Chapter 327 Take It Easy

Amid applause, the speech finally came to an end.

Putting down the chalk in his hand, looking at the audience, Lu Zhou nodded with satisfaction in his heart.

This year's audience is okay.

At least much better than at the MRS meeting.

Obviously, those professors who study crystal chemistry and physical chemistry have a general understanding of his theory.

And those scholars who have conducted in-depth research on his thesis after returning home also understood more than 70% of his thesis here.

Such a result is acceptable to him.

As the award ceremony of the Adams Chemistry Prize came to an end, the opening ceremony also came to an end.

After the organic chemistry symposium officially started, Lu Zhou temporarily put aside the joy of winning the award, and participated in this academic exchange meeting with a learning attitude.

As the saying goes, you live to learn, even if you are at the forefront of research, there are still many things you need to learn.

It's just that the learning here has changed in form compared with the learning in the student days. For a knowledge-creating scholar, rather than acquiring knowledge from books, he focuses more on exchanging and discussing with peers, reading literature, listening to lectures, etc.

And this organic chemistry seminar provided him with such an opportunity, and it really benefited him a lot.

In the afternoon of the next day, Lu Zhou, who had just finished listening to a lecture on organic chemistry, made himself a cup of coffee, went to the rest area and sat down in a corner, quietly sorting out the notes he had collected earlier.

In the meeting just now, a researcher demonstrated a non-fullerene organic solar cell, and gave a current-voltage curve and the highest photoelectric conversion efficiency curve of a fluorinated binary heterojunction cell in the meeting .

The data on this graph is very beautiful.

Although he does not study photovoltaic materials, he still has some research on fullerene materials. And what interests him the most is the part about mathematical analysis in the thesis. It can be seen that the author of the thesis has a good foundation in mathematics, so he plans to spend some time studying it.

However, at this moment, the sound of high heels sounded next to him, and a beautiful blonde woman sat opposite him.

Disrupted from thinking, Lu Zhou raised his head and glanced at the beautiful woman sitting across from him with a questioning gaze.

"You are?"

Pursing her lips and smiling, the blond beauty extended her right hand to him, "My name is Roy, nice to meet you."

"It's also nice to meet you..." After shaking her hand and letting go, Lu Zhou asked suspiciously, "Which university are you a student from?"

"I have a master's degree from Harvard University, but not in chemistry."

It seems that I am not here to ask for a letter of recommendation.

Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows: "A reporter from the Department of Journalism?"

Blinking, Roy raised the corners of his mouth mysteriously: "Somewhere in between."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Could it be that you're still a writer?"

"That's right!" Roy snapped his fingers and winked at him, "I'm a popular science writer."

Are you really writing a novel?

Although there are still many differences between popular science works and novels.

Lu Zhou smiled and asked with great interest: "I didn't expect that not only companies and the media are interested in my research, I'm curious what you can do with me?"

Roy: "Actually, I signed up for this organic chemistry symposium mainly to find inspiration for my writing. I didn't expect to bump into the awarding scene of the Adams Chemistry Award."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I guess you didn't understand my speech."

"It's true that I didn't understand, but this does not prevent your speech from being very inspiring to me, especially your insights on energy and materials, which made my inspiration flow out of my mind continuously," looked at Lu Zhou seriously , the lady said in a sincere tone, "I have a few questions I would like to ask you, may I take up a little of your time?"

Glancing at the mist on the coffee cup, Lu Zhou thought about the next itinerary, and said in a relaxed tone: "...I have time before I finish my coffee."

"Don't worry, I won't delay you for a long time." Roy looked joyful, conjured up a shorthand notebook and a pen out of nowhere, and quickly started asking questions, "Then, the first question..."

Roy asked some very superficial questions, or popular science.

Lu Zhou used as simple a language as possible to explain what he understood, and corrected some erroneous views that were misinterpreted by the media.

Time passed quickly.

When he finished his coffee, Roy just finished asking all the questions and put away the shorthand notebook and pen in his hand.

"Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer my questions. I will give you a copy of my work for free after it is successfully published."

Lu Zhou joked, "Is it signed?"

Roy smiled: "If you need it, let me sign as many as you want."

After a pause, she continued in a joking tone.

"Here is my business card. I am very interested in you. Maybe we can have an in-depth exchange."

After leaving a business card with contact information, the blond beauty glanced at Lu Zhou with ambiguous eyes, left a scent of fragrance, got up and left.

