My Miserable Stories of PhD Applications at ZJ Univ

I am not going to tell you, in this essay, the complete story of my applications for the PhD studies at ZJ University’s XXX Institute for ZZZ focusing on XXX in 2011 and even in 2008 already. Instead I will write it in my story about my complete life in HZ during the ten year period 2001-2011. The story was long and painful, needs a compete book. Here I just tell you what was happening to my aftermath related to this incidence.

In fact I will continue the topic from last article and continue to talk about my experience in studying for a PhD. In fact, it is not because I wanted to study to get a PhD degree, rather because I cannot directly go to university to do advanced research due to my conditions, so I have to get a PhD. Domestic PhDs have little value, while foreign PhDs were just a stepping stone to future academic careers, and yet the vast majority have little value in future careers. Unless you are determined to engage in cutting-edge research and promote the advancement of human science, there is no need to study for a PhD.

Here was the last stop of my academic career: ZJ University.

ZJ University

ZJ University is very popular right now. ZJ is a baby of a province with backward education. In ZJ, if anyone has anything to do with ZD, his status and taste will suddenly improve, and people will look at you with admiration and respect. Everything is open to you. There seems to be only one decent "university " in the whole province. I put that in quotation marks because, according to international standards, it seems difficult to find a real university in China.

ZD merged with Zhejiang YK University and HZ University, built a new campus in ZJG (American style, the site was large, empty, inconvenient to walk and required a school bus) , and established an independent college in NB. I don’t know if it existed in other places. The scale was certainly large. ZD will do its part to be number one (it is what it is) . Of course, the scale of scientific research was also increasing. The number of papers have skyrocketed, flooding the pages of international and domestic academic journals. However, it was unknown how many valuable theoretical researches have been carried out. It seems that I have never heard of scholars trained by ZD winning Nobel Prizes or achieving major groundbreaking achievements. At most, they are more like " just doing it " in terms of copying other people's results.

I did not conduct a comprehensive observation and assessment. This was not my responsibility and was not within my capabilities. I'm just giving a brief summary of my feelings. The benevolent sees benevolence and the wise see wisdom!

Why ZJ University?

As mentioned above, Nanyang Polytechnic was over and I no longer have the motif to contact other foreign universities. I have completely given up. It happened that I was in HZ – I had been in HZ for 10 years at that time (I had never stayed in a city for that long while achieved nothing) -And I have to go hiking in ZD every day , and I have dinner there almost every evening . It's inevitable that you'll know a few people there, and there's also one of my elementary school teachers teaching there. My own master's tutor was once a professor at the school. What's more, I had communication with him 21 years ago, and even among his current teachers are classmates I met 21 years ago, etc. There were other reasons as well. I could say that I have made quite many relationships there.

First Contacts with the Tutor

OK, I decided to give it a try. To be on the safe side, I first contacted the supervisor I wanted to apply for and said hello through my own graduate supervisor, because the two of them were classmates ? ? ? , and my supervisor was still serving as one of the main judges for their doctoral defense. I sent this tutor my resume, the abstract of my master's thesis, the outline of thermodynamics I wrote (in English , nearly 300 pages) , a description of the papers published, the projects I have done, and the achievements I have made , and the Chinese and English version of " Thermodynamics", "Writing, Research and Development Preliminary Plan ", and in order to demonstrate my English proficiency, I sent the English consulting reports on solar energy that I have written in the past ( I wrote tens of thousands of pages between 2004 and 2007, about market research and consulting reports on China's solar energy, other renewable energy, and conventional fossil energy, which were sold to several well-known multinational companies, including Bayer of Germany and Saint-Gobert of France . For example, ChinaPower monthly report of September, 2005 , ChinaSolarMonthly of the Month of April, 2005 as part of the ChinaSolar reports released on May 20, 2005). In addition, letters of recommendation were submitted. In this way, he said that I was welcome to apply, but I had to take the doctoral entrance exam like other students. If I were in a foreign school, I wouldn't have taken any exams before. Now I have no choice but to take a last chance. Although I was older, my learning ability was probably not comparable to that of your ZJ University students. I can read a German magazine in an hour (I often went to the Zhejiang Library to read German magazines, such as Der Spiegel, Die Stern, etc. A magazine has about 200 pages, and I would finish it in two hours. In English, it is even faster.) . My current learning ability was several times and dozens of times what it was when I was in college . It’s already February 2011. I only have three months to prepare for the exam.

