京领嘉宾 | 诺贝尔经济学奖得主、哈佛大学校级教授谈科研职业发展与选择

Original 京领京领新国际

2020年12月25日，

《2020中国国际学校竞争力排行榜》

《2020中国国际化学校品牌价值百强榜》

《2020中国国际学校创新竞争力百强榜》

（点击榜单名称可进入链接观看完整榜单），

并且共邀请了五位主旨演讲嘉宾：诺贝尔经济学奖得主、哈佛大学校级教授马斯金教授；北京一零一中（教育集团）校长、国家督学陆云泉；剑桥大学终身正教授、院士卡德维尔教授；诺贝尔物理学奖得主巴里什教授；诺贝尔诺贝尔生理或医学奖得主谢克曼教授参与京领榜单发布会暨诺奖创新论坛，并在与会嘉宾共同见证下重磅发布2020中国国际学校系列排行榜。

诺贝尔经济学奖得主、哈佛大学校级教授（哈佛大学最高级别教授）埃里克·马斯金（Eric Maskin）

受邀在京领榜单发布会暨诺奖创新论坛上发表了精彩演讲。

嘉宾介绍

马斯金教授

诺贝尔经济学奖得主

哈佛大学校级教授

（哈佛大学最高级别教授）

哈佛大学经济学与数学终身正教授

美国国家科学院院士

美国艺术与科学院院士

马斯金教授是世界最知名的经济学家之一，是哈佛大学最高级别教授——哈佛大学校级教授，还是美国国家科学院院士，美国艺术与科学院院士，英国科学院院士，以及知名期刊《经济学季刊》、《经济学快报》、《经济理论专论》的编辑，在政治经济学、博弈论、契约论、社会选择论等方面为世界做出了突出贡献。2007年，马斯金教授凭借在机制设计理论方面的成就荣获诺贝尔经济学奖，运用博弈论的特殊形式，为使市场中所有各方最大化收益做出贡献。他获得的主要奖项还有：肯佩环境经济学奖、EFR商业周奖、马赛和图卢兹两个城市的梅达耶大赛、哈佛大学百年纪念章、克里斯托瓦尔·加巴隆基金会国际奖经济学、路易丝·布劳因基金会奖、让·雅克·拉夫芳奖、詹姆斯·乔伊斯奖等。

马斯金教授作为诺贝尔经济学奖得主、哈佛大学校级教授、美国国家科学院院士，美国艺术与科学院院士，同时也是世界上最著名的经济学家之一，在本次论坛中进行了深刻的发言。马斯金教授的发言核心在于阐释——“科学是人类进步的最重要的力量”，随着科学进步与技术创新，世界必将在2021迎来美好的未来！

在此新年到来之际，京领独家放送马斯金教授的精彩演讲，以飨读者。（扫描文末二维码可观看完整发布会回放）

以下是马斯金教授的演讲内容：

马斯金教授在京领榜单发布会暨诺奖创新论坛上的精彩演讲

大家好，我是埃里克·马斯金，是经济学和数学方向的教授，我在美国哈佛大学任教。很高兴能同大家一起参与中国国际学校竞争力排名榜单发布会，我相信您会在圣诞节那天看到这个视频，因此，我提前祝大家圣诞快乐。

今天，我想和大家谈谈科学。

毫不夸张地说，科学是人类进步的最重要力量，我们能看到（社会）年复一年的发展变化都可以归因于科学发现，这绝非偶然，在科学领域进行最大公共投资的国家也会是发展最好的国家。

但是今天我并非主要谈论这一点。我想讨论的是科学职业的可能性。

你们当中的一些人可能在考虑从事科研，我希望你们能仔细考虑这个决定。现在，进入科学的最好理由实际上不是它可以帮助整个世界——当然它确实有助于世界——我们进入科学的最好理由，仅仅是为了满足自己的好奇心，因为科学中出现的问题令人着迷，他们是最令人着迷的。

我们可以想象宇宙是如何开始的？生命是如何起源的？什么是意识？我们如何治愈或预防癌症？或者阿尔茨海默氏病？

在我自己的经济学领域，也有很多问题。我们如何阻止不平等加剧？我们如何防止衰退发生？如果真的发生了，我们如何终止它们？我们如何解决全球变暖的问题？

所有这些都是有趣且非常困难的问题。几乎任何人，甚至是对科学不太了解的人，这些也会是他们关心的问题。我们会想知道答案，这些问题本身就很有趣。

但是，科学的伟大之处在于，它为我们提供了可以实际找到答案的工具。如果你从事科学研究，你可以花一整天的时间来回答其中一些大问题。在大多数工作中，你必须按照老板所说的去做，你可能正在尝试回答问题并解决问题，但是你所解决的是别人指导你要解决的问题。在科学研究事业中，你需要自己做出决定和安排。你可以提出并解决自己感兴趣的问题，我认为，这是所有科学相关职业的最大吸引力。

现在，我们在科学领域取得了一些最重要的发现，并不是因为这些发现能帮助人类社会而感兴趣，而仅仅是因为他们能够解决一些有趣的问题。

例如，查尔斯·达尔文发现了进化论，因为他渴望明白他身边的动植物是如何形成和演进的。事实证明，进化论对于现代医学和生物学至关重要，没有进化论的发现就不会有现代医学或生物学。但当达尔文提出这一理论的时候，他并没有想过这些。

同样，爱因斯坦发现了相对论，因为他想了解重力。后来发现，相对论对我们来说是绝对必要的理论，比如GPS技术，没有爱因斯坦，没有相对论，就不会有GPS的出现。但是爱因斯坦当时并不知道，他只是好奇才进行研究，他想了解重力的原理。

