought more than a dozen master students, he was almost not surprised by the number.

"A dozen masters? Can you handle so many students?"

Professor Chiric said indifferently: "Just find a few potential ones and cultivate them. Don't worry about the rest. Maybe you won't be able to see people after reading."

Lu Zhou: "..."

Sure enough, a good scholar is not necessarily a good mentor.

When these guys hand out offers, they are like dealers dealing cards, and after the deal is over, people are left to fend for themselves.

Lu Zhou suddenly felt that being the boss of himself was a bit too virtuous...

...

In any case, a helper has been found.

The next day, Professor Chiric brought his students to find Lu Zhou.

This young man looks tall and big, not like a researcher, but a bit like a rugby player.

However, with the reference of Professor Chiric here, Lu Zhou didn't think it was too strange.

"This is the Connie I told you about. He is good at organic materials, applied mathematics, and computers. He just came to me last year to study for a doctorate. He should be able to help you." After entering the door, Chiric The professor introduced to Lu Zhou.

The young man named Connie stretched out his hand enthusiastically, and looked at Lu Zhou with admiration all over his face.

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

Embarrassed by this enthusiasm, Lu Zhou held his hand and smiled kindly.

"Hello."

He patted Connie on the shoulder vigorously, and Professor Chiric laughed and said, "Okay, Connie, I have told you what needs to be done. The person in front of you is the first person in computational materials science at Princeton, follow Professor Lu Study hard and don't embarrass me."

Connie grinned: "Don't worry professor, I will definitely not let you down."

Lu Zhou coughed lightly and said, "It's not the first person, I just did a little work."

"No, no, please don't be modest," Professor Chiric said seriously, waving his hands, "There have been many papers published in Nature in the past ten years, but the papers that can cause such a sensation can be counted on both hands." Come on, you literally changed the industry. If it’s a little job, what kind of job would be great?”

Seeing that Professor Chiric said so, Lu Zhou smiled and stopped explaining.

Whether it is called great or not is left to the world to judge.

In short, with Connie's joining, he was finally freed from some tedious and boring repetitive work.

Maybe it's because he has been sitting on the bench with Professor Chiric for too long. In order to learn something from Lu Zhou, Connie is also working hard.

No matter how late I left the day before, I always showed up in the laboratory at 6 o'clock the next morning, and I almost didn't make a floor in the laboratory.

In this way, two and a half months have passed in a busy schedule.

Finally, before Black Friday in November, Lu Zhou got six samples of lithium negative batteries after completing 1000-2000 coulomb cycles.

The results are very gratifying. There is no exception in the six groups of samples. Except for the small and wrinkled cross-section of the negative electrode material, none of the groups has lithium dendrites.

As for the No. 7 sample used as the control group, no PDMS material was used, and the copper foil had been filled with lithium dendrites growing wildly, and it was completely scrapped. From this, it can be seen intuitively how amazing his research results are.

So far, all preparations are finally ready, just waiting for the meeting to start...