ZJ University Library at YQ Campus

At first. I waited for a month and didn't read the book. Later, I found that combustion science was a bit difficult because I had not done any research in this area before. Therefore, I became anxious in the last two months and went to the library of ZJ University to borrow more than 60 books and read them. I knew nothing if I didn’t go there, but I’ll be shocked if I went.

I wrote this story because it is related to my PhD applications there, otherwise I won’t go to the library and borrow books there. I just needed to read some books which the students there were also reading and which were useful in my examinations. Otherwise I have enough books to read from the Internet.

But on other hand, it was also my idea to see which books were there since a couple of years, and no one wanted to help me get a permission. These university teachers whom I met at the mountains there for long time did not want to help me get one.

I did not have contacts with people from ZJ University during the time of my PhD preparations. It was much much earlier.

When I was in HZ 2001 -2011, starting from 2004, I almost went to ZJ University every day, not because I was working or teaching there, but because there were entries to the mountain called Mt Laohe. I was climbing it almost everyday. I have a lot of stories to tell about the University, incl. my experiences with my doctoral entry examination, and this time my experience with the library. I will tell you the rest over the next years, my 10 years life in HZ, and my entire life ever since my childhood.

In China, ZJ University is among the most cited universities and especially over the recent years it has climbed into the elite group of Chinese universities very dramatically. But wait! How about its library? It was a shock to me, when I first went there. I am not talking about the library building itself. It looks OK, quite spacious, as a donation from a wealthy Hongkong businessman. The building had about 10 floors, and occupied a large area of land. But what about the place where the books were stored? Shabby, this was the only word I could find to depict that place. In a 60 000 to 80 000 m2 library building, only 400 m2 was dedicated to the book shelves, the rest were office spaces for the director and deputies, clerks, and other administrative staffs and secondary materials. The real book storage was only a small portion of the building, occupying a small corner at the 2nd and 3rd floor. And what’s worse, the majority of books were very old, most of them were torn and repaired. The book shelves were maintained in a room as shabby as a farm warehouse, with decoration dating back to the early 70’s. I even could not remember my time with library when I was a postgraduate study in late 1980’s at TJ University, and I am sure they were better than ZJ. I asked a student there if there were any other book stores in ZJ University’s YQ Campus, he said no. I said why it was so small, he said why? Meaning not small at all. The shock of this library to me was so terrifying that the academic trust to the entire university was cracked down. How one can educate modern students with such a small and shabby library? Don’t forget YQ was the major campus for postgraduate studies of ZJ University. Although later people told me they have a much better library at the newly built campus of ZJG – I am sure they can build a magnificent library building there – but here at YQ you have to have a decent one as well, for all the people living in this place. With this library at ZD, there was no chance to become one of the best learning centers in China, much less in the world.

The above article described more clearly how strong the impact was on me at that time. There can be various indicators to evaluate a university. I think the best indicator is the richness of its book collection. Imagine a majestic major university in the Chinese academia, with its main campus only having a mere 300 to 400 square meters of library area (estimated to be tens of thousands of volumes), simple and dilapidated, only comparable to an old farmer's house (nowadays, the conditions are slightly better in rural areas) . The conditions of the farm houses were far better than those of the ZD Library. Most of the books and periodicals inside were in dilapidated conditions, and there were very few newly purchased books and periodicals. Asked the students there if they have any other libraries and they would say no. Such library conditions were far different from those of world-class universities ! (The library building itself was financed by a Hong Kong tycoon named Bao Zhaolong. It was quite large, however most of it was occupied by office blocks. The space left for the book collection was very pitiful.

