北美华人 | 东北大学郑义教授：站在纳米新能源技术风口的牛人

郑义教授

在加入东北大学之前，郑教授于 2014 年至 2019 年在美国罗德岛州金斯敦的罗德岛大学担任助理教授，并于 2019 年晋升为终身副教授。他的研究兴趣包括增强能量传输现象、热/光/电磁传感、纳米工程超材料的物理特性及其在能量转换、存储和收集系统、热光伏、波长选择性热发射器/吸收器中的应用的理论、计算和实验研究，近场热敏二极管和晶体管， 郑教授担任Scientific Reports编委，Journal of Photonics for Energy副主编，Nature Communications, Nano Energy, Physical Review Letters, Applied Physics Letters, Scientific Reports, Nano Letters等同行评审期刊审稿人，并担任国际会议的主题/会议主席，如 ASME IMECE 会议和 ASME 夏季热传导会议。

我的研究属于清洁技术和能源应用的功能材料领域。我们研究纳米级和生活垃圾材料（例如牛粪、树叶和龙虾壳），用于通过光伏电池收集太阳能，太阳能驱动水淡化，以及被动冷却以减少基础设施和车辆空调的碳足迹。

My research falls in the area of clean tech and functional materials for energy applications. We investigate both nanoscale and life waste materials (for example, cow manure, tree leaves and lobster shells) for solar energy harvesting through PV cells, solar driven water desalination, and passive cooling to reduce carbon footprint for air conditioning for infrastructures and vehicles.

我的研究并非都是理论性的。其中一些是相当基础的，不会在短时间内转化为应用。关于被动辐射冷却项目，我已经研究了多年，并发明了一些高性能材料，我心中有一个明确的时间表。我还创办了一家清洁技术初创公司Planck Energies，以使被动冷却产品商业化，并提供节能解决方案。我们已经花了一年时间创造了创新的自清洁、防火的冷却纤维。而且我们已经在大规模制造和户外耐久性测试方面工作了几个月。我们预计将在6-8个月内准备好我们的第一个样板产品。但总的来说，将实验室规模的研究转化为中试规模，再转化为工业规模，最终使人类受益（实际应用），可能需要很长的时间。

Not all my research is theoretical. Some of them are quite fundamental and will not be converted into application within a short period of time. Regarding the passive radiative cooling project, for which I have studied for years and invented a few high-performance materials, I have a clear timeline in my mind. I also founded a cleantech startup Planck Energies, to commercialize passive cooling products and provide energy-saving solutions. We already spent one year creating innovative self-cleaning, fireproof cooling fibers. And we have been working on the large-scale manufacturing and outdoor durability test for months. We expect to have our first prototype products ready in 6-8 months. But in general, it could take a long time to transform lab-scale research to pilot-scale to industry-scale, eventually to benefit the human being (real applications).

我的建议是跟随你的心。如果你喜欢进行基础研究，包括理论和模拟，就选择它。如果你有很强的实践经验，就选择应用研究，不用过多纠结。如果你是一个理论家，但你被迫进行一些实验任务，这对你的导师和你自己都是一场灾难。不要让这种情况发生。如果学生对自己分配的项目有任何问题或担忧，请直接与导师交谈，以免发生不好的事情。

My suggestion is to follow your heart. If you like conducting fundamental research including theory and simulation, just choose it. If you own strong hands-on experience, choose the applied research. No need to struggle. If you were a theoretical person, but you were forced to conduct some experimental tasks, it would be a disaster to both your advisor and yourself. Don’t let that happen. If the students have any questions or concerns about their assigned project, please talk to the advisor directly, before something bad happens.

问得好。坦率地说，我一点也不担心这种情况。我承认有些学科，如计算机科学和金融，现在很重要，很受欢迎，但纳米科学也很热门，而且在不久的将来会更热门。例如，我在很久以前就是一个好学生，但我选择了纳米科学，因为它很符合我的研究兴趣。此外，为了解决一些全球关注的能源和水资源短缺问题，人们总是可以通过纳米科学和纳米工程找到解决方案。

Good question. Frankly speaking I don’t worry about this situation at all. I admit some disciplines like computer science and finance are important and popular nowadays, but nanoscience is hot too and it will be hotter. For example, I was a good student long time ago, but I chose nanoscience, because it fits my research interest well. In addition, to address some global concerns about energy and water scarcity, people can always find solutions through nanoscience and nanoengineering.

作为一个攻读硕士或博士学位的学生，你需要向你未来的导师展示并说服他，因为你的能力和经验，你有资格和资质去参与科研项目。例如，你过去参加过或进行过哪些项目？你学到了什么样的技能或软件，如编程、建模、系统设计和材料特性。对于大多数情况，作为导师，我更关心未来的学生在研究方面的能力和热情，而不是他们的GPA或GRE分数。

As a student pursuing an MS or PhD degree, you need to show and convince your future advisor you are eligible and qualified because of your capabilities and experience. For example, what projects have you participated in or conducted in the past? What kind of skills or software you learned, like programming, modeling, system design, and material characterization. For most cases, as an advisor, I care more about the prospective students’ capabilities and enthusiasm in research, but not their GPAs or GRE scores.

