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CJCP化学物理学报英文刊今日刊发了《祝贺朱清时先生八十华诞专辑》，包含了数篇文章，点击此链接可逐篇阅读
以下是该专辑的前言，由该刊主编胡水明先生撰写。
Preface: The Unbroken Thread — Celebrating the 80th Birthday of Professor Qing-Shi Zhu
This special issue honors Professor Qing-Shi Zhu on the occasion of his 80th birthday. The papers collected here, contributed by his former students and colleagues from across the physical chemistry community, reflect the remarkable breadth and lasting influence of his scientific and educational legacy. Spanning more than five decades, his career has been defined not only by foundational contributions to molecular spectroscopy, single-molecule science, and green chemistry, but also by an uncommon unity of purpose that connects these seemingly disparate domains.
Professor Zhu’s scientific trajectory began under circumstances that offered little promise of the distinction that would follow. Graduating from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution, he was assigned to work in a machine tool foundry in Xining, Qinghai Province. Yet even in this inhospitable environment, he continued to study physics with whatever resources were available. In 1975, he was transferred to the Qinghai Salt Lake Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he finally had the opportunity to conduct scientific research. His early work on laser isotope separation led to the development of an atomic beam apparatus and, in 1982, to the Grand Achievement Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for the laser separation of lithium isotopes.
In 1979, Professor Zhu was among the first group of Chinese scholars sent abroad after the Cultural Revolution. As a visiting scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and later at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he entered the rapidly advancing field of laser spectroscopy. His spectroscopic studies of the CaOH radical were subsequently used to confirm the presence of this species in the interstellar medium. The most consequential scientific achievement of this period came in the late 1980s, while Professor Zhu was working in the laboratory of B. A. Thrush at the University of Cambridge. Using a high-resolution Fourier-transform spectrometer that had remained largely unused, he systematically improved the signal-to-noise ratio of his measurements until the second overtone spectrum of germanium tetrahydrode (GeH4) revealed an unexpected pattern. Instead of the Td symmetry expected for a spherical top molecule, the spectrum exhibited C3v symmetry. This provided unambiguous evidence that three quanta of vibrational energy were localized in a single Ge-H bond, rendering it spectroscopically distinct from the other three. The result was the first experimental verification of long-lived local vibrational modes — a phenomenon long hypothesised but never directly observed. This work earned Professor Zhu the Sir Harold Thompson Memorial Award and established the experimental foundation for bond-selective chemistry.
Yet the observation of local mode vibrations was, for Professor Zhu, not a destination but a point of departure. The demonstration that vibrational energy could be confined to a single chemical bond immediately raised a further question: could chemical reactivity be similarly localized? Could a specific bond in a polyatomic molecule be selectively excited and broken, enabling precise control over reaction pathways? Recognizing that spectroscopic methods alone would be insufficient to address this question, he turned to scanning tunnelling microscopy—a field then in its infancy and intensely competitive internationally. After transferring to his alma mater USTC in 1994, he established the Laboratory for Bond Selective Chemistry and assembled a team of young researchers to pursue single-molecule physical chemistry. Within a few years, his group succeeded in obtaining the first real-space image of a chemical bond, publishing the C60 molecule on a silicon surface in Nature in 1999. This work, selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering as one of the top ten science and technology news stories in China that year, demonstrated that the same molecule which had revealed its vibrational structure in the frequency domain could now be visualized directly in real space. The two approaches, spectroscopic and microscopic, were complementary expressions of a unified physical insight.
This capacity for synthesis, for recognizing the connections between seemingly disparate phenomena, is a defining characteristic of Professor Zhu’s intellectual style. It is equally evident in his embrace of green chemistry, which might appear to some as a departure from fundamental molecular science. For him, however, the transition was entirely natural. The same molecular perspective that enabled the interpretation of complex vibrational spectra also provided a systematic framework for thinking about the conversion of biomass into fuel ethanol. The laboratory he established at USTC, the monograph Biomass Clean Energy he authored, and the national research agenda he helped to shape all proceeded from a consistent conviction: that fundamental molecular understanding, properly directed, can address the most pressing challenges of human society. Long before carbon neutrality became a national strategic goal, Professor Zhu had already articulated the scientific foundations upon which such a goal must rest.
