Interview with Nobel Laureate Rudolph Marcus(4)
We undertake research in new areas, trying not to be superficial. We spend all our time in the areas. We do keep our eyes out for new phenomena. For example, there are quantum dots where you shine light on and they fluoresce on and off, or a recent catalytic organic reaction in an emulsion that is a thousand times faster than you might initially expect. The major obstacle is to find problems that are interesting. Many people can solve problems, but fewer find interesting one to work on.
Xing Zong: Let me ask you about another area of fortune. Who has been the greatest influence on your personal life?
Marcus: Undoubtedly my late wife Laura was. She died three years ago.
Xing Zong: What kind of support did she give you?
Marcus: First of all, she wasn’t a scientist. She asked early in our marriage, “if I took a course in chemistry, then will I understand what you are doing?” I said no, she would need many courses. (a hearty laugh). She liked writing and did a lot of writing here at Caltech. She was an optimistic person. For me, that was very important. She was also outgoing. I think she clearly had the most influence on me.
Xing Zong: When you are editing and making those ideas clear, and making sure you are saying what you mean, what do you do to keep fresh? Do you have hobbies?
Marcus: Often in the 1950s and 1960s I would work at the kitchen table and my wife said all she saw was the back of my head. In hobbies -- we used to do a lot of camping. We enjoyed that very much. She didn’t ski but accompanied us on skiing trips. I used to play tennis. I also played the piano for a while. Many years ago, I started to take piano lessons and became addicted to it. So I thought I needed to stop. But that used to be a hobby.
Xing Zong: You are a member of Chinese Academy of Science. In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge for Chinese science society now?
Marcus: It used to be a hierarchical system, one major professor and many young people working under him. In principle, in Germany, it once worked very well. But it was a system that probably wouldn’t work very well here. I don’t know too much about China, but I think there used to be a top heavy system that didn’t give young people too many chances. Now you are going out to recruit more young people and give them more responsibilities, so I think you are catching up.
But if you become too frantic about catching up, you begin to focus on catching up instead of on the novel and interesting problems to do research on. There was a case in Shanghai about fabricating data. It also happened in Korea, in Bell labs. I believe the kind of atmosphere, where people feel so compelled to get ahead instead of enjoying the work itself, creates too much pressure of the wrong type. It not only happened in China, but also happened in this country, too. In some cases, some people are busy producing many papers. But in terms of profound and far-reaching ideas, producing a lot of papers doesn’t necessarily accomplish that. No country is free from these pressures and faults.
I am sure you will need more laboratory equipment. China now is investing a lot of money in buying it. But things take time. It may take generations. China will get there and equal anybody.
Xing Zong: I can’t agree with you more. Prof. Marcus, thanks so much for your insightful ideas which shed light on a lot of important issues.
Marcus: you are very welcome.