How Was My Conditions Then?

My situation was many times more difficult than that of today’s graduates. Not to mention my age , after so many years, I have never engaged in scientific research in school, nor have I engaged in related teaching , and I have not been employed in any unit related to this major (my early jobs were related, but Since 1992, it has basically not been linked to the original major) . I don't even have a job. I have been self-employed since 2000. I need to make money and make a living by myself, so I need to run business every day and worry about my livelihood. At my age, there were still many worries that young people don’t have. All in all, the difficulty was unimaginable .

Exam Registration

I wanted to sign up now, but I felt like a very old ideology was still being imposed. One of the admission conditions required you to support the leadership of XXX (linking academics with politics ) , and you also needed to investigate eight generations of your ancestors . How ancient! Suddenly you were back to the ignorant era 30 years ago, and you felt an invisible shadow pressing on your head.

Preparations for PhD Thesis Before Exam

In order to prepare for this exam, in addition to studying relevant courses, I also have to prepare a lot of other materials. The amount of information prepared was so detailed that it can be said that I have never experienced anything like this before. Please see:

This is the " Doctoral Dissertation Note"
Version: 003

1. About studying for a Ph.D.     2
2. Doctoral thesis level 2
3. Description of the scope of    THE SCOPE OF THESIS3
3.1.Remaining question      4
4. How to achieve the above goals 4 .
5. How to obtain a doctorate degree? ? ?      4
6. Doctoral degree training methods 5
7. Main courses for doctoral students      5
8. Selected Reading     6
9. Other matters     6
10. Expression method of paper or work 7
11. STRUCTURES OR STYLES Thesis structure 7

This was the topic of my doctoral thesis:

"Application of nonlinear/complexity science in SO2 emission theory and numerical simulation during coal combustion process"

Draft thesis plan for ZD PhD students
first draft
2011-4-3

1. THE COVER cover 5

2. DEDICATION, APRECIATION ETC Acknowledgments, etc. 5

3. Description of     THE SCOPE OF THESIS5
3.1.       Fuel - Coal 5
3.2.       Combustion equipment 6
3.3.       Combustion process       6
3.4.Sulfur    fixing agent type       6
3.5.       Sulfur-fixing agent delivery method     6
3.6.       SO2 emissions 6
3.7.       Theory and numerical simulation 7
3.8.       Other excluded research scope7

4. RESEARCH HIERARCHICAL DIAGRAM Research Map 7

5. Main definitions/terms/concepts 7

6. Facts 8
6.1. Sources of SO2 pollutants 8

7. Theory 10
7.1.       Applications of nonlinear/complexity science    10
7.2.       Existing forms of sulfur in fuel       11
7.2.1.Overview11      _    _
7.2.2.    Gaseous fuel     12
7.2.3.Liquid fuel       12
7.2.4.    Coal sulfur form 12
7.3.       Pyrolysis of sulfur     14
7.4.       SOX Discussion       15
7.5.       SO2 Discussion 16
7.5.1.    Factors affecting       SO2 precipitation 16
7.5.2.    The mechanism of SO2 generation from elemental sulfur in fuel 16
7.6.       SO3 formation reaction 17
7.7.       H2S generation 17
7.8.       Desulfurizer       17
7.8.1.    Classification     17
7.8.2.    Limestone 18
7.9.       Limestone fixes sulfur     22
7.9.1.    Impact factor      22
7.9.2.    Speed limit mechanism 24
7.9.3.    Diffusion in the product layer 24
7.9.4.    Sulfur fixation mechanism      25
7.9.5.    Kinetics of sulfur fixation reaction 26
7.9.6.    Structural changes in limestone    27
7.9.7.    Sulfur salinization model 27
7.9.8.    Pyrite oxidation reaction model     28
7.9.9.    Zoned calcium spray desulfurization    30
7.10.     Coal’s own sulfur fixation    30
7.11.     Iron oxide desulfurizer     30
7.12.     Relationship between metallized activated carbon desulfurization and time 31
7.13.     Research on SO2 emission characteristics when biomass is mixed with coal    31
7.14.     Desulfurization and other pollutant removal processes       32
7.15.     Catalytic desulfurization technology    32