再举一个例子，居里夫人对无线电活动着迷，例如镭元素放射出的射线，这引导着她发现了这一元素，这对于我们研究现代原子能有至关重要的作用。但当时的居里夫人也不曾想到。她只是想了解这种无线电活动的来源。

下面告诉大家有关我是如何进入经济学领域的，以及我如何涉足科学领域。

当我进入大学时，我甚至不知道经济学是什么。事实上，我以为我会成为一个数学家，我在大学期间花了很多时间学习数学，这是我很喜欢的一门学科，学习数学令我感到快乐，而且我一度极有可能朝着数学发展下去，直到我得到一个偶然的机会去参加经济学讲座。

有趣的是，这个讲座是由后来成为我的博士导师的那个人讲授的。我觉得那场讲座相当精彩，从某种意义上说，他们向我展示了经济学这样的学科其实两全其美，因为它使得你能够研究具有社会价值的问题，比如解决不平等问题，以及结束经济衰退的问题等。而且它也从数学的角度去分析这些问题，你可以利用数学的力量和严谨性来回答这些重要的社会问题，我认为这是个无与伦比的组合。

结果，我改变了方向，并决定要学习经济学。最后，我得到了同一个提供电气课程的人的博士学位，我很高兴我这么做了。

让我为大家提出这样的建议：

永远保持一个开放的心态，即便你已经确定你喜欢学习什么样的学科；

永远做好准备，当机会来了，也要去尝试一些新的事物；

并且记住无论做什么，无论是否从事科学相关的研究，最重要的是你要享受你所从事的事业。

科学，充满着无限乐趣。

我鼓励大家认真思考是否从事科研，但即便不从事科研，重要的一点是你选择的道路应该对你个人而言，是获益最大的。

我的讲话就到这里，谢谢聆听。

演讲原文

English Version

Hello, everyone. I'm Eric Maskin, Professor of Economics and Mathematics at Harvard University in the United States. I'm happy to join you for the China International School Competitiveness Ranking Conference. I believe you'll be seeing this video on Christmas Day. And so I'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas.

Today, I'd like to talk to you about science.

It's no exaggeration to say that science is the most important force behind human progress. Almost all the growth we see from year to year is attributable to scientific and technological discoveries. It's no coincidence that the countries that have made the biggest public investment in science are the ones that have grown the most.

But I'm not interested in talking primarily about that. What I'd like to concentrate on is the possibility of a career in science.

Some of you may be considering such a career. And I would urge you to think about doing that. Now, the best reason for going into science is actually not that it will help the world. It will help the world. The best reason we're going into science is simply to satisfy your own curiosity. Because the questions that arise in science are fascinating, they are among the most interesting.

We can imagine how did the universe begin? How did life begin? What is consciousness? How can we cure or prevent cancer? Or Alzheimer's disease?

In my own field, which is economics, there are big questions, too. How can we stop inequality from increasing? How can we prevent recessions from occurring? And if they do occur, how can we end them? How can we solve the problem of global warming?

All of these are interesting and very difficult problems. And just about anyone, even people who don't know much about science, here're the problems. We'll want to know the answers. They are innately interesting.

But the, great thing about science is that, it gives us the tools to have a chance of actually finding the answers. And if you have a career in scientific research, you can spend your day trying to answer some of these big questions. In most jobs, you have to do what your boss says, you might be trying to answer questions and solve problems, but your’re solving the questions and problems that someone else is directing you to solve. In a career of scientific research, you get to sets the agenda. You got to ask and answer the questions that you're interested. And that, I think, is the biggest attraction of a scientific career of all.

Now, some of the most important discoveries in science that we've made, not because the discovery was interested in helping humanity, but simply because he or she, one and two, get to the answer of some interesting problems.

For example, Charles Darwin, discovered the theory of evolution, because he wanted to understand how all the animals and plants that he saw around him came into being. It turned out that the theory of evolution was essential for modern medicine and biology, there would be no modern medicine or biology without discovery. But that that wasn't on his mind when he came up with the theory.

Similarly, Albert Einstein discovered the relativity, something because he wanted to understand gravity. It turned out later that the theory of relativity is absolutely essential. The GPS technology, we wouldn't have GPS without him, without the theory of of relativity. But Einstein didn't know that at the time, he just was curious, and he wanted to know how gravity works.

One more example, Marie Curie was fascinated by the radio activity. That, the element radium gives off. And this led to her discovery of radium, which became essential for all of our modern atomic energy, but that wasn't on Madame Curie’s mind, she just wanted to understand where this radio activity is coming from.

Take to tell you a little bit about how I got into economics, how I got into science myself.

When I went to university, I didn't even know what economics was. In fact, I thought I was going to be a mathematician. I spent my time at university studying mathematics, which I loved, it's a beautiful subject. And I was very happy doing it, and I probably would have kept on doing it if I hadn't had the opportunity quite by accidents of going to a lecture course, on economics.

Interestingly, this lecture course was given by the man who later became my PhD supervisor. I thought the lectures were fascinating, and they showed me a subject like economics has, in a sense, the best of both worlds because it allows you to study problems of great social importance, such as solving inequality, trying to end recessions. It looks at these questions from a mathematical point of view. You can use the power and the rigor of mathematics to answer these important social questions. I thought that was an unbeatable combination.

As a result of that, I change direction, and I decided that I was going to study economics, and I ended up getting a PhD with the the same guy who gave electric course. And I was very glad I did that.

Let me suggest this. Keep an open mind, even if you think you know what subjects you would like to study. Always be prepared. Try something else if the opportunity arises. And remember that whatever you do, whether it turns out to be science or something outside of science, the important thing is for you to enjoy what you're doing. Science. It's a lot of fun.

I would encourage you to think about science. But even if you end up outside science, it's important that the path you take is the one that is personally rewarding.

Let me stop there. And let me thank you for your attention.