Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 279 Honors and Titles

"Nanfeng, I'm quite satisfied with you. The offer is around 50 + 20, which is a fixed annual salary of 50 and a performance bonus of 20. You will be directly responsible for the specific design of the lunar thermal management system."

I cannot guarantee the stock options, as the equity structure of Apollo Technology is not yet clear.

What do you think?

Hiring someone is similar to dating; you need the consent of both parties to be together, but to break up, only one party needs to initiate the breakup.

"I do," Xia Nanfeng replied without hesitation.

As a German PhD, with the rise of new energy vehicles in China, this major can no longer be considered a dead-end field.

With Xia Nanfeng's resume, he could get a similar salary at a top new energy manufacturer in China, and even more at Huawei.

But how can building cars compare to establishing a base on the moon?

Let alone 700,000, which is on par with the offers available on the market, even if it were 500,000, Xia Nanfeng would choose Apollo Technology without hesitation.

With the goal of reaching for the stars, Apollo Technology has made rapid progress, judging from its previous performance.

Just thinking about the scenery of Xia Nan makes my heart race.

Lin Ran continued, "Nanfeng, it's like this, we need you to start work as soon as possible, preferably after the new year. We can't wait for you to finish your postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute."

Xia Nanfeng nodded and said, "Of course. We have now completed the moon landing, and there is a lot of work to be done afterward. I completely understand."

"Since I've already decided to go into the industry, the postdoctoral stage isn't really important, Mr. Lin. Don't worry, I'll make the arrangements as soon as possible, and I'll try to start after the New Year."

Ask if they're there, then have a 30-minute video chat, and that's how you get top talent.

This is the current appeal of Apollo Technology and Lin Ran.

Since the other party chose to do postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute, which is the famous Max Planck Institute and the largest research institution in Germany, it means that Xia Nanfeng originally planned to work in academia.

For PhDs from Göttingen and postdoctoral fellows from the Max Planck Institute, finding a teaching position in Europe is not difficult.

Lin Ran's single phone call completely changed the other person's life trajectory.

From academia to industry, from Europe to China.

Of course, Lin Ran was also very satisfied with Xia Nanfeng. Although they only talked for about twenty minutes, Lin Ran found that Xia Nanfeng was a rare talent who had a solid grasp of both theory and practice.

It's quite simple; even PhDs aren't omnipotent. Most materials science PhDs, when working on theoretical modeling of electronic and thermal properties, simply know what the quantum Monte Carlo method and dynamic mean-field theory are about, how to use them, and how to apply formulas from other people's papers.

Very few PhDs can understand the underlying principles, the meaning of each parameter in mathematical modeling, and the entire design approach. This requires a very solid grasp of theoretical mathematics and a certain understanding of statistics and analysis.

Therefore, Apollo Technology and Xia Nanfeng are heading in the same direction.

When Lin Ran was lying in Tongji Wenchang Hospital, he mainly did this kind of work.

He would rummage through his memory to find Jiaotong University students he thought were acceptable, then look up their recent research on Google Scholar. If they were promising, he would contact them via WeChat to schedule an interview. If the interview went well, he would finalize the offer.

It can be said that Lin Ran's personal involvement was always successful, and in just one month, he recruited nearly a hundred PhDs from various fields for Apollo Technology.

Except for a few Jiaotong University alumni who are still studying and have not yet obtained their doctoral degrees and wish to postpone their applications, the others have all expressed their willingness to come to Shenhai to join the company as soon as possible.

Lin Ran was recruiting extensively, while Apollo Technology's employees were also being poached.

After all, Apollo Technology has devoted almost all of its efforts to the lunar landing project over the past year and a half, racing along this path.

In the beginning, they even arranged for all employees except core staff to be hired through labor dispatch.

As funding gradually comes in, it doesn't mean the organizational structure will be clear. While core employees are bound by confidentiality agreements and non-compete agreements, these clauses cannot cover every employee.

Even non-core employees are exposed to valuable information in this process, as they are dealing with shovels from companies all over the world, from Chinese companies to American companies.

Take the non-core engineer who participated in the replication of the Saturn V rocket as an example. From the successful launch of the first Saturn V, he received calls from headhunters every day.

Now, that number has become 5, at least five per day.

Shanghai is the most prosperous place for the headhunting industry in China, and there are plenty of headhunters who are busy.