8. Numerical Simulation Chapter 32

9. Experiment 33
9.1.       Experimental study on sulfur content in coal     33
9.2.       Research on SO2 precipitation/generation during coal combustion 33
9.3.       Research on performance and preparation of sulfur fixing agent 33
9.4.       Research on putting sulfur-fixing agent into the combustion system 33
9.5.       Experimental study on sulfur fixation efficiency 33
9.6.       Experimental study on cost-benefit of sulfur fixation       33
9.7.       Experimental research on desulfurization and other pollutant removal      33
9.8.       Application of similarity principle in desulfurization experimental research     34

10.Test Chapter 35

11.Technical       Chapter       36
11.1.     Considerations 36
11.2.     General principles    36
11.3.     System research      37
11.4.     Sulfur determination 37
11.5.     Coal desulfurization optionality     37
11.6.Pre      -desulfurization 38
11.6.1.Physical Law      38
11.6.2. Chemical method     38
11.6.3.Physical and chemical methods    39
11.6.4. Desulfurization by microbial degradation    39
11.7.     Combustion desulfurization    40
11.7.1. Coal sulfur fixation technology      40
11.7.2. Circulating fluidized bed desulfurization technology       40
11.7.3. Pressurized fluidized bed combustion 41
11.7.4. Gas/Steam Combined Cycle (PFBC) 41
11.7.5. Gas-steam combined cycle (IGCC)     41
11.7.6. Limestone/lime direct injection      41
11.7.7. Coal water slurry technology 41
11.8.     Flue gas desulfurization 42
11.8.1. Flue gas desulfurization classification 42
11.8.2. Spray drying method       45
11.8.3. Rotary spray semi-dry method      45
11.8.4. Sorbent injection method       45
11.8.5. Contact oxidation method      45
11.8.6. Injection of absorbent into the furnace/humidification activation method     45
11.8.7.Seawater       desulfurization; 46
11.8.8. Electron beam desulfurization      46
11.8.9. Pulsed plasma desulfurization      46
11.8.10.       Flue gas circulating fluidized bed desulfurization       46
11.8.11.       Limestone-gypsum desulfurization      46
11.9.     H2S Removal    47
11.9.1. Dry method 47
11.9.2. Wet method       47
11.10.Waste       liquid treatment 48
11.11. Problem      48

12.Application 49 _

13.Explanation ? ? ?     52
13.1.     Index    52
13.2.Symbol      52 _
13.3.Superscript       and subscript     52
13.4.     LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS52
13.5.UNITS52    _
13.6.Constant    52 _
13.7.     List of formulas, laws and theorems    53

14.Appendix      54 _
14.1.Figure 54 _
14.2.Table 54 _
14.3.     Database    54
14.4.     Multimedia materials       54
14.5.     Calculation program 54
14.6.     Paper website    54

15. Document 55
15.1.     BOOKS AND ARTICLES OF FAMOUS SCIENTISTS55
15.2.     BOOKS55
15.3.     Postdoctoral thesis 56
15.4.     PHD THESIS56
15.5.Master       ’s Thesis 56
15.6.     General Paper 57
15.7.     Proceedings      57
15.8.     Recommendation     58
15.9.     Regulations, plans and standards       58

16. RESOURCES58
16.1.     Expert database       58
16.2.Major Universities59    _
16.3.Main    research      institutions59
16.4.     Academic Conference     59
16.5.     Online Academic resources 59

This was my plan for my academic career once I could be admitted to ZD :