Looking at her back, Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.

In-depth communication?

just forget it.

Even the professors at Cornell University can’t understand my theories, and it’s useless to communicate with you about things that are too difficult to understand.

Just then, an unexpected acquaintance came over.

Glancing at Roy's back, Carodet said relaxedly.

"You have good taste."

Lu Zhou asked casually, "Do you need me to call you?"

"This sounds very attractive." Sitting down on the sofa that Roy had sat on before, Carodet stared at Lu Zhou and said, "But I'm not here to talk to you about women."

Didn't you mention this first?

Lu Zhou glanced at him speechlessly, and put away the business card in his hand.

"So, what did you come to talk to me about?"

Kalodite said: "I don't talk about anything, I just come to tell you a bad news."

Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows slightly: "Oh?"

Kalodite said seriously: "Mobil Chemical intends to intervene in the production of lithium-sulfur battery materials, not only that, they found Professor Stanley!"

That's it...

Lu Zhou thought it was a big deal, with a speechless expression on his face,

"Oh, I already know."

Carlodit was slightly stunned, and quickly reacted vigilantly: "Woods has already looked for you?"

Lu Zhou nodded, and replied in a relaxed tone: "Yes, just the night before yesterday, when I first arrived in San Francisco, he and Professor Stanley came here to visit me."

Kalodite glanced left and right, lowered his voice and asked, "How far have they gone?"

Lu Zhou frowned slightly: "What step?"

Kalodite was stunned for a moment: "Of course it's the progress of the research... Wait, don't you mean you didn't ask them anything?"

Lu Zhou gave him a strange look: "What do I need to ask them?"

Carlodit: "..."

Seeing the unbelievable expression on Karodite's face, Lu Zhou sighed softly, "To be honest, I don't quite understand why you are so cautious."

"That's because you don't understand how terrible the market prospect of sulfur batteries is." Kalodite took a deep breath, restrained his agitation, and said in a low voice, "Listen, Mobil is also working on the positive electrode of lithium-sulfur batteries materials, and their R&D direction is also carbon-sulfur composite materials based on hollow carbon spheres! And you did them a big favor, you shouldn’t have published those two papers in "Science" at all!"

Even if Nichia, Umicore's old rival, took the lead in developing this technology, it would not make Kalodite so nervous.

However, ExxonMobil is different.

This kind of cross-field oil giant naturally has one foot in the upstream of the industrial chain of their chemical companies, and naturally occupies a unique advantage in the cost of raw materials.

Once ExxonMobil becomes interested in cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries, it will not snatch a piece of meat from Umicore, but cut a piece of meat from all their chemical giants.

Just as there is a gap between geniuses and geniuses, there is also a gap between giants and giants.

However……

What does this have to do with Lu Zhou?

He is not a shareholder of Umicore.

"I don't agree with your point of view. The value of academics can only be sublimated through communication." Lu Zhou frowned slightly. "And my own research results, whether to publish or not, do I need to discuss with you?"

"No, that's not what I meant." Noticing the dissatisfaction in Lu Zhou's tone, Carodet quickly eased his tone and explained, "I admire your confidence, but the problem is that confidence depends on time. You know, your competitor is Exxon Mobil! They have put 50 million dollars on Professor Stanley in order to start this battle! Do you understand what this means?"

Looking at Karodite who looked anxious, Lu Zhou didn't know how to comfort him.

Obviously, Umicore must also be researching cathode materials for lithium-sulfur batteries, and has invested a lot of money in an ambitious plan to take the lead in this project. In a sense, Lu Zhou and Umicore are also competitors in the lithium-sulfur battery project, but the competition is not as strong as Umicore and Mobil.

If Lu Zhou researched it first, Umicore would at most give up a part of the profits, then he was researched by Nichia, and at most he would be slaughtered by his colleagues. But let Mobil, an ambitious giant in the field, take the top spot, and it will be doomed.

It is precisely because of this that Lu Zhou's two papers immediately made them panic.

Especially in the case of a race with Mobil Chemical, no one knows how many meters the other party is away from the finish line. These two papers are like time bombs, making Carodit so nervous that he can't sleep.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhou felt very sorry.

But even if he was asked to choose again, he would still make the same choice as before.

After a pause, Lu Zhou tried to comfort him in a soothing tone.

"Relax, I never regarded you as competitors."

Carlodit: "..."