Blue Origin is naturally the one that swings the hoe the most diligently.

After being persuaded by Patel, Bezos felt that relying solely on Indian workers was insufficient and that it would be best to recruit some Chinese engineers, among whom those who had participated in the lunar landing project at Apollo Technology were the best candidates.

As for America's ITAR and EAR regulations restricting foreigners from working in sensitive technology positions, those apply to multinational corporations abroad, not to Bezos.

They have a million ways to avoid legal risks.

Blue Origin's strategy is to poach talent under the guise of Amazon, but in reality, these engineers will work for Blue Origin.

After all, Lin Ran's slogan was indeed impressive, and the US dollars offered by American companies, led by Blue Origin, were quite attractive.

Even for core engineers like Li Rui, Blue Origin and Japanese universities were willing to help pay the breach of contract penalty, not even blinking an eye at a penalty of five million RMB.

Of course, some high schools, like those in Japan, are actually recruiting people for Japan's space agency, JAXA.

Who can blame them for JAXA's repeated failures in its lunar landing program?

Starting in 2013, JAXA began soliciting lunar landing plans from various organizations. Their goal was not to land a manned spacecraft on the moon, but to first achieve a soft landing of a spacecraft on the moon.

Among them, the Slim project, led by Mitsubishi Electric, and the OMOTENASHI CubeSat lander, led by the University of Tokyo, were successfully shortlisted, but both of these technical approaches have repeatedly failed to meet the deadline.

Their current progress is stuck on inserting the lunar orbit, and at this point, Li Rui, as the person in charge of the Apollo lunar landing orbit calculations, has come under scrutiny.

Of course, they couldn't poach the core engineers because Song Nanping had spoken with each of them individually, and they all signed supplementary non-compete agreements.

If you leave the company, you will be prohibited from going abroad for two years and from working in the same industry for two years.

This is to prevent such a situation from happening.

Core engineers are hard to poach, but non-core engineers are constantly at risk of being poached.

Apollo Technologies has nearly 3000 employees. After the moon landing, more than 300 employees left the company. More than 300 of those who worked at Apollo Technologies through labor dispatch chose not to renew their contracts and disappeared into the vast sea of ​​people.

Former NASA employees who participated in the moon landing have been offered exorbitant sums of money by companies like Blue Origin, NASA, and SpaceX to serve as consultants, with each person receiving at least two million dollars in consulting fees per year—a price comparable to that of a retired senator.

After all, this is just a consultant position, not a formal job.

You can't stop these people from returning to their homeland.

Some people left, while others remained in China.

Just as a story comes to an end and the warriors are about to start new lives, Apollo Technologies is facing dramatic changes in its personnel.

Lunar New Year's Eve in 2022 was January 31st. Not being so strict, Lin Ran returned to Guangzhou for the New Year on January 30th. CCTV strongly encouraged him to participate in the Spring Festival Gala, but Lin Ran declined, preferring to stay in his hometown at that time.

However, Wei Xuhang could not refuse. He and Aldrin, as representatives of the moon landing, went to Beijing to participate in the Spring Festival Gala.

After returning to Guangzhou, Lin Ran found that he simply couldn't stop.

Officials at all levels in the city and province, under the guise of paying New Year's visits, have made countless requests, both overt and covert, that they hope some production capacity can be located in Guangzhou.

In a sense, this is also the trouble of fame.

So Lin Ran rushed back to Shenhai the next day and took the opportunity to visit the Hengshan Hotel to wish the elders a Happy New Year. This reason was so legitimate that no one in Guangdong Province could object.

"We have lived up to expectations and successfully completed the moon landing!"

After a brief exchange of New Year's greetings, Lin Ran spoke earnestly.

"Good, good, good! Indeed, each generation has its own Long March, and talented people emerge in every generation, each leading the way for hundreds of years!"
My heart was in my throat while watching the live stream.

My heart can't take it anymore as I get older. When you're in heaven, my doctor told me I could only watch for ten minutes at a time.

Later on, they even just waited for the results to come out so they could show me the recorded broadcast.

I certainly believe you can successfully complete the moon landing, but this is, after all, China's first time, so there are bound to be some concerns.

The older you get, the less daring you become, but you did very well, especially what you said on the moon.

The old man was in high spirits and talked on and on.