Draft academic research plan (including doctoral thesis)
2011-5-7

in ZD? What kind of person do you want to be after graduation – XXX
Why did you enter XXX institute and what kind of person do you want to be in the future – XXX

1. About version 4

2. Description 4
2.1.Purpose 4 _
2.2. Why engage in learning 4
2.3.Feature 5 _

3. Overall vision     5
3.1. Question from the late principal    XXX      5
3.2.       XXX ’s question    6
3.3. Research content of XXX -past, present and future      6
3.3.1.    Purpose and direction     6
3.3.2.    Overview of research areas, departments and main       achievements6
3.3.2.1.       Comprehensive, macro research 6
3.3.2.2.Publish monograph 7
3.3.2.3.       Basic theoretical research and numerical calculation       7
3.3.2.4.       Optimal allocation of coal       8
3.3.2.5.       Power plant and power station equipment operation       8
3.3.2.6.       Polygeneration of heat, electricity, gas, tar, etc.       8
3.3.2.7.Pulverized     coal combustion and combustion device, burner 9
3.3.2.8.Oil burner 9
3.3.2.9.       Mixed burner     9
3.3.2.10.Special       combustion system 9
3.3.2.11.      Fluidized bed combustion and gasification 10
3.3.2.12.      Clean coal combustion or clean combustion of coal       10
3.3.2.13.      Coal water slurry      10
3.3.2.14.      Other mixed       fuels11
3.3.2.15.      Other low calorific value coal/low grade fuel utilization and combustion technologies     11
3.3.2.16.      Biomass      11
3.3.2.17.      Fuel cells    12
3.3.2.18.Hydrogen    production 13
3.3.2.19.Solid     waste disposal13
3.3.2.20.      Solid waste/municipal domestic waste incineration and power generation technology 13
3.3.2.21.      Incineration disposal of medical waste and industrial hazardous waste      14
3.3.2.22.      Harmless energy conversion of organic waste liquid and sludge 14
3.3.2.23.      Low pollution combustion technology 14
3.3.2.24.      Flue gas control 15
3.3.2.25.      Emission and control of harmful gases       15
3.3.2.26.      Removal of multiple pollutants      15
3.3.2.27.      Denitrification     16
3.3.2.28.      Integrated dust removal and desulfurization      16
3.3.2.29.      CO2 Control      16
3.3.2.30.      Mercury emission     control16
3.3.2.31.      Research on organic pollutant control 17
3.3.2.32.      Refrigeration research     17
3.3.2.33.      Combustion testing and control    17
3.4.       My research experience, potential and       interests18
3.5.       Personal positioning direction       19
3.5.1.    The late principal XXX: What are you doing in ZD? What kind of person do you want to be after graduation? 19
3.5.1.1.       Answer: What are you doing in ZD?    19
3.5.1.2.       Answer: What kind of person do you want to be after graduation?       19
3.5.2.    ZZZ : Why did you join XXX? What kind of person do you want to be in the future19
3.5.2.1.       Answer: Why enter ZZZ, 19
3.5.2.2.       Answer: What kind of person do you want to be in the future19
3.5.3.    Research direction: Desulfurization???      20
3.5.3.1.       About thesis topic     21
3.5.3.2.       Questions about future research directions       23
3.5.3.3.       Applied technology research 24

4. Writings       24
4.1.       Published works       24
4.2.       Published papers     26

5. Academic positions 27
5.1.       Academic magazine editing 27
5.2.       Positions in research institutions 29
5.3.       Academic organizations 29
5.4.       Academic Forum      30
5.5.       Science Foundation 30
5.6.       International organizations     31
5.7.       Industry       associations31
5.8.       Government organizations     31

6.Talent training and team building 32

7.Awards and Honors32

8.International    academic    exchange35
8.1.       International joint research     35
8.2.International       conferences, academic exchanges     36
8.3.       Further study and lectures abroad       36
8.4.International       cooperation projects 36
8.5.       Introduction of foreign intelligence       37
8.6.       Cooperation and exchanges with Fortune 500 companies 37

