Graduates | 林煜：研究型学习的践行者
流年似水，岁月如歌。今年六月，广东以色列理工学院即将迎来首届毕业生。广以2017级本科毕业生系列采访将带大家一同聆听这四年来学生们与广以的故事，共同见证广以学子们的成长。今天分享的是生物技术与食品工程专业毕业生林煜的故事。
姓名：林煜
毕业高中：汕头市聿怀中学
本科专业：生物技术与食品工程
林煜，一位有想法、有目标、敢想敢干的“科研爱好者”，能够坚定心中对专业的热爱，在实验中尽情感受食品科学的“味道”。“大胆尝试，不设限制”是他的座右铭，他有着从零开始的勇气，也有排除万难实现目标的决心，更有对待科研脚踏实地的态度。
高中时便对生物学心生向往，来到广以之后，生物技术与食品工程专业涉及的领域之广让林煜深知夯实专业基础格外重要，也让他学会在繁忙的课业生活中锻炼自己的抗压能力。“上课只是冰山一角，一门课占据更多的其实是课前课后的时间。除了上课，我们每周用来学习的时间绝对不止40小时。最忙的阶段，没有周末和节假日是常态；在图书馆从白天一直学习到晚上闭馆也是常态。”
专业的课程设置中，实践和理论学习如车之两轮，同等重要。在林煜眼中，实验课是对理论知识的补充，当中最有意思的课程莫过于“食品微生物学”。“我们学习了很多发酵类食品的工艺，如葡萄酒、啤酒、酸菜、酸奶、酸奶酪和面包。老师在课上演示了面团的发酵，还带来了她自制的酸奶。我们在实验课上也尝试自己动手做葡萄酒和酸菜。亲自做过才知道，平平无奇的酸黄瓜背后也有不少门道——我们用若干个盐浓度尝试着发酵酸黄瓜，发现只有两个盐浓度发酵出来的酸黄瓜是可食用的。在实验中，我们自己探索微生物与食品的关系，学习使用十分简便的生物化学检测盒来缩小菌种范围······”林煜表示，边实践边学习的方式不仅有趣，还能极大地提高掌握知识的效率。
大学阶段的学习，除了要有丰富的知识储备和实践经验，更重要的是培养独立思考的能力。“广以的老师们很重视学生的思考能力和创新意识。在我们上课的过程中，老师们会不断地鼓励我们提问，鼓励我们大胆表达出自己的想法，这对培养我们的批判性思维帮助很大。”
本科期间，林煜除了专注学业和科研，也善于抓住机会“自我充电”。在大二暑期，他参加了新加坡国立大学的创业暑期学校课程。一开始，林煜只是抱着开拓眼界的初心，并没有意识到商学相关的知识，竟能和科研形成跨学科的互动，给他带来意料之外的收获。
“除了一些经济学相关概念，我在暑课里学到的第一件事就是如何推销你的想法。就像在商业世界中一样，科研人员学会与他人分享想法是至关重要的，但要真正做到这一点并不容易。我们往往有很多内容要展示，但对方的时间和耐心是有限的，这就非常考验我们表达的能力和‘自我推销’的技巧。原本以为创业商学课程与科研毫不相干，但无意间的‘走出去’让我发现商学的许多规则和技巧也适用于研究界，给我未来的职业目标和抱负带来了一定的启发。”
暑课期间也让林煜收获了一段难忘的国际化团队合作经历。“我的队友来自6个不同的东盟国家，老实说，有时候和不同文化、语言背景的人一起工作并非易事，常常会遇到一些沟通和理解上的差异。不过这种机会也非常难得，我能从世界各地的小伙伴们身上学到很多。讨论问题的时候，大家各抒己见，能碰撞出很多思想上的火花。”
林煜是第一个加入Yigal Achmon教授实验室的本科生，见证了实验室从无到有发展起来的点点滴滴。“从第一个九人团队的诞生，到第一批实验的进行，再到现在实验室变成我们二十多人的大家庭，有多组平行项目展开······很多事情都是从零开始的。我们逐步优化实验室的各种设计，想方设法提高实验室的空间利用率，让每个角落都能发挥出最大化的功能。从某种程度上说，科研的挑战性就在于有时要用手头上仅有的东西创造出自己需要的东西。用火机点燃某样东西很容易，难的是没有火机的时候你会不会钻木取火。这才是对一个科研团队真正的考验。”
科研是一群人为了共同目标从零开始的努力和付出，是为了实现更高的追求精益求精的探索和尝试。“实验室购进的先进仪器，像质子转移质谱（PTR），它可以达到特别高的精度和敏感性（十亿份之一级别的浓度），全世界精通这种仪器的人并不多。我们实验室的成员自己通过捣鼓大量实验数据、不断请教代理商的工程师，慢慢摸索出仪器的性能。仪器的使用不难，难的是靠我们自己排除仪器错误和干扰，提高数据可靠性，解决各种各样的偏差。加水的量、加水的时间、等待的时长等因素都会对结果产生影响。”
林煜（上排左三）与Yigal Achmon教授实验室成员合影
在林煜眼中，在实验室的工作犹如“真枪实弹上战场”，容不得半点马虎。“在Yigal的实验室当学生助理，让我养成了很多好习惯。整个工作环境让我对待事情变得更专业、谨慎。有些精密仪器对使用者的要求很高，使用不当就会导致其性能大打折扣，甚至会对测量精度造成影响。科研项目是我们整个团队的心血，我得对每个步骤、样本、数据负责。”
林煜跟着Yigal教授进行食品可持续方向的研究，即用可持续的方式去生产、加工、消耗、处置食物。“实验室的项目之一是探究生物日晒法。传统的日晒法是在土壤上覆盖一层透光薄膜来创造温室效应，进而对土壤进行消杀减毒。我们在传统日晒上添加生物废料，结合土壤菌落的作用，对土壤进行改良，一步达到增肥、杀菌、除草和改良理化特性的效果。另外一方面又能解决鱼废料难处理的难题，以及避免化学药剂对土壤的污染。这在食品可持续和有机农业方面有巨大的潜力。”在林煜及其所在的团队的共同努力下，“可持续水产残料资源化与有机土壤修复综合处理方案”这个项目最终入选了2021年“攀登计划”广东大学生科技创新能力提升行动项目。
参与科研之后，林煜才意识到，真正的科研的难度超乎他的想象。“实验课往往是理想化的过程，几乎整个实验设计能做到刚好展示出你所期望的结果；而科研才能展示更真实全面的研究过程。现实中，团队需要花费无数的时间和精力去查找文献、设计实验、试错、排除错误，完成实验后还要清理、整理数据、整合文献等等。”
