"nglong, how was your October 1 holiday?" The next morning, bright and early, Zhang nglong received a call from his senior, Zhu ngchao.
"Not bad, and you, senior?"
"Us miserable PhD students, of course, were just shaking those bottles and jars in the lab," Zhu ngchao said helplessly. "I don't know what got into my head, finishing grad school and then enrolling in a PhD program. My hair is thinning by the day, yet my pockets have never bulged."
"Don't you get a decent monthly subsidy?" Zhang nglong asked curiously.
"Subsidy? Forget about it! The university's three-thousand subsidy is barely enough to live on, a casual purchase by the girlfriend and it's all gone. This year, Teacher Han's research funding is too tight; our labor fee has already been cut from four thousand a month to eight hundred. More tears than words!"
"Oh?" Zhang nglong's eyes lit up. It seed that due to this year's overall situation, these traditional enterprises had been affected, and even university professors were unable to secure research funding.
"Let's not talk about that anymore. You should start preparing for your thesis. Let's start tomorrow; I'll send you so materials to look over, and tomorrow I'll take you to start the experints."
"Alright," said Zhang nglong.
Zhang nglong turned on his computer, and indeed a file had already been sent to his email.
"Graphene surface modification?" Zhang nglong glanced briefly at his topic. Graphene was a very popular inorganic material recently; its excellent performance plays a critically important role in many domains.
However, the cost of producing graphene was quite high; the most common Humr's thod produced in labs results in less than one gram per week, and its purity was very low.
Those high-purity graphenes even sold for thousands of yuan per gram, ten tis more expensive than gold!
"Wow, indeed, engaging in scientific research is the most expensive!" Zhang nglong glanced at his experint content; just the price of this one gram of high-purity graphene reached 2000 yuan. No wonder these professors are always trying to make money in various enterprises, a research group is simply like a money-burning machine.
Thinking this, Zhang nglong imdiately called Zhu ngchao again.
"nglong, what's up, do you have any questions about the topic?"
"No issues with the topic," Zhang nglong said, "I just wanted to ask, senior, whether our research group's funding is really tight?"
"Ah, speaking of this, I'm really troubled!" Zhu ngchao lowered his voice. "Last year, Teacher Han secured 30 million yuan in research funding, hoping to achieve so breakthroughs in graphene. We've had so success now."
"But this 30 million in funding will last less than a month at most. The enterprises collaborating with us are also pressing us for results. Business is tough, and they are unwilling to increase their research investnt anymore. Teacher Han has been worried sick during this period."
"Is the funding gap huge?" Zhang nglong tentatively asked.
"Quite huge, at least 25 million I'd say. But don't worry, the funding for your graduation project is still sufficient, but we are the ones who will suffer, alas..."
"Senior, is Teacher Han at the university these days?"
"Teacher Han went to the enterprises again these past two days, but he will be back at the university the day after tomorrow. Is there sothing you need?" Zhu ngchao asked. "Wait, you aren't thinking of doing a graduate study, are you? Don't make that mistake, advising people to get a PhD is like cursing their lineage; don't step into this pitfall of a major, you have a bright future ahead."
"Senior, I'm thinking of investing so research funding into our research group."
"What? Could you repeat that?" Zhu ngchao thought he had misheard. Investing in research was no joke; not only did it bear enormous risks, but even if there were results, turning research achievents into an industry took a very long ti.
Most importantly, Zhang nglong was just an ordinary senior undergraduate student; where would he get the money to support research? Even millions wouldn't last long with their research group's rate of spending.
"Senior, I an I want to invest so research funding into our research group." Zhang nglong repeated, "You just said there is still a 25 million gap, right? I'll first invest 50 million."
"What? 50 million? Wait, junior, you must be joking, right? You..."
"Seriously, I'm not joking. Look, I'm about to leave the university, and I just thought of making a contribution to our school, to our research group before I graduate."
"But..." Teacher Han had a notoriously tough temperant. If Zhang nglong was joking, he, as a senior, would have to face severe repercussions from Teacher Han.
"Senior, this is what we'll do, give
Teacher Han's contact info, and I'll speak to him myself; that way, even if there are issues, it won't affect you," Zhang nglong knew what Zhu ngchao was worried about. 在这种事情上,换做一般人,谁能相信呢?
Even though that 30 million had been hard-won by Professor Han making trip after trip, signing many agreents and clauses, the school still took a portion of it for the so-called "procedural fees
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