Saturday morning at SUSTech, the Student News reporter walks in with 2013 Physics undergraduate Liang Tong. The young man sits on the couch and smiles softly. As soon as the conversation starts, one finds that his vision and his planning is always to find “one’s own endless possibilities”.
This year, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Michigan State University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Tokyo in Japan are just some of the big name universities that have offered Liang Tong a place. After careful consideration, he finally chose the United States New York State University Stony Brook. This fall, that’s where he will head to start his PhD in Physics.
Hard work “idealist”
In 2013, SUSTech held an enrollment program for the first time in Shaanxi Province. At first Liang Tong didn’t really grasp the vision of the university, but with the encouragement of his father, he decided to apply for a place. He tells us that “It was a bookmark I found just outside the examination room that finally ‘captured’ my heart.” At the time of his enrollment, he was handed a letter from the admissions teacher in the examination room, and he noticed something written on the back of a bookmark included in the letter: “The four years we spend together, the experience you live here, will be the pride of your life.” This sentence deeply touched him, and was the final push that brought him to SUSTech.
“I believe that many students from SUSTech are idealists, but in order to achieve the ideal, thinking is not enough, one must go out and do things”.
During high school he had already participated in many competitions, and Liang Tong was already determined to pursue his studies in the field of physics. “It is important to be involved in scientific research and to participate in practical works as early as possible, however I feel that a solid physics foundation is more important for future development.” As a Freshman and sophomore, he didn’t want to spend too much time in the lab, focusing his effort in learning theory. He spent his days somewhere between the classrooms, library, cafeteria and dormitory, the “four lines” that his life was “woven from”. As a sophomore the following semester, Liang Tong was invited into Professor Liu Chang’s research group, and thanks to his solid foundation knowledge, he quickly got comfortable in the cutting-edge research environment.
During his time here Liang Tong also encountered challenges. When he first entered the classes, the subjects were taught in English, and because his English was not very fluent, he was under a lot of pressure to learn quickly. So when he was studying in class, he would write down all the words he didn’t know, so as to check them later in the dictionary and he found that this was a great way to improve his fluency. It was such a good way that after one year, one day he suddenly found himself reading his courses and papers without any difficulty. Now when he reads through English papers with ease, he often attributes his fluency to the efforts put in that year.
“The teacher and the classmates helped me so much”
When talking about obtaining the “results” in the courses, Liang Tong explained: “There are a lot of people around to give me help.” Whether it is the students, the college counselors, the Department of Physics professors, especially his tutor Professor Wang Qian and academic Professor Liu Chang, there was always someone willing to hear him out, and talk about any topic he wanted to discuss.
Liang Tong’s described his dormitory as “clean”, which he shared with three other students, one studying physics and the other two in chemistry. Usually dormitory roommates get up, rest, eat, and share most of their daily life together. “The relationship between us is very good, the atmosphere was always great,” he says. After graduation, his three roommates will go to the University of Cambridge, Northwestern University and the University of Pittsburgh.
During the freshman mentor meeting, Liang Tong and assistant professor Wang from the Department of Physics met to have a chat, and he chose Wang as his tutor for the 4 years. “Chatting with him made me feel very comfortable, he is so kind” Liang Tong says smiling as he recalls the scene. Professor Wang would often take all his students out for a picnic, talk to them about their university experience, and play the role of a big brother to them.
On the topic of Associate Professor Liu Chang, Liang Tong expresses nothing but gratitude. “Professor Liu always believed in us, and in many ways would give us his full support, even when we were undergraduates, he made us believe we can do anything.” One of Liang Tong’s most profound impressions was during a academic exchange with the University of Hong Kong, it was time to leave but Professor Liu insisted to give more time to the students to talk and share. “He always has high expectations for us, and it turns out that we will do well.”
In the Department of Physics, Liang Tong also met with associate professor Lu Hai Zhou during his junior year when he was studying quantum mechanics. Professor Lu also had a strong interest in the topic and later went on to teach the quantum mechanics course, which Liang Tong got a lot of knowledge and help from.
Pushed out of our comfort zone to discover our different selves
Liang Tong is a person who likes to try new things. During his four years at university, he went to five different countries. When asked what he got out of these experiences, he says: “Going to a new place allows you to meet new friends.” In Italy where he went for scientific experiments, he exchanged a lot of ideas and thoughts with the laboratory staff on scientific research, “it helps you to understand their living habits, to understand the country’s scientific research status, which in turn helps my future planning and gives me new ideas.” In Singapore and Japan where he also travelled, he chose to live in youth hostels where he met many other young travellers from different countries: “These experiences have taught me to look from different perspectives to see problems in a comprehensive way, even if it is a problem that has long been ‘qualitative’.” “This is so helpful in helping to think from multiple perspectives.” he explains.
Adapting to a new environment is in fact all about finding your own process and identity. “In your own comfort zone, you may think that you are already well aware of yourself; in fact, when you are thrown into a new environment, your ideas will change.” These travel experiences allowed him to realize that constantly trying new things and constantly adapting to new environments allows you to know yourself better, even sides of yourself which you didn’t know of before.
During the summer vacation, Liang Tong applied to the University of Tokyo for an exchange opportunity. At first he wanted to “understand the different research direction, and feel the different atmosphere of scientific research.” Unexpectedly, during his two months there, the University of Tokyo’s professor fully affirmed his broad vision and rich scientific research experience. Just as he was preparing to head back to China, his professor told him: “You are welcome to come back at any time to join my research group.”
There are endless possibilities
His four years at university are nearing the end now, and looking back at his original choice, looking back at his past experience, Liang Tong says he was lucky: “SUSTech gave me so many development opportunities. The close teacher-student relationships allowed me to develop myself like I would never have imagined”.
This fall, Liang will travel to New York State University at Stony Brook where he will be the first from SUSTech. He will select the direction of scientific research for his future project, and this is why he finally did not choose the University of Tokyo, which asked him to directly enter the research group for scientific research. “I still hope that my future will provide more diverse opportunities” he said.
On the topic of future planning, Liang Tong said: “Although my choice is to study in the United States, I think China’s future is more worth looking forward to.” In the future he intends to return to China, back to Shenzhen, to dedicate his effort to the country.
Before leaving the university, he suggested that students learn to make the most of its resources. “SUSTech’s resources are really rich and broad, if you want to be involved in in-depth research, you can directly contact the professor of interest; you want to go abroad, you can exchange with international universities and programs. If you are interested in the arts and culture, you can go to the humanities center, art center, they offer fantastic courses and lectures; if you want to learn a foreign language, the language center also provides a lot of activities and you can often go to the library. There are also excellent hardware facilities. The first thing is to learn how to make good use of these resources”.
Text: Student News Agency Luo Qingyun
Photo: Wu Bingzhen