9.Domestic academic    cooperation37
9.1.       Cooperation with domestic universities and research       institutions38
9.2.       On campus 38

10. Scientific research projects    38
10.1.     Key basic research projects 38
10.2.     Fund Project      39
10.3.     Applied basic research/industrialization demonstration/commercial application/enterprise and institution cooperation projects 40
11. Research achievements 40
11.1.     Academic achievements 40
11.2.     Provincial and ministerial level appraised engineering application projects 42
11.3.     Laboratory (test bed) construction       43
11.4.Patent 43 _

12. Other goals 44
12.1. Economic benefits 44
12.2. Administrative duties 44

After all the hard work and preparation, it can be said that it was not inadequate.

Preparations of The Exam

It took me four months to prepare for the examinations and some efforts to prepare for the interview and related documents. In fact, I've spent much more time than that. Over the last years or so, I've been in contact with Prof CKF, an academician of the Chinese Engineering Academy, for my research plan and hence have submitted to him a number of documents detailing my research intentions. In one word, I have spent much much more time than the combined efforts for all other universities and institutions all over the world over the last 3 to 4 years (2006-2010).

Okay , everything was ready and I was waiting for the exam. Outside the examination room, I found that I was the only senior candidate. No wonder two people said that I wanted to take the Ph.D. exam at such an old age. Although I heard it, I pretended not to know. I wanted to see who won between you and me. Don't point fingers yet.

Results of the Written Exams

The three-day exam is over. To be fair , the test paper was easier than expected. Aren’t I familiar with these contents when I was an undergraduate? If I put more effort into it, I seemed to be able to get perfect scores. However, because I rushed into the battle and sharpened my skills before the battle, the exam was not as I expected, but no matter what, I passed the test:

English (Listening) 80(12)
Advanced Combustion 71
Advanced Heat Transfer 69

The Interview

Get notified of the interview.

Interview? I have had countless interviews throughout my life. I remember when I was alone in Shenzhen, Guangdong. I knocked on all the doors of high-rise buildings in Luohu District and Shennan Road . Every time I entered a door, I had a long talk with them, and the world was wide open. At that time, I was extremely confident, cheerful and optimistic. Back in 1997, I went to Beijing alone and had an interview with a room full of Germans. I was not nervous or worried at all. Nowadays, I feel a little nervous when meeting Chinese people. In the past 20 years, I have become accustomed to dealing with Westerners, and I am not used to interacting with Chinese people.

Sure enough.

After the first few people finished their interviews, it was my turn. Strange ! During the interview , you have to sign to show that you are not involved in any particular group called Falungong. It never occurred to me that I had to draw a clear line between interviews for a doctoral degree. It's ridiculous . Okay, it's up to you. As for me , can you control it? There is no difference between signing or not signing.

When I went in, I was seated in one row, and I sat alone in another row. It's a very unpleasant feeling, I felt like beaten I don’t have the habit of speaking English with Chinese people. I think we are all Chinese and there is no need to speak English. I can only speak foreign languages with foreigners. The final result was that I failed the interview, my name was not included in the announced list of candidates, and the reasons were not given (even if there were, I would probably come up with some weak and unfounded reasons).

Explanations about My Interview Performances

Shortly after the interview, I wrote a letter to the professor, not the one I was interviewing with but the one I was going to study as, explaining some issues, but nothing came of it:

1. Questions about publishing papers
The questioner asked me if I had published any papers. It is true that I have not published papers in any academic journals because I entered industry and business after graduation and did not hold a position in academia. But that doesn't mean I don't have the ability. Looking at what I've done over the past few years also gives you a rough idea of what I'm capable of, although it's not comprehensive. Moreover, even if something has been published before, it does not mean that it maintains the same research and innovation capabilities today. Worldwide, even Nobel laureates will be removed from their posts if they cannot maintain their scientific research capabilities, so the past cannot explain anything. I have no shortage of new ideas and concepts, which are more valuable than past papers. Of course, I have also written many things, such as independently writing tens of thousands of pages of reports in English on solar energy, other new energy sources and conventional electricity for Fortune 500 companies. I don’t think writing academic papers is out of reach for me.