目前，林煜已经拿到以色列理工学院生物与食品相关专业的研究生录取通知书。他表示，在广以的科研经历为他加分不少。“做科研看重的是综合能力，尤其是思辨能力、批判能力和创新能力，这些都很难通过书面成绩表现出来。而我在广以参与科研的经历，恰好能反映出我在这方面的能力。”
林煜（右二）与诺奖得主阿龙·切哈诺沃教授合影
▼
更多广以毕业生的故事
▼This June, the first cohort students will graduate from Guangdong Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. The series of interviews with the graduates from Class 2021 will show their stories with GTIIT in the past four years. Here is the story about Lin Yu, a student of Class 2021 from Biotechnology and Food Engineering Program.
Graduates Interview
Name: Lin Yu
High School: Yuhuai High School, Shantou
Program: Biotechnology and Food Engineering
Lin Yu is a scientific research lover with clear goals and ambitions. He always pushes himself to try new things bravely and never set limitation. He has the courage to start from scratch, the determination to overcome all difficulties, and serious attitude towards scientific research.
Thinking and asking makes study easy
Lin Yu has shown great interest in biology since high school. After study at GTIIT, the wide range of knowledge involved in Biotechnology and Food Engineering Program makes him know that it is extremely important to lay a solid professional foundation. He also learns to improve his ability to resist pressure in the busy university life. "Having classes is just a small part of learning. I need to spend more time before and after class. Actually, we definitely spend more than 40 hours a week studying. During the busiest period, I get use to have no time to relax on weekends and holidays, and study in the library from day to night.”
Practical training and theory learning are equally important at GTIIT. Lin Yu thinks that lab courses are a supplement to theoretical knowledge, among which the most interesting course is Food Microbiology. "We learned a lot about fermented foods like wine, beer, pickle, yogurt and bread. My teacher demonstrated the dough fermentation in class and showed us the homemade yoghurt. We also tried to make wine and sauerkraut by ourselves in the lab. Only by doing can I realize that there is a lot going on behind the pickles. We tried to ferment them with several salt concentrations and found that only two of them were edible. In the lab, we explored the relationship between microbes and food by ourselves, and learned to narrow the range of bacteria by using a very simple biochemical test box...Learning by doing is not only fun, but also greatly improves the efficiency of mastering knowledge." Said Lin Yu.
