Early morning.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Professor Stanley, standing on the podium, was teaching with the undergraduates in the classroom as usual.

Since losing to Lu Zhou in the last "race" for patents on lithium-sulfur battery electrode materials, he has lost the support of ExxonMobil and left industry in embarrassment and returned to academia.

However, it may also be regarded as a blessing in disguise.

Because of the research of lithium batteries, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with Professor Goodnav and Professor Akira Yoshino.

After receiving this honorary crown, his current academic career can be said to be on the rise, not only ExxonMobil has the intention of repairing relations with him, but even the students who come to his classes on weekdays have a lot more.

Of course, in fact, to be able to win this award, to a large extent, there is still some luck in it.

If it weren't for the fact that lithium batteries have become more and more widely used in recent years, and have even become the cornerstone of laying the pattern of the new electric era, the Nobel Prize Committee may not have considered their work so early.

It is precisely for this reason that if it were not for the fact that he had already won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alone, many people thought that Lu Zhou was more qualified to receive the honor for the research of lithium batteries.

Many years have passed since that incident, and so many things have happened, Professor Stanley's view of Lu Zhou has changed dramatically compared to before.

Science changes the world, and mathematics changes science.

He admits that he was somewhat influenced by that man in his research philosophy.

Perhaps, as his friend commented on him, Lu Zhou's terrifying computing power left a deep impression on him back then, so that he has been studying computational materials science all these years, hoping to use it as a breakthrough to break through himself, and also as a breakthrough to break through the bottleneck of modern materials science research......

“…… Discovering, exploring, and summarizing and explaining phenomena is the process of creating knowledge, and at the same time it is the essence of science. ”

"In traditional materials science research, the discovery of new materials is mostly the result of accidental discoveries by researchers or the result of countless repeated attempts. It was not until the advent of modern computers that people summed up a variety of empirical models according to the experimental results, so that the design of experiments changed from empirical exploration to rational design, so that this discipline became a 'science' in the true sense. ”

"Yes, before that, I didn't think of materials science as a science, but more as a 'craft' belonging to engineers. Your assignment today is to write a review paper on the density functional theory that I talked about in class. ”

"Class."

After announcing the end of class, Professor Stanley put away his textbook and strode away from the professor and returned to his office. Just as he had thrown the lesson plan on his desk and was about to check the mailbox he hadn't had time to check this morning, Dr. Jons, a student and assistant sitting in his office, suddenly stood up and walked over to him with a stack of printed papers.

"Professor, I want to show you something."

Noticing the strange expression on his student's face, Professor Stanley raised his eyebrows and put back on the glasses he had just taken off.

"What's that?"

"This paper ......" handed the paper to the teacher, and Dr. Jons continued with a strange expression, "It's the ...... I just saw on Arxiv"

As if he didn't think that this was shocking enough, he immediately added a sentence after the sentence.

"It was uploaded by Professor Lu."

Sure enough, the moment these words were spoken, the expression on Professor Stanley's face instantly became serious.

I saw him sit up straight in his office chair, reach out and pull out a ballpoint pen from the pen holder, and read it carefully from the first page of the paper paper, line by line.

However, the moment he saw the title of the paper, the whole person was stunned.

Implicit density functional method?

The brow gradually furrowed.

About half an hour ago, he just said in class that implicit density functional theory is one of the major unsolved problems in the field of computational materials science.

In particular, the promotion of simple systems to complex systems is extremely difficult at the current level, both for people and for computers.

This guy hasn't studied materials science in years.

Now as soon as I come back, I have made such a big news.

Really?

Looking at Professor Stanley, who was silent, Dr. Jons next to him stood by and waited quietly, not daring to take a breath for fear of disturbing the mentor's thinking.

In this way, time passed minute by minute.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, Professor Stanley, who had turned to the last page, suddenly gasped and closed the paper in his hand.

Noticing the shocked expression on the teacher's face, Jons was slightly stunned at first, and then hurriedly stepped forward to ask.

"How, professor? That paper ......"

"Very well written," he replied succinctly, but as if he didn't think it was convincing enough, Professor Stanley couldn't help but add, "It's hard to imagine." ”

It's hard to imagine good......

When he heard this, Jons subconsciously swallowed.

Ever since he had been under this big man, he had never heard his mentor praise anyone like this. Not to mention that he didn't do it before he won the Nobel Prize, and it is even more impossible to do it after he wins the Nobel Prize.

It was probably the first time he had seen a mixture of shock, disbelief, and almost impossible admiration on the old man's face.

Returning the paper in his hand to his student, looking at him with a surprised expression, Professor Stanley was silent for a moment before continuing.

"Implicit functional density theory is one of the most cutting-edge studies in materials science today, but it is difficult to be used to study solid materials due to the fatal flaws of not being able to accurately describe van der Waals interactions and metals...... At least until today. ”

In his paper, he used some special mathematical methods to supplement the implicit functional density theory. Although the modified implicit density functional theory still has some limitations, it can at least accurately describe van der Waals forces, and its application range has been extended from simple systems to more complex carbon composites. ”

At this, a deep look of admiration appeared in Professor Stanley's face.

"At the current speed of development in the field of computational materials science, let alone a few years, even if you do not contact the most cutting-edge research for a few months, you may be completely thrown away."

"I originally thought that he had left the material science world for so many years, and even if his strength did not regress, he would definitely not make any progress, but I didn't expect ......"

Looking at the moving expression on the professor's face, Jons swallowed again.

“…… Didn't expect that? ”

Professor Stanley nodded with a heavy expression.

"Yes."

"I didn't expect that."

"He's still so strong and terrifying!"