我选择机械工程的原因可能是因为我的家庭。我的父亲是一名土木工程师，当我还是个孩子的时候，我对他关于画图和读表的工程工作很感兴趣。在我高一跟高二的时候，我参加了中国的科技创新大赛，获得了金奖，并在高中时申请了两项专利。这促使我在清华大学学习机械工程的本科课程，并在哥伦比亚大学攻读博士学位。

The reason I chose mechanical engineering might be because of my family. My dad is a civil engineer and when I was a child, I was intrigued by his engineering jobs about drawing graphs and reading tables. At my 10-11th grades, I attended the Science & Technology Innovation Contest in China, was awarded a gold medal, and filed two patents in high school. That led me to study mechanical engineering at Tsinghua University for my undergrad study and Columbia for my PhD study.

实际上，纳米科学和机械工程之间并没有冲突，因为纳米科学是多学科的。ME在纳米科学中占有一席之地，我的研究兴趣就在于此。有时，经典的理论可能不成立，或者材料可能不能很好地发挥作用，但纳米工程材料和理论却可以。

Actually there is no conflict between nanoscience and ME, as nanoscience is multidisciplinary. ME has a part in nanoscience, in which my research interest is. Sometimes, classical theories may not hold true or materials may not function well, but nanoengineered materials and theory do.

就我自己而言，我一直想成为一名教授。这是我的一个梦想，并且实现了。我仍然记得与我的博士生导师的第一次会面，他问我的职业计划是什么，我告诉他我想成为像你一样的教授，毫无疑问。当一个人有了梦想，就要去实现它。自从我开始攻读博士学位以来，我的大部分时间都在实验室里进行研究。到目前为止，我从未在任何公司实习过。这可能是我的弱点，但它使我。

For myself, I always wanted to become a professor. That was one of my dreams and it came true. I still remembered the first meeting with my PhD advisor, he asked me what my career plan would be, I told him I want to become a professor like you, with no doubt. When one has a dream, go for it. Since I started my PhD study, I spent most of my time conducting research in lab. I never had an intern from any company so far. That might be my weakness, but it makes me.

我的建议是，无论你在哪里，都要做你擅长的事情。有时大学的研究职位是有限的。这是一个艰难的决定，但要注意，你仍然可以继续在工业界做研究。有些教员确实有工业背景和经验，他们可以从中获益良多。

My suggestion is to do what you are good at, wherever you are. Sometimes the research positions at universities are limited. It is a hard decision, but be noted, you could still continue to do research in industry. Some faculty members do have industrial background and experience, from which they could benefit much.

我相信关于这个话题有很多讨论，已经有几十年了。对任何人，包括我自己来说，做出职业决定是非常重要的。是留在美国还是回到我们的祖国。这也发生在我身上。但我现在所从事的工作已经回答了这个问题。

I believe there are lots of discussion about this topic for decades. It is extremely important to make a career decision for anyone, including myself. To stay in the US or back to our home country. It happened to me too. But what I am doing now already answered the question. 

这里有两种情况。如果你只能在一个地方找到工作，而不是另一个地方，那就接受这份工作。但是，如果你可以在两个地方都有工作，就选择让你和你的家人感到快乐、自豪和舒适的那一个。快乐（快乐的妻子，快乐的生活）；自豪（你可以像颜宁博士一样取得更大的成就）；和舒适（同事、环境，甚至食物）。

Say, two situations here. If you could only find jobs in one place but not the other, take the job.

However, if you could have jobs in both places, take the one that makes you and your family happy, proud, and comfortable. Happy (happy wife, happy life); proud (you could make greater accomplishments like Dr. Yan Ning); and comfortable (colleagues, environment, even food).

当然了。我发表的第一项工作是利用波动电动力学为范德华/卡西米尔力开发一个理论。这听起来很复杂，对吗？的确如此。我花了很多时间阅读所有相关文献，然后用手做麦克斯韦方程的理论推导，并写下我的第一篇英文论文。整个过程很艰难，但我很高兴能在《物理评论A》刊上发表我的第一篇论文，没有我的博士生导师的指导，我不可能做到这一点。

Of course. My first published work was developing a theory for van der Waals/Casimir force using fluctuational electrodynamics. It sounds complicated, right? It was. I spent much time reading all relevant literatures, and then doing theoretical derivation out of Maxwell’s equations by hand and writing my first English paper. That whole process was tough, but I was so excited to get my first paper published in the Physical Review A. Without the supervision of my PhD advisor, I could not achieve it.

研究生和他们的指导老师都会遇到不同的瓶颈。如果现有的方法都失败了，学生可能不知道该如何进行。这的确是令人沮丧的。但这并不是一件坏事，因为这意味着你所做的事情是创新的。首先，要冷静。第二，阅读更多可以帮助你找到解决方案的论文。如果没有，就与你的顾问讨论，获得一些指导。

Graduate students and their advisors have different bottlenecks. Students may not know how to proceed if the existing approaches all failed. It is indeed frustrating. It is not a bad thing, because it means what you are doing is innovative. First, be calm. Second read more papers which could help you find solutions. If not, discuss with your advisor and get some guidance.

