唐本忠院士在香港中文大学（深圳）2020年研究生毕业典礼上的致辞

唐本忠院士

致辞

突破旧范式 开辟新领域

Paradigm Shift for a New Landscape

2020年11月21日，中国科学院院士唐本忠教授在第五届研究生毕业典礼上向毕业生、观看直播的观众做主题演讲。

唐本忠教授在致辞中讲述了他正在研究的“聚集诱导发光”（英文为Aggregation-Induced Emission，简称AIE）现象的发现和探索过程，是一个有悖“常理”的，无法或很难被既存范式解释的“例外”，无人把它当作一个重要问题进行系统研究，而他们的研究打破了旧范式、开辟了一个“聚集体发光”新领域。

他与同学们分享了从事科学研究的重要心得，鼓励同学们“从事科学研究，切忌迷信书本、崇拜权威；要敢想前人所未想、干前人所未干。让我们抓住机会、大胆突破，开辟属于我们中国科学家的新天地！”

亲爱的同学们：首先恭贺大家顺利毕业！愿你们努力奋斗！祝你们鹏程万里！

香港中文大学（深圳）官网首页开宗明义，清楚写明：“以创建一所立足中国、面向世界的一流研究型大学为己任”。此建校宗旨明确阐明科学研究对学校发展的重要性。作为一位科学家，我在此想和大家分享一下我从事研究的一些心得体会。

我做过很多不同的研究，可以说是“看过很多地方的云、走过很多地方的桥、喝过很多地方的酒……”目前我们从事的一个研究叫“聚集诱导发光”，英文为Aggregation-Induced Emission，简称AIE。AIE今年刚被国际纯粹与应用化学联合会评为化学领域十大新兴技术之一、被美国科睿唯安（Clarivate）和中国科学院科技战略咨询研究院列为2020年前沿研究领域之一。AIE是我们中国科学家开拓并引领的一个新领域。我们踏上AIE探索之旅纯属偶然，起因于本世纪初我们与一个“反常”光物理现象的美丽邂逅。

在发光研究领域一直存在着一个令人困惑的难题，那就是分子聚集抑制材料发光。这种被称为聚集导致发光猝灭或ACQ的光物理现象非常普遍。经过一个多世纪的研究，ACQ效应已成为发光研究领域的共识。2001年，我们观察到一种与ACQ截然相反的现象：在稀溶液中，分散的单个自由噻咯分子在光激发下不发光，然而它们的聚集体却高效发光。这种奇特现象引起了我们的注意、激发了我们的兴趣。由于这种发光是由聚集体形成而引起的，因此我们将这一过程命名为AIE。

约十年前在一次学术会议上，一位著名美国科学家在我做完报告后问了我一个发人深省的问题：“AIE看上去既简单又实用，为什么以前没人好好研究它呢？”这个问题让我想到美国科学哲学家托马斯•库恩的科学范式理论。库恩的范式理论指出，当一种观点发展成为一种范式之后，人们通常会持守正统，在这种范式的逻辑框架内寻找问题的答案。那些无法或很难被既存范式解释的“例外”通常会被排除或忽视，因为它们有悖“常理”。我们知道，ACQ是一百多年来光物理界的共同认知。因此，AIE这一与ACQ相悖的反常现象，过去虽然偶尔有人报导，但没有引起人们的关注，更无人把它当作一个重要问题进行系统研究，基本上是一范式之外、人迹罕至的“无人区”。

中国科学院院士唐本忠教授在毕业典礼上致辞

明朝著名散文家归有光曰：“天下之事，因循则无一事可为；奋然为之，亦未必难。”受古训启示，我们致力于AIE研究，希望能以我们薄翼振翅之力达移风易俗之效。我们的AIE研究打破了ACQ旧范式、开辟了一个聚集体发光新领域。AIE效应告诉我们，分子聚集体能够表现出单个分子所不具备的性质。教科书教导我们：分子结构决定物质性质。如果一个分子没有展示某一性质，通常人们会自然地认为它的聚集体也不会有这种性质，更遑论对其进行深入研究。从形态学的角度看，聚集体处在微观（分子）与宏观（物质）之间的介观区域。AIE研究将催化介观科学的发展，在介观层次为科学家提供一个新的研究平台，去探索被分子微观科学所忽视的科学宝藏，去挖掘分子聚集体这座宝库所蕴藏的巨大潜在价值，去解决单纯的还原主义研究方法论所无法理解的科学问题。

AIE研究是一段奇妙的探索之旅，它给我们带来诸多研究哲学方面的思考与领悟。（一）以色列国王所罗门曾说，“太阳底下无新事”。从现象上来看，AIE其实不新。早在1853年，英国物理学家乔治•斯托克斯就观察过这种现象。然而，他关于这种现象的简单描述没有引起人们的注意。（二）匈牙利生理学家阿尔伯特•圣捷尔吉将科学研究定义为“见人皆所见，思人所未思”。我们相信，除斯托克斯之外，一定还零零星星有人观察过AIE现象。我们与他人不同的地方在于，我们对这种现象做了深入的思考和系统的研究。（三）西班牙经济学家埃琳娜•鲁丝卡雅和英国行为科学家芭芭拉•法索洛认为，“第一未必最好”。在科学研究领域，每个人都争当第一；但事实上，很难成为真正意义上的第一人。我们每个人所从事的研究领域都是由前人开创的，我们能做的就是在某个领域从事所谓“渐进研究”的过程中寻找突破，成为这个领域的最佳者或领航人。

最后我想问同学们一个假设性问题：如果你的实验结果不符合你的期待或预期，有悖于现存范式或无法用你从教科书上学到的知识解释，你会怎么想、怎么办？遗憾的是很多同学会认为自己搞错了、实验失败了，却不知自己也许已走近宝藏，只剩下临门一脚。下面是我对有志于发明创造的年轻人的忠告：从事科学研究，切忌迷信书本、崇拜权威；要敢想前人所未想、干前人所未干。让我们抓住机会、大胆突破，开辟属于我们中国科学家的新天地！

谢谢！

Dear Graduates,

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your graduation! May you all flourish with a bright future!

