Chapter 1052 - Future!

Haizhou.

The third nuclear industry summit was held as scheduled.

As the most well-known industry conference in China, many veterans of controllable fusion were at this conference. This included retired industry leaders such as Academician Pan and Academician Zhou, as well as Wang Zengguang and Li Jiangang.

These people fought like hell trying to ignite the experimental reactor. After the fusion ignition was successful, they went their own ways.

Having everyone gathered here at this conference was worthy of a celebration.

The dinner table was quite lively.

Professor Sheng Xianfu downed a couple of shots and began to feel a little tipsy. His eyes suddenly narrowed as he spoke.

“I feel like something is missing.”

Professor Li Changxia, who was sitting next to him, smiled and spoke.

“Probably because Academician Lu is not here.”

Even though the nuclear industry conference had invited Lu Zhou every year, Lu Zhou had yet to attend a single conference. The third nuclear industry conference was held in Haizhou. Even the retired Pan Changhong came to join the show. However, Lu Zhou’s absence made these old friends feel a bit lonely.

Academician Wang Zengguang overheard their conversation. He smiled and spoke, “I saw him when I was in Russia.”

Sheng Xianfu immediately said, “Oh, really? How is he?”

“He’s fantastic! Never been better!” Academician Wang smiled and said, “Academician Lu is busy with his own things. He’s at the prime scientific research age, and he doesn’t have time to hang with us old folks.”

Academician Li Jiangang, who had not spoken yet, suddenly said, “Speaking of Academician Lu, did you guys hear he recently started a journal? It’s called Future.”

Obviously, Wang Zengguang had also heard about this. He smiled and said, “Yeah, I heard. I told him a long time ago to start a journal, but the kid doesn’t listen. How can a research institute the size of his not have a journal? Now that he was stabbed in the back, he finally took the initiative.”

Sheng Xianfu: “Stabbed in the back?”

Academician Wang: “Yeah, his paper on IEEE was withdrawn.”

Li Jiangang said in shock, “Withdrawn? I didn’t know this.”

Sheng Xianfu also said in disbelief, “Academician Lu’s paper was withdrawn? What paper... No, what journal dares to do this?”

“It’s the IEEE, I think they’re in the integrated circuit field. That area is not my specialty, so I don’t know a lot about it. I think he was the corresponding author, but it’s not a big deal. Looks like this was unacceptable to him. But this is good, he needs some motivation to do things outside of scientific research.”

Wang Zengguang was actually quite happy that the Future journal was created because of this. He almost wanted to thank IEEE for withdrawing the paper.

After Academician Li Jiangang heard Wang Zengguang’s words, he sighed and said, “Even Academician Lu’s paper was withdrawn, what is IEEE doing?”

He suddenly spoke.

“But speaking of Academician Lu’s new journal, should we support him?”

“Of course, I already did so,” Wang Zengguang said with a red flush on his face. “All of the research units at the China National Nuclear Corporation will give promotions based on Future papers written by the employees! Papers that are accepted will be used as standard references!”

Even though Wang Zengguang spoke in an exaggerated tone, he didn’t look like he was kidding.

Everyone at the table, including Academician Li Jiangang, looked astonished.

This was the China National Nuclear Corporation!

The top dogs of the Chinese nuclear power field!

The East Asia Energy sold electricity, while they were the ones that built the nuclear power facilities. Combined together, these two companies had total control of the nuclear power industry.

Having a nuclear power giant like this giving promotion to a new journal was...

However, even though the scholars were surprised, they didn’t feel like there was anything unjust.

After all, the founder of the journal was the father of controllable fusion. Even though Lu Zhou had been working in other fields over the past few years, no one doubted his authority in the nuclear field.

This included Wang Zengguang and Academician Li Jiangang, who were both industry leaders.

After all, without Lu Zhou, they would have had to wait another 50 years for fusion energy...

“Academician Lu’s academic reputation and ability are trustworthy. If even he can’t be trusted, then no one can,” Li Jiangang said as he downed a shot. He continued, “I’ve made up my mind. From now on, the Fuyang Institute Construction Material Laboratory will also include Future papers as a job promotion metric!”

If the Fuyang Institute Construction Material Laboratory, China National Nuclear Corporation, and the East Asia Energy all contributed to the Future journal, then it would easily become the top journal in the nuclear industry...

...

Lu Zhou, who was all the way in Jinling, didn’t know about the “favors” his old friends were doing for him.

In fact, it wasn’t only in the nuclear fusion field. As soon as the news of the Future journal was released, the entire academic community was excitedly talking about this matter.

Future.

