Fan Xiaoli: “Curiosity” Drives Scientific Dreams

Cited from NPU News Website, May 16th (Author: Wu Xiuqing)

Fan Xiaoli, Dean of QMES and Professor of the Center of Advanced Lubrication and Sealing Materials of NPU. As an academic leader in the direction of genetic engineering of lubricating materials of NPU, she has devoted herself to the field of basic research and made a series of pioneering explorations around the physical and chemical problems involved in the surface and interface of materials.“I’m just curious about basic science”, Fan Xiaoli said when talking about her research career and academic field.

Fan Xiaoli is an admirer of Einstein. Just like Einstein’s curiosity, it drove Fan Xiaoli into the hall of science—for “scientific research due to curiosity and excellence due to concentration”.

After completing her master degree, Fan Xiaoli was recommended to the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) to study for a doctoral degree in Computational Physics due to her excellent performance.During this period, she spent four years on two major projects and made two “discoveries”: first, she demonstrated that reactions that were originally considered impossible in chemistry could occur between molecules and solids; Second, the spin states that were originally thought to be unchangeable in a reaction process could be changed by spin jumps at the intersection of the reaction paths. At CUHK, she started to appreciate the charm of science, and in 2007, Fan Xiaoli entered NPU and really began to deepen her study of science.

Fan Xiaoli had worked in or visited many first-class universities at home and abroad. For example, she worked as an assistant researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a postdoctoral at the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and she has done research at University of Oxford in the UK and Duke University in the US as a visiting scholar.

Fan Xiaoli, New Century Talent of the Ministry of Education, Leading Talent of Scientific and Technological Innovation in Shaanxi Province, and Winner of the Outstanding Youth Fund of Shaanxi Province, described herself as “a person who pursues simplicity”.

“With the increasingly advanced manufacturing technology and the shrinking size of electronic devices, it is particularly important to understand the structures, properties, and performance of surface and interface of materials, as well as their reactions and processes involved at the atomic level,” Fan Xiaoli deemed.

As an academic leader in the direction of genetic engineering of lubricating materials of NPU, Fan Xiaoli has led her research group to focus on the relationship between structures, properties and performance around the physical and chemical problems involved in the surface and interface of materials, and to continue to explore in the theoretical research on the optimization and improvement of physical and chemical properties combined with the development of calculation methods and tools over the past decade.

At present, Fan Xiaoli is responsible for a National Key R & D Project “Aviation Lubricating Materials Database and High-throughput Computational Design” to explore the rapid development of new lubricating materials, establish a safe and standardized coding and marking system of “composition of lubricating materials - process - structure - QR code of performance gene”, and further realize the whole-chain intelligent tracking of “design - R & D - application”, thus meeting the requirements of intelligent manufacturing for aviation lubricating materials.

Fan Xiaoli has many identities, including Member of CPPCC of Shaanxi Province, Deputy to the National People’s Congress of Beilin District, Xi’an, Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, Member and Deputy Secretary-General of the Computational Materials Science Branch of Chinese Materials Research Society, and Dean of QMES. Nevertheless, her “two major tasks”—scientific research and education are still advancing. In her opinion, doing what she likes can not only make her enjoyable, but also make the pace of scientific exploration more stable and farther.

“Doing scientific research is like deciphering, which requires curiosity to illuminate every unknown field”, which is what Fan Xiaoli emphasized most to young teachers and postgraduates. “If you want to go far and steady, you must first calm down and study more basic scientific issues.” She hopes that all her students can be as curious and passionate about science as she was in those days, and explore freely without pressure. She insists that all students have endless potentiality.

In the “Weekly Work Report” submitted by postgraduates, the reporter found that Fan Xiaoli filled the “Comments” of each report with her own opinions and suggestions. “What Professor Fan emphasizes most is that one should have a clear understanding of his own work, know what each step is for, what the basis is, what to do next and what innovations are there”, the postgraduate Zhang Xinqi said, “Professor Fan attaches great importance to details and tries to explain every problem perfectly, which will benefit me all my life”.

“Professor Fan has a truth-seeking spirit. She has a very clear understanding of basic theories and teaches us that we must analyze and solve problems from their root causes, and we should explore deeper things”, the Ph.d Luo Zhifen told the reporter.

Fan Xiaoli, who is leading her students in cutting-edge basic research, said, “it is my fundamental duty to do a good job in scientific research, strengthen basic research and cultivate top-notch talents.”

Fan Xiaoli expects her students to illuminate more unknown areas with curiosity and shine the future of mankind with the light of science!

Reprinted from:https://news.nwpu.edu.cn/info/1002/81885.htm

Author: Wu Xiuqing

Review: Dai Fuping and Ma Xiping

Source: Media Office of the NPU Committee of the CPC

Translator: Liu Kaixuan