A film event commemorating the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up was held in Beijing. The event aimed to introduce a series of newly produced quality Chinese films and tell the inspirational stories of the Chinese people – how their lives have been transformed over the past four decades. One movie that depicts the life of a great geophysicist, Dr. Huang Danian, immediately caught the public’s eye.
Born in 1958 in Nanning, Guangxi, Huang started to become interested in geophysics early in his childhood. Both his parents taught at a local geological institution and passed the passion down to their son. In 1978, Huang was admitted to Changchun Institute of Geology (now Jilin University) to study in the Department of Applied Geophysics. After completing his undergraduate and graduate studies, he stayed on to teach at the school. In his graduation album, Huang wrote, “It is the responsibility of our generation to rejuvenate the Chinese nation.”
In 1992, Huang went to Britain for further studies. Before going abroad, Huang said, “I will definitely bring back advanced foreign technology!” He earned his doctor’s degree in geophysics four years later, finishing top of his class. He then joined a British geophysical service company in Cambridge as a senior geophysicist.
During his stay in Britain, Huang remained committed to the motherland, and his contacts with his alma mater had never been broken. He often flew back to China to attend academic meetings or seminars related to his field. In 2008, Huang decided to give up his position in Britain and returned home with his wife in 2009. The decision was neither a random choice nor an impulse. For him, no matter how successful he was abroad, the biggest satisfaction would be improving his home country.
Upon his return to China, he was entrusted to work at Jilin University as a full-time professor and chief scientist in a branch of China’s biggest deep earth exploration program. Over 400 nationwide scientists took part in the multidiscipline program, which aimed to install high-tech cameras on aircraft, ships, and satellites that would enable scientists to see through the earth’s crust without digging into it.
Wasting no time, he holed up in his newly set-up laboratory. For seven years, days and nights, Huang worked racing against time, often with only two to three hours of sleep a day. To maximize his research time, he typically caught late-night flights at the last minute for meetings with his team members. Even his driver became accustomed to driving the scientist to the airport at midnight. The office building where Huang worked was supposed to be completely locked up by night, but since he left very late so often, the security guard would beg him to “leave on time”.
Many of his co-workers called him a workaholic, while he thought he was more like a “lunatic”. His students remembered how Huang’s explicit words resounded in the office: “China is in urgent need of ‘lunatics’ if it is to become a stronger country.” “It would be an honor if I could be one of them,” he added.
The lunatic’s madness paid off. During his seven years working in China, Huang coached 18 doctoral candidates and 26 graduate students. Moreover, he and his team helped China greatly narrow its gap with developed countries in obtaining accurate data on deep earth exploration. They created a number of China’s No. 1s, filling a number of technical gaps for China’s sky survey, ground detection, and sea exploration.
Huang began fainting frequently while working tirelessly for his dream. He posted on social media, “Living a day, I am gaining a day. The day I fall, bury me where I fall.” On November 29, 2016, Huang fainted again and was sent to the hospital. He was later found to have cancer, with tumors spreading to his stomach and liver. Obviously, as he was constantly working, he missed the key window for treatment. During his last days, Huang still answered students’ questions, assigned tasks, and wrote recommendation letters. “Ideally, I want to be a pioneer who makes sacrifices,” Huang said during the last interview of his life. “I hope I can do something to make scientific work easier for future Chinese people.”
On January 8, 2017, at the age of 58, Huang closed his eyes forever. His two assistants sat on chairs quietly in his office as if they were waiting for Huang to return from a trip. The ringing of the telephone interrupted the quiet. They picked up the phone and began sobbing, “He is gone.” A bright star of science fell, leaving the science community in grief.
Some people left the motherland and never came back, but Huang chose to return to his motherland resolutely with an ardent heart. Some people chased fame and a comfortable life, but Huang always had the motherland in mind and never cared about his personal wealth and interests.
Patriotism had been embedded deeply in Huang’s bones. As a strategic scientist, he fulfilled his dream of rejuvenating the Chinese nation with his exceptional achievements.