Fan Chunhai, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on the red carpet show of the 2023 Shanghai Science and Technology Festival.

On the morning of May 20th, Fan Chunhai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who just participated in the red carpet show of the 2023 Shanghai Science and Technology Festival, was interviewed by The Paper.

Fan Chunhai said that the Shanghai Science and Technology Festival is for the public. "This is the first time I have participated in the Shanghai Science and Technology Festival, and I am very excited." "We discussed in the previous break that Shanghai had film festivals and tourism festivals before. Everyone has a very strong desire to understand scientific and technological innovation." "We tell scientific stories well in this process, and make good use of the influence of the older generation of scientists and the dissemination power of the new generation of opinion leaders."

Regarding the question of "what is science", Academician Fan Chunhai said, "I think this is a difficult question to answer. In fact, science (currently) does not have a very strict definition." The concept of "philosophy" "Science itself has a science called philosophy of science. Philosophers have many different controversies on the definition of science. In a philosophical sense, every scientist has his own understanding of science. For example, Einstein Stein and Bohr actually understood science differently."

In his speech at the keynote session of the Second Shanghai Science and Technology Communication Conference, Fan Chunhai said that major scientific and technological facilities are not only hot spots for scientists to work, but also important science popularization bases. He said that before coming to Shanghai Jiaotong University, he worked at Shanghai Light Source (Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Light Source). Shanghai Light Source has been doing very well in science popularization work, and has received support from the Science Popularization Project of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission. After arriving at Shanghai Jiaotong University, the "National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (Shanghai)" was just completed, and he entered it to work. "These important weapons of a big country are indeed a very important platform to popularize scientific knowledge and convey the spirit of patriotism to young people. How to make good use of these facilities is the responsibility of scientists. How to open the facilities to young people and the public and tell stories is also a matter of scientists. It is our duty to fulfill our obligations." Fan Chunhai said.

In addition, he said that science popularization should give full play to the advantages of clusters, not only in Shanghai, but also in the Yangtze River Delta. After he served as the chairman of the Shanghai Science Popularization Volunteer Association, he created a popular science platform and established a "Scientific Interpreter Guidance Group for Academicians and Experts", with 50 or 60 academicians and more than 200 Shanghai experts participating. He said, "This is Shanghai's precious wealth." There are so many high-level experts who are willing to engage in science popularization to build a platform together, "especially the advantages of clusters." The activity centers in Suzhou, Nantong, Zhangjiagang, Kunshan, Jiashan, etc. are all building sub-centers/activity centers of the science popularization expert guidance group, hoping to link up with Shanghai’s science popularization forces and play the role of “science popularization for all.” an important part of culture.”

The relevant webpage of Shanghai Jiaotong University shows that Fan Chunhai's team is committed to the research of nucleic acid chemical biology. He has carried out long-term and systematic research work in biosensing and imaging and DNA molecular self-assembly, exploring cutting-edge applications such as diagnosis and treatment of major diseases featuring framework nucleic acids, DNA storage and computing, and molecular machines.

Fan Chunhai is currently the executive dean of the Institute of Translational Medicine (National Center for Translational Medicine), Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Nucleic Acid Chemistry and Nanomedicine. In 2019, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), the American Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and concurrently serves as the associate editor of ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, and the editorial board of ChemPlusChem chairman.