"The sky is high and the clouds are light, and I can only watch the wild geese fly south."

He who does not reach the moon palace is no true hero; the journey is countless.

On the summit of Copernicus Crater, red flags flutter on the moon.

"Today I hold the long spear in my hand, when will I head to Mars?"

This was the last poem Lin Ran recited.

The old man asked him to adapt the poem "When will the azure dragon be bound?" After thinking for a moment, Lin Ran reluctantly made the adaptation.

The old man burst into laughter: "You're quite knowledgeable, at least you know about Yinghuo and the Moon Palace, hahaha, so when are you going to Yinghuo?"

Lin Ran said, "Five years! Even if Mars is far away, the Red Flag will surely reach it within five years!"

"Okay, okay, I'll try my best to live to see that day!"

In the end, the doctor came and forcibly pushed him back to his room to rest.

Similarly, Lin Ran didn't stay in Shanghai for long; as soon as the Spring Festival holiday was over, he had to fly to Beijing.

A series of honors await him.

Holding the "Aerospace Merit Medal" awarded to him by China, Lin Ran was deeply moved.

In another timeline, he received countless medals, including an honorary knighthood from England and various medals from the White House.

But in this timeline, it wasn't just the first time he received this award; also, considering both timelines together, it was the first time China had awarded him a medal.

During the awarding of medals, Lin Ran thought to himself that the contributions he had made to China in another time and space were far greater than those in this time and space.

In one timeline, it's like adding icing on the cake; in another, it's like providing charcoal in the snow.

In addition to being awarded medals, there is also the option of being added as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Academicians are generally elected every two years, but there is a rule that states: "The Presidium may set up a special nomination mechanism according to the needs of the country."

Lin Ran was a special nominee who was unanimously approved as an academician of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

After the awarding ceremony, the applause from all the academicians lasted for a full five minutes.

Standing on the podium, Lin Ran thought to himself that he had become the academician his father had always longed for, even before his father had done so:
"Distinguished leaders, academicians, good afternoon. I feel honored and greatly encouraged to stand here today."

I am Lin Ran, born in the mid-1990s. I am probably the youngest academician here. This is an honor, but also a heavy responsibility.

The country has given me this honor, and I need to make more contributions in return.

As a mathematician, I really like the metaphor of frogs and birds: some mathematicians are birds, and others are frogs.

Birds soar high in the sky, overlooking the vast mathematical landscape stretching to the distant horizon. They love the concepts that unify our thinking and integrate many problems from different fields. Frogs live in the mud under the sky, seeing only the flowers growing around them. They enjoy exploring the details of specific problems and solving one problem at a time.

Similarly, some scientists are like birds, pointing the way for our scientific and technological path, while others are like frogs, focusing on specific problems and continuously cultivating their familiar fields.

Both are equally important to the nation. Without birds, we have no direction; without frogs, our technology is just a castle in the air.

However, I hope to be both a bird and a frog, able to propose sufficiently forward-thinking ideas and put them into practice myself.

I hope that everyone here can witness my bold statement.

After Lin Ran finished speaking, the audience erupted in unprecedented applause.

On the one hand, it's because of their achievements; their achievements are undeniable, and everyone is convinced of their merits.

On the other hand, there are resources. Lin Ran has the most resources at his disposal, as well as potential resources in the future, among all the academicians present. In simplified Chinese internet terms, he has the highest level of authority.

As Lin Ran looked at the applauding crowd below the stage, the last two lines of the calligraphy manuscript the old man had given him flashed through his mind: "Riding a horse in the spring breeze, one can see all the flowers of Chang'an in a single day."

He does feel that way now.

The CCTV building was also the last stop on this trip to Yanjing.

A follow-up interview on the "Face to Face" program.

To bring the entire moon landing to a close.

It's still Xiao Sa, and it's still the face-to-face moon landing special program.

"Landing on the moon is really not difficult. Our predecessors did it fifty years ago. What's so strange about us mentioning landing on the moon again now?"
Few people? Few people isn't the point; the technology is even more advanced now.

We have a hundred men here, enough to take on ten thousand NASA soldiers back in the day! Each one of you is worth a hundred!

Lin Ran's voice came from the player in the studio.

This is a clip from a Bilibili documentary about the moon landing that was used by CCTV.

(End of this chapter)