The name was inspiring. It reminded people of two other top journals in academia—Science and Nature.

Even though Lu Zhou didn’t publicly announce what kind of journal Future would be, everyone already began speculating.

For many years, foreign journals had become a standard in the Chinese academia and industry world, whether it was for job performance evaluations or the authority of one’s PhD thesis submission.

Not only because the west had control over the academic world, but also because most of the research institutes around the world, regardless of whether they were in America, were more or less working for the Americans.

Even though the United States wasn’t strong in some areas, because it was the central country for academia, a scholar would more or less consider choosing critical problems as their research project.

What were the critical problems?

Problems that were asked by the majority.

Those that had control over scholar resources had the right to decide which scholars were good researchers and which scholars were worthy of being promoted in their academic careers.

The Chinese journals were filled with substandard and fraudulent papers that simply couldn’t be trusted. Even though it was a disadvantage to allow a foreign journal to determine the value of a research, they had no other option.

In the eyes of Chinese mathematicians, Lu Zhou’s Future journal was undoubtedly a challenge to penetrate the global academic community.

If he succeeded...

Then Future would exist next to the likes of Science and Nature...

It might be difficult to totally disrupt the academic dominance of the west, but it would certainly have an impact on the Chinese academic community...

...

Actually, Lu Zhou had wanted to establish his own journal a long time ago.

The reason he hadn’t done so until now was that he was always too busy.

In his mind, as a scholar, his job was to conduct research. Not to mention he didn’t really like to put too much on his plate. Just like Beep Beep Charging, he liked to have other people manage his business for him.

But now IEEE withdrew his paper!

Even though Lu Zhou acted nonchalantly on the outside, he was quite pissed off on the inside.

Future editorial department.

The third construction phase of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had been completed. After Lu Zhou took a glance at the layout map of the institute, he drew a circle on the map, designating a three-story building originally intended to be used as a book cafe, to be used as the new editorial department office.

In fact, the building was a bit too big to only be used as the Future editorial office. After all, the design of the building was able to accommodate 4 million books and papers.

After Lu Zhou referred to the opinions of his staff members, he decided that the first floor would continue to serve as a book cafe.

Researchers in the institute could come here for coffee and interact with people from different research fields.

That alone would boost the academic atmosphere of the institute.

Many great inspirations often came unexpectedly.

Lu Zhou was well aware of this.

After the location was determined, a signboard of the editorial department was put up.

“Future” and its special logo was printed on the signboard.

The large font looked like something out of a science fiction movie.

After all, the technologies invented at this institute did seem like science fiction.

The editorial department of Future was just as strong as the institute. Whether it was the editor-in-chief or just a normal staff editor, they were all big names in the industry.

It was worth mentioning that most of these people were poached by Chen Yushan from other journals. Most of the people didn’t come here for the salary. Instead, they came for the reputation of Lu Zhou and the Institute for Advanced Study.

For example, the new editor-in-chief standing in front of Lu Zhou.

His name was Yao Gong, and he used to serve as an editor at Nature. He returned to teach at a university in Beijing due to the Thousand Talents Plan. After he heard that Professor Lu was starting his own journal, he quit his job and came here.

“... So far, the journals we have registered are Future, Future Materials, Future Physics, Future Mathematics, Future Nanotechnology, Future Information Technology, and 15 other sub-journals. We expect this number to be increased to 27 within two years. After that, we will continue to expand accordingly.”

Yao Gong paused for a second, then continued to speak to Lu Zhou.

“That’s basically what we’re working on. I have a small request regarding our journal. I don’t know if you’ll grant me this request.”

Lu Zhou smiled.

“Don’t worry, just tell me, I’ll try my best.”

“Here’s the thing, since our journal only recently launched, I’m afraid it is difficult to receive high-quality submissions. I was wondering if you could submit any papers to us.”

After Lu Zhou heard his request, he pondered for a second and nodded.

“Okay, I’ll send you a paper.”

The editor-in-chief paused for a second.

“You’ve... already written it?”

“Not yet...” Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “But it’s nothing difficult, it shouldn’t take long.”Chief Editor Yao smiled and coughed.

“Um... Academician Lu, I didn’t mean for you to write any paper, maybe something with more academic value is best. Besides, isn’t it poor academia to only publish for the sake of publishing?”

Lu Zhou smiled and waved his hand.

“Don’t worry, I’m not that kind of person.”

Chief Editor Yao paused for a second. He believed in Lu Zhou, but he still asked, “Um... Can I ask what you plan on submitting?”

Lu Zhou: “How does the proof of Riemann’s hypothesis sound?”

Chief Editor Yao: “...???”