2. About English introduction
At the beginning of the interview, I was asked to introduce myself in English. I was catching a cold that day and my throat was uncomfortable. Moreover, I never spoke English in front of Chinese people, so I felt uncomfortable. Another reason was that I had not had the opportunity to speak English in the past ten years, so my English was indeed very poor. But my spoken English used to be very good. In 1991, my IELTS oral score was 9 points, almost a perfect score. Moreover, I write various documents in English almost every day, mainly discussing business with foreign businessmen. Therefore, as long as I get used to it a little, my spoken English will recover quickly.

3. About thesis title
During the interview, I was not given the opportunity to state my Ph.D. plan, leading to the conclusion that I was unprepared for it.

Indeed, by my own standards, I was not fully prepared for the content of the paper. There are many reasons.

First of all, I am very strict with myself and am not very sure. I dare not say that I am ready, although I generally have my own plans.

Secondly, I want to discuss the topic with my instructor before deciding on the topic, rather than making my own decision.

Third, I originally determined the title of my thesis "Application of Nonlinear/Complexity Science in SO2 Emission Theory and Numerical Simulation during Coal Combustion Process" and started to conduct some preliminary research (see attachment), but later I felt that the content was not deep enough. Because my requirements for the thesis are far beyond the requirements of ordinary doctoral thesis (see attachment), but must meet the highest level domestic and even international doctoral thesis requirements. Not only that, I also hope to conduct a comprehensive and systematic research on a certain branch of combustion science, and even combustion science itself, during my PhD study, hoping to make a major breakthrough. I put almost unattainable demands on myself. This is one of my characteristics. I always set goals for myself that others think are unimaginable.

This is how I envision it:

First, it is necessary to clarify what major issues currently plague the academic and business circles in combustion science and related pollution control.
Second, find appropriate tools, including theory, to try to solve these problems.

To do these things requires a lot of detailed investigations. At this stage, it is impossible to say that such work has been completed. Moreover, my work is characterized by strictness and precision. I am more German than a German, which I have seen in German companies. I wouldn't say I'm ready until I'm absolutely sure.

I only have a framework idea for the direction of this doctoral thesis research, and a lot of work is needed to determine the specific content. The ideas are basically:

Make full use of various modern theories and tools - mainly those developed after World War II - including nonlinear theory and complexity theory - to re-examine the theories related to combustion and pollution control. This part of the content is mainly inspired by the last chapter of "Advanced Combustion Science" by XXX et al. on the application of nonlinear theory in combustion. It attempts to start a discussion and conduct a systematic and detailed analysis on this. At the same time, it also expands the research field to other modern theories, but I still need to investigate and study specific modern theories, and I have no knowledge of nonlinear theory (this question stumped me during the interview). The key is not whether I already have extensive nonlinear theory or other knowledge, but the spirit of exploration, which is much stronger than having a lot of theoretical knowledge but not knowing how to apply it.

Likewise, I really don't know yet which problem I want to study (besides SO2 control as originally planned), for the reasons mentioned above. I don’t want to make a unnecessary investment of time without discussing it with my instructor. However, people who are familiar with me know that my learning ability is very good, even outstanding (please forgive me for boasting). It will not take long for me to enter new fields and new states.

I have roughly thought of a new title for my thesis: " A Preliminary Study on Modern Combustion Science " or " A Preliminary Study on Nonlinear Combustion Science"

Therefore, it can be seen from the above description that I want to use my doctoral thesis to create a new branch of combustion science, rather than a simple experimental report. Only in this way can it become an excellent doctoral thesis.