A day later, Pang Xuelin received the medal and certificate of the highest national science and technology award from the head of the RM Assembly Hall.

In the following days, the official media reported in an all-round way, and Pang Xuelin naturally became popular all over the Internet again and became the focus of national attention.

This time, the fire was not too unexpected for him.

After all, at the age of 20, it is really appalling to win this award, which symbolizes the highest honor in China's science and technology industry.

But to a certain extent, this can be regarded as a strong support for Pang Xuelin on behalf of the national power.

After all, after Pang Xuelin and Tian Hong made a bet, there were many doubts about Pang Xuelin, both on the Internet and in the academic world.

At this time, the choice to award Pang Xuelin obviously expresses the recognition of the national power for Pang Xuelin.

After the award ceremony, Pang Xuelin went to the Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in the annual academician conference of the Department of Mathematical Physics.

This kind of procedural meeting generally does not have much dry goods, but Pang Xuelin also met many top experts in the field of physics in the field of mathematics through this conference.

Pang Xuelin originally planned to take a flight back to Jiangcheng after attending this meeting.

However, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Ministry of Education came together, disrupting his next plan.

That afternoon, as soon as Pang Xuelin returned to the hotel, he received a call from Xu Zejun, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, inviting him to visit the Chinese Academy of Sciences

"Academician Pang, let me introduce to you, this is Vice Minister Lu Wenlin of the Ministry of Science and Technology, you should have met it before, this is Vice Minister Liu Yangzhou of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology......"

Xu Zejun, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced Pang Xuelin one by one.

Pang Xuelin smiled and stepped forward to shake hands with the two, then turned his gaze to Xu Zejun and said, "Dean Xu, ...... are you?" ”

Xu Zejun said with a smile: "Academician Pang, I came to you today, mainly because there is one thing that needs to be communicated with you privately, so let's go to the conference room to talk." ”

Pang Xuelin, Lu Wenlin, and Liu Yangzhou all nodded.

The four of them came to a small conference room, and soon a secretary served tea to everyone, Xu Zejun signaled the secretary to close the door, and then went directly to the topic: "Professor Pang, the central government intends to establish a national laboratory in Jiangcheng, and I hope that you will take the lead in setting it up and serve as the director of the laboratory." ”

"National labs?"

Pang Xuelin was slightly stunned, and said suspiciously: "Didn't the national laboratory say that it would not be done in a short period of time?" ”

In China, the concept of a national laboratory is not new.

Compared with the hundreds of national key laboratories located in major universities and research institutions across the country, the national laboratory is the national team in the true sense, with the smallest number and the highest sequence level among all laboratories.

Since 1984, the National Laboratory of Positron and Negative Electron Collider (Positron Collider) affiliated to the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Laboratory of Tandem Accelerator Nuclear Physics (IAE), the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory of the University of Science and Technology of China, the National Laboratory of Heavy Ion Accelerator (CIAF) of the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Laboratory of Materials Science of the Institute of Metal Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been established in China.

However, these five national laboratories were all established before 2000, and they were all built on the basis of big scientific experimental equipment or nuclear physics.

After that, in 2003 and 2006, China started preparations for the construction of national laboratories in 15 important directions, including ocean, aerospace, population and health, nuclear energy, and new energy.

They are the National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics of the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Hefei National Laboratory of Physical Science at the Microscale of the University of Science and Technology of China, the National Laboratory of Information Science and Technology of Tsinghua University, and the Capital National Laboratory of Molecular Science jointly established by Peking University and the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences......

However, this batch of national laboratories has not been successful, most of them are based on local universities or research institutions, and the assessment mechanism, operation mechanism, etc. are not mature.

As a result, over the years, these 15 national laboratories have never been able to get rid of the fate of preparation.

Later, it was really impossible to continue, and six national laboratories were simply changed to national research centers, and their names changed, and their status was not the same as that of national laboratories in the real sense.

The remaining ones, except for the Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, have not been officially approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

To a certain extent, this also shows that the country feels that the previous national laboratories are not qualified, so they are collectively downgraded.

A few days ago, when the chief asked Pang Xuelin about the scientific community, Pang Xuelin once complained about the problem of the national laboratory.

And he also clarified to the chief what he wanted to be like a top research institution.

That is to say, it is better for national laboratories that are biased towards application, universities that are biased towards personnel training, and advanced research institutes that are biased towards theoretical research to support and promote each other in the same city.

The national laboratory is based on solving major technical problems related to the national economy and people's livelihood, the university is based on cultivating top talents, and the Institute for Advanced Study is based on theoretical guidance.

He didn't expect that today, the high-level would want him to take the lead in establishing a national laboratory.

At this time, Xu Zejun said with a smile: "Academician Pang, the national laboratory is not not not to be engaged, but to be carried out, we hope to build a top laboratory that can be based on the needs of the country and solve major problems in a real sense." Even the laboratory itself will adopt completely new mechanisms. ”

"For example, the laboratory itself operates as an independent legal entity, not affiliated with a university or research institute, and the laboratory itself does not have an administrative level, and implements a director responsibility system......

Pang Xuelin couldn't help but look a little strange, aren't these all the things he discussed with the chief a few days ago?

Xu Zejun probably talked to Pang Xuelin about the overall operation mechanism of the laboratory, and continued: "At present, our initial idea is that the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jiangcheng University, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will jointly prepare to build a national laboratory. The laboratory itself is independent of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Jiangxi University, and the laboratory is led by you, and is fully responsible for the operation of the laboratory, the specific research direction of the laboratory, etc., which are all controlled by you, and you can even rely on the carbon nanomaterials research center under your command to set up this laboratory. But for lab specifications and requirements, we asked for direct benchmarking to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States! And it must be formed within five years. ”

Pang Xuelin's eyes narrowed slightly.

This is not a simple requirement.

Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States, for example, has 12,500 permanent employees and 3,300 contract personnel.

About one-third of the scientific and technical staff are physicists, one-fifth are engineers, one-sixth are chemists and materials specialists, and the rest are mathematicians, computer engineers, biologists, geographers and other specialists.

Los Alamos National Laboratory alone operates more than $2.2 billion annually.