In addition to rich knowledge and practical experience, the most important thing in university study is to cultivate the ability of thinking independently. "Teachers at GTIIT attach great importance to students' thinking ability and creativity. They always encourage us to ask questions and express our opinions in class to develop our critical thinking skills."
Surprises are always on the way
During the four years, Lin Yu not only focuses on his studies and scientific research, but also grasps opportunities to broaden his horizon. In the summer of his sophomore year, he attended the Entrepreneurship Summer School at National University of Singapore. At the beginning, Lin Yu did not realize that business-related knowledge could form an interdisciplinary interaction with scientific research, which brought him unexpected gains.
"Apart from some economic concepts, the first thing I learned was how to sell my ideas. As in business, it is essential for a researcher to share ideas with others, but it is actually much harder to do it in real life. We often have a lot to show, but the listeners’ time and patience are limited. I originally thought that the course of entrepreneurship and business was unrelated to scientific research, but finally I found that many of the rules and skills of business could also be applied to the research world. This experience gave me some inspiration for my future career goals and ambitions."
Lin Yu also gained an unforgettable international teamwork experience in the summer school. "My teammates come from six different ASEAN countries. To be honest, sometimes it is not easy to work with people from different cultural and language backgrounds. But it is a rare opportunity, and I learn a lot from my friends from all over the world when discussing.”
Scientific research is an effort to start from scratch
Lin Yu was the first undergraduate student to join Prof. Yigal Achmon's lab and witnessed the development of the lab from scratch. "From the birth of the first squad of nine people, to the conduct of the first experiment, till now our lab family has more than twenty people, with multiple parallel projects unfolding... a lot of things have been started from scratch. We gradually optimize the design of the lab, try to improve the utilization of the space, so that each corner can play a maximum function. To some extent, the challenge of scientific research is sometimes to create what you need with what you have. That is the true challenge of a research team."
Scientific research is the effort of a group of people starting from scratch for a common goal. It is also the exploration and attempt to achieve higher pursuit of excellence. "Few people in the world have mastered advanced instruments such as Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry (PTR MS), which can achieve extremely high accuracy and sensitivity. My teammate explored the performance of the instrument step by step by analyzing a large number of experimental data and consulting the professionals over and over again. Operating the instrument is not difficult, but it is not easy to rely on our own to eliminate instrument errors and interference, improve data reliability and solve all kinds of deviation. There are many factors that can influence the outcome.”
Lin Yu (left three in the top row) with his teammates in Prof. Yigal Achmon's lab
Lin Yu knows that there is no room for any carelessness in the lab. "Working as a student assistant in Prof. Yigal's lab helps me develop a lot of good habits. The work environment pushes me to be more professional and cautious. Some precision instruments have high requirements for users. The improper use would result in a great loss of their performance, and even affect the measurement accuracy. The research project was the brainchild of the whole team. I need to take responsibility for every step, sample and data."
At present, Lin Yu helps to conduct research on food sustainability in Prof. Yigal’s squad. "One of the projects in the lab is about bio-solarization. The traditional solarization method is to cover the soil with a layer of transparent film to create a greenhouse effect, and thus disinfect the soil. As soil amendment, organic waste is added into solarization system, in order to modify the soil condition, including fertilization, disinfection, weeding and physicochemical property improvement. On the other hand, it can solve the difficulty of fish waste management and avoid the pollution of chemical agents to the soil. This has huge potential in terms of food sustainability and organic farming." With the joint efforts of Lin Yu and his teammates, this project was finally selected into the 2021 Climbing Project - College Students Science and Technology Innovation Ability Improvement Project in Guangdong Province.
After joining in Prof. Yigal’s squad, Lin Yu realized that the real scientific research was more difficult than he had imagined. "Lab classes tend to be idealized processes, almost the whole design of the experiment can do exactly what you expect. Only scientific research can show a more real and comprehensive research process. In fact, the research team needs to spend countless time and energy searching for literature, designing experiments, correcting errors, cleaning up, analyzing data, integrating literature, etc."
At present, Lin Yu has received the offer of biology-related program from the Technion. He said his scientific research experience at GTIIT has helped him a lot. "Comprehensive abilities, especially critical thinking and innovative skills are important in scientific research, and my research experience at GTIIT can reflects my ability in this regard.”
Lin Yu (right two) with Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Aaron Ciechanover (right three)
▼
More stories about GTIIT Class 2021 graduates
▼文：GTIIT传媒与公共事务部
图：林煜、GTIIT传媒与公共事务部
Text: GTIIT News & Public Affairs
Photos: Lin Yu, GTIIT News & Public Affairs