On September 29, Professor Ada Yonath, the 2009 Nobel laureate in Chemistry and the director of the Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, visited Shandong University and delivered a speech. Prior to the speech, Vice President of Shandong University Han Shenghao met with Professor Ada Yonath.

During their meeting, Vice President Han briefly introduced Shandong University and the cooperation between the two parties in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and expressed his hope for Professor Ada Yonath to support closer cooperation between the two parties in the field of chemistry. The two parties also had a chance to discuss the fundamental status of chemistry at Shandong University.

Following the meeting, Ada Yonath gave a speech to teachers and students entitled “How I Become a Scientist”. Starting with her life experiences and with the help of pictures and animation, she used simple words to profoundly introduce the motivation, approach and results of her research in ribosomes and displayed the structural function and mechanism of ribosomes ——also called the protein synthesis factory. Despite the difficulties she encountered over the course of her research, she said it was her strong sense of curiosity and passion for scientific research that led to such achievements. She encouraged the young teachers and students to keep curious, maintain interest, and do what they want to do.

Teachers and students from the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and officials from the Department of International affairs at Shandong University also participated in the activities above.

Doctor Ada Yonath is an Israeli scientist and winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, awarded to her for the study of the structure and function of the ribosome. She was also awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science award in 2008 for her research in bacterial resistance.

Source:view.sdu.edu.cn

Translated by: Su Chang
Edited by: Matthew Lane, Wang Jingnan