对我来说，作为一名导师，我的瓶颈可能是为我的研究生找到合适的研究课题。那些很酷、很有创意的想法可能不会自己自动展现出来。这需要时间，有时还取决于我知识的深度和广度。我建议经常与你的同事和同行讨论。这将有助于激发新的想法。例如，如果我们站在跨学科或多学科的角度，一个解决得很好的问题可能是一个全新的领域。

For me, as an advisor, my bottlenecks might be to find the proper research topics for my graduate students. The cool, creative ideas may not show out themselves automatically. It takes time and sometimes it depends on the depth and breadth of my knowledge. I would suggest discussing with your colleagues and peers often. It would help spark new ideas. For example, a well solved problem can be a completely new area if we stand from an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary point of view.

研究是创新和独立的，但绝不是一项单独的工作。它需要实验室内部和外部的合作。我正在与东北大学（我工作的地方）的其他部门和其他大学（如麻省理工学院、布法罗大学和布朗大学）的一些研究小组合作。

Research is innovative and independent, but never an individual work. It needs collaboration inside the lab, and outside. I am collaborating with some research groups in other departments at Northeastern University (the place I am working at) and at other universities like MIT, University at Buffalo, and Brown University.

纳米科学和人工智能的结合是一个优秀的多学科领域。事实上，我正在这个领域工作。我已经和两位教授合作了一段时间，他们是深度学习和计算算法方面的专家。我们的一项研究提案仍在接受美国国家科学基金会的审查，内容是利用人工智能进行功能性超材料设计。

The combination of nanoscience and AI is an excellent multidisciplinary area. Actually I am working in that area. I have been working with two professors, experts in deep learning and computational algorithm, for a while. One of our research proposals is still under reviewed by the National Science Foundation, about the utilization of AI to the functional metamaterial design.

我出生在中国，现在是美国公民。准确地说，我是一名美籍华人学者。我们的母语是汉语普通话。这有硬币的两面。它确实帮助我们交到更多说中文的朋友，让我们接触到更多用中文写的研究报告和论文。然而，由于我们的母语不是英语，在与当地人合作时可能会有点吃力，因为我们有着不同的文化。有时，我们可能无法很好地表达自己。这很令人沮丧。作为一个移民，要想获得成功，我们需要尽力从各方面不断学习和提高自己。

I was born in China, and now I am a US citizen. Precisely speaking, I am a Chinese American scholar. Our native language is Mandarin Chinese. It has two sides of a coin. It does help us make more friends who speak Chinese and get us exposed to more research reports and papers written in Chinese. However, as our native language is not English, it might be a little struggling to work with the local people as we share different culture. Sometimes, we may not be able to express ourselves quite well. It is frustrating. As an immigrant, to be successful, we need to try our best to keep learning and improving ourselves from all aspects.

很感谢你称呼我为“青年才俊”。有很多这样的 "青年才俊"，他们有类似或更好的背景。人们总是对他们的成就和成绩印象深刻，但却容易忽视他们所做的巨大努力或感受到他们所遭受的痛苦。我只想说，做你自己，快乐地生活和工作。研究和工作永远没有尽头。但生活是有尽头的。只要享受就好。

Thank you. There are lots ofthose “young talents” who have similar or better background. People are always impressive by their achievements and accomplishments, but easily neglect the great efforts they made or feel the pains they suffered. I just want to say, be yourself and live and work happily. There is NEVER an end to research, to work. But there is an end to life. Just enjoy.

谢谢你给我这个机会来思考我们的特殊优势或缺点。由于我们的心态、文化、教育和思维方式的背景不同，我们可以从中受益良多。例如，中国的诺贝尔医学奖得主屠呦呦博士就是受到中国传统医学的启发，然后获得了成功。有趣的是。我们最近的两项工作是受中国传统折纸结构和油纸伞的启发，以解决全球变暖和水淡化问题。这是相当酷的。缺点可以说是显而易见的。因为我们的中国背景，美籍华人学者也可能受到对华法案的影响。大家必须牢记的是要一直遵守法律从而保护我们自己。保护我们的社区。

Thanks for giving me this opportunity to think of our special advantages or drawbacks. As we have different backgrounds in our mindset, culture, education, and way of thinking, we could benefit much from that. For example, Dr. Tu Youyou, the Chinese Nobel prize laureate in medicine, was inspired by the Chinese traditional medicine and then succeeded. The interesting thing is: Two of our recent works were inspired by the Chinese traditional origami structures or oil-paper umbrella, to solve the global warming and water desalination problems. It is pretty cool. The disadvantage can be obvious. Because of our Chinese background, Chinese American scholars may also be affected by the China Act. What everyone must keep in mind is to comply with the laws all the time. Protect ourselves. Protect our community.