"The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen is intended to evolve into a world class research university with strong Chinese cultural influence." This stated goal on the University’s homepage clearly indicates the importance of research to the development of CUHK-Shenzhen. As a scientist, I would like to share with you some of the insights I have gained from my research.

港中大（深圳）校长向中国科学院院士唐本忠教授赠送纪念牌

My research experience spans various areas. Perhaps I am the person, as the famous writer Shen Congwen once wrote,  who has "seen clouds from many places, walked on bridges from many places, and drunk wine from many places". Currently, I am working on a project named "Aggregation-Induced Emission" (AIE), which has just been named one of the "Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry" by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and listed as one of the frontier research areas for 2020 by Clarivate and the Institute of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. AIE is a new field pioneered and led by our Chinese scientists. However, our discovery at AIE is purely serendipitous, resulting from a beautiful encounter with an "abnormal" photophysical phenomenon at the beginning of this century.

In the field of luminescence research, there has always been a perplexing puzzle: Luminescence is often weakened or quenched at high concentrations. This photophysical phenomenon, known as aggregation-caused quenching, or ACQ, is very common that after a century of research, it has become a consensus shared by luminescence researchers. In 2001, we discovered an uncommon luminogen system, in which aggregation worked constructively, rather than destructively as in the conventional systems. This peculiar phenomenon soon drew our attention and interest. Since the light emission was induced by aggregate formation, we termed the process Aggregation-Induced Emission (AIE).

About ten years ago, a prominent American scientist asked me a thought-provoking question after my presentation at an academic conference: "AIE seems so simple and practical, why hasn't anyone studied it properly before?" This question reminds me of the paradigm shift theory proposed by Thomas Samuel Kuhn, an American philosopher of science. The theory notes that when an idea develops into a paradigm, people tend to be orthodox and look for answers within the prevailing framework or paradigm. The "exceptions" that cannot or hardly be explained by the existing paradigm are usually ruled out or ignored because they contradict "common sense". For this reason, although AIE has been reported occasionally in the past, it has not attracted much attention because it contradicts ACQ, a "common sense" in the photophysics community for more than a century. Consequently,  it has not been systematically studied as an important issue and is essentially a "no man's land" outside the paradigm and inaccessible to many.

Tang Benzhong remarks for CUHK-Shenzhen Graduation Ceremony

Gui Youguang, a writer and literary theoretician of the Ming period, once said that nothing can be done in the world if we only follow the rules; it is not necessarily difficult to do something if we are determined to do it. Inspired by the adage, we stayed committed to AIE, hoping to achieve a paradigm shift with our modest efforts. It turned out that our AIE research did break the old paradigm of ACQ and change the landscape of luminescence studies. While textbooks teach us that molecular structure determines the properties of matter, the AIE effect reveals that aggregates of molecules can exhibit properties that individual molecules do not have. Believers in the former would naturally deny the latter's findings, which also prevents them from studying the issue in depth. From the morphological point of view, aggregates are in the mesoscopic range between microscopic (molecules) and macroscopic (matter). Our AIE research will catalyze the development of mesoscopic science, providing scientists with a new research platform at the mesoscopic level to explore scientific treasures that have been neglected, to uncover the enormous potential value of molecular aggregates, and to address scientific puzzles that cannot be understood by purely reductionist approaches.

AIE research is a wonderful journey of discovery, and it gives us many thoughts and insights into the philosophy of research. (1) King Solomon of Israel once said, "There is nothing new under the sun". Phenomenologically speaking, AIE is not a new thing, as it was first observed by British physicist George Stokes as early as 1853, though his brief description failed to attract much attention. (2) As Nobel prize-winning Hungarian scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi describes: "Discovery is simply seeing what everyone else has seen - but thinking what no-one else has thought." We believe that the phenomenon of AIE must have been observed sporadically by people other than Stokes. What distinguishes us from others is that we have thought deeply and systematically about the phenomenon. (3) Spanish economist Elena Reutskaja and British behavioral scientist Barbara Fasolo believe that first is not necessarily best. In the field of scientific research, everyone strives to be the first; but in fact, it is difficult to be the first in the true sense of the word. Each of us is in a field of research that has been pioneered by someone before us, and all we can do is look for breakthroughs in what is called "progressive research"  and become the best or the leader in a field.

To wrap up, I would like to ask you a hypothetical question: what would you think and do if the results of your experiment did not meet your expectations, contradicted existing paradigms, or could not be explained by what you learned from your textbook? Unfortunately, many students will think that they have made a mistake or failed in their experiments. What they would miss might be a true treasure that only requires one step further. Here is my advice to young people who are interested in inventions and creativity: in scientific research, do not blindly believe in books and worship authority; dare to think what no one has thought before and do what no one has done before. Let's seize the opportunity, make bold breakthroughs and open up a new world for our Chinese scientists!

Thank you!

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