Parallel to his scientific career, and deeply intertwined with it, Professor Zhu has devoted himself to the reform of higher education in China. His decade as president of USTC (1998–2008) was guided by three principles: no expansion in enrollment, no engagement in infighting, and high-quality education. At a time when most Chinese universities were rapidly expanding their undergraduate cohorts, these principles were unfashionable and often misunderstood. Yet they preserved USTC’s distinctive character as an intimate, research-intensive institution, and the subsequent performance of its graduates has amply vindicated his restraint. His personal editorship of middle school science textbooks, used widely in Zhejiang and other provinces, reflected his conviction that meaningful educational reform must begin long before students enter university.
It was, however, his role as the founding president of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST, 2009–2014) that brought Professor Zhu’s educational vision into its most concentrated and consequential expression. SUST was conceived as an experimental ground for higher education reform, charged with answering the famous “Question of Xue-Sen Qian”: why Chinese universities, despite their scale and resources, had failed to cultivate truly world-leading innovative talent. Professor Zhu approached this question with the same methodological rigor that had guided his scientific research. He did not begin with pre-existing solutions; he began with first principles.
The institutional model he proposed was, for its time and context, radical. Administration was to be minimized, with governance placed in the hands of academics. An academy system would provide holistic education and close mentorship. The monolithic National College Entrance Examination would no longer serve as the sole gateway to admission; instead, SUST would experiment with independent enrollment, independent study, and independent degree qualification. These were not merely procedural innovations. They were expressions of a deeper conviction: that universities must be communities of scholars, not bureaucracies; that students must be trusted as active agents in their own education; that excellence cannot be achieved through conformity.
The early years were extraordinarily difficult. Formal approval from education authorities was delayed. Public understanding was limited. Professor Zhu was described by the media as a “solo dancer”—a solitary figure on an empty stage. Yet he continued to articulate his vision with clarity and persistence, travelling extensively to explain SUST’s model to prospective students, parents, and faculty, and recruiting internationally to assemble a founding faculty of distinguished scholars who shared his belief that a different kind of university was possible.
Today, more than a decade after Professor Zhu stepped down as SUST’s inaugural president, the trajectory of that institution has validated his boldest convictions. In international rankings, it now consistently places among the top ten young universities in the world and among the top ten mainland Chinese universities overall. Its faculty includes numerous Fellows of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as international members of leading academies. Its research output, normalized for institutional age and scale, ranks among the highest in China. Its graduates are sought after by leading graduate programs and employers globally. The independent enrollment model that Professor Zhu championed, once controversial, has influenced national policy discussions on comprehensive student evaluation and has been adopted in adapted forms by other universities. The principles of academic governance, general education, and small-class teaching—once regarded as impractical ideals—are now increasingly recognized as essential characteristics of world-class universities. SUST, once a bold hypothesis, has become a compelling demonstration.
What unites Professor Zhu’s contributions across these diverse domains—molecular spectroscopy, single-molecule physics, green chemistry, university governance—is a consistent intellectual disposition. He has never accepted that a significant question lies outside his competence simply because it falls within another discipline. Whether the question concerned the symmetry of a vibrational state or the optimal structure of a university, he approached it with the same method: observe carefully, reason from first principles, test rigorously, and refuse to be constrained by inherited categories. This is not merely a scientific method; it is a way of engaging with the world.
The papers in this special issue testify to the continuing vitality of the intellectual tradition that Professor Zhu has nurtured. They address fundamental questions in molecular spectroscopy, the behavior of single molecules, surface and interfacial phenomena, green chemical processes, and interdisciplinary frontiers that resist easy classification. Many of the contributors are his former students, now leading their own research groups across China and internationally. Others are colleagues who have been inspired by his example. Together, these works demonstrate that the questions he posed — about localization, about selectivity, about the relationship between molecular structure and function — remain at the forefront of contemporary physical chemistry.
At eighty, Professor Zhu continues to read, to think, and to engage with young researchers. His library, which contains the classic texts of laser spectroscopy, now also holds recent monographs on epigenetics and systems biology. He remains, in the deepest sense, a student of nature. His career demonstrates that the most profound contributions to science are often made by those who refuse to recognize boundaries—between disciplines, between fundamental and applied research, between the laboratory and the wider society. In an era that increasingly rewards narrow specialization, his life is an argument for intellectual courage and wholeness.
This volume is offered with admiration and gratitude. It is a record of what has been accomplished, but also an invitation to continue the work that he began.
Shui-Ming Hu
University of Science and Technology of China
Guest Editor, Chinese Journal of Chemical Physics
Feb 07, 2026