Program begins for budding scientists

Budding scientists will have the chance to explore key laboratories and talk to renowned scientists during this year’s teenage science camp that kicked off on Tuesday in Shanghai.

The program, 2019 Shanghai Science Camp, has attracted more than 900 high school students from 20 cities, provinces and autonomous regions as well as Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

This year’s program will run to July 14.

More than 40 national key labs will open their doors for students to see how the nation’s top researchers work and how scientific breakthroughs are made.

Renowned scientists will give lectures and guide students to launch scientific research as they foster the nation’s future scientists.

In the opening ceremony at Fudan University, Lu Baorong, professor at the university’s school of life sciences, gave students the first class. He shared stories about Zhong Yang, a late renowned botanist and his former co-worker.

Zhong spent about 16 years in Tibet collecting more than 40 million plant seeds for academic research. His success filled a void of Tibetan seeds in the world database. He also created the city’s first and only mangrove forest. However, he was tragically killed in a car accident in 2017 at the age of 53.

“Zhong had said even one seed could benefit all human beings and one gene could bring a nation hope. Such belief sustained him to have spent more than 130 days of a year in Tibet,” Lu said.

Zhang Yixuan, from Shanghai Xingzhi High School, said she had read about Zhong in the newspaper. “I can feel the power of belief from Zhong,” she said.

The camp is part of a nationwide summer science education program that has been running for seven years. This year, 53 universities, 15 state-owned companies and other research institutes across the nation have organized a variety of activities for 11,200 high school students.