Professor Craig Roberts, a theoretical physicist wearing a cowboy hat, is the International Distinguished Professor in the School of Physics at Nanjing University and the head of the Institute for Nonperturbative Physics. He was selected for the Jiangsu Province 100 Talents Plan for Professionals in 2018 and joined the faculty of the School of Physics at Nanjing University in 2019, when he relocated to Nanjing from Chicago with his family.

He conducts a broad-ranging research program in modern nuclear and particle theory. He is the world's leading practitioner of nonperturbative continuum methods in quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

Uncover the secrets of proton stability and the emergence of mass

"We try to answer some of the questions that explain how the universe evolved in the first microsecond after the Big Bang," the professor told inJiangsu while explaining his research. "Mass began to emerge. The proton began to emerge. It never decays. We're trying to understand what it is about nature that makes the proton absolutely stable."

"In the past five years or so, we have arrived at a very new understanding of the way that the fundamental particles, called quarks and gluons, interact with each other," the professor said.The new findings he mentioned were published in the May 2024 issue of Scientific American, one of the most well-known popular science magazines in the United States and around the world, under the title Nature's Strongest Force. Together with two other physicists, Roberts's breakthroughs bring us closer to understanding the mysterious strong force, one of nature's four basic interactions. "Certain features of nature are working together to ensure that this interaction strength remains finite and well behaved at low energies."

According to Roberts, currently there are more than 100 people working with them worldwide, both in experimentation and theory. They make predictions, and experiments around the world test those predictions.

"The theory we work with is 50 years old now. Maybe in the next 50 years, we'll have a solution altogether," he predicted.

Basic research is the key to a nation's international recognition

Roberts was awarded the title of "Envoy of People's Friendship of Jiangsu" in 2022. In 2023, the government of Jiangsu presented him with the Jiangsu Friendship Award. When discussing these awards, the professor said, "The awards recognized the investments that I've made in training the next generation of Chinese scientists. And my long-term plan is to keep that up. Basic research is the key to the international recognition of any nation."

"I feel that the investment of Jiangsu and the central government in basic research is strong here in China," he remarked. "China is open to support all high-quality academic research."

To him, China is rapidly overtaking the rest of the world in academic output and impact. He once looked around several places to pursue his research program, but in Nanjing, people acted very quickly and made a very attractive offer, and part of that offer was access to a huge pool of highly intelligent human resources: students, postdocs, and assistant professors…

He told the reporter, "In leaving Chicago and coming to Nanjing, the output and impact of our research program have grown by a factor of five. So academically, I was foolish not to come to China sooner."

His plans for the next five to ten years include bringing more foreigners in to see and experience China for themselves, organizing more international conferences, having his students travel abroad to win positions overseas and gain experience, and then attracting them back to China.

For a longer-term plan, Roberts said he is committed to internationalizing basic research and higher education in China. "By having foreign people working with Chinese people, friendships will develop, and friendships are the way to avoid conflict and foster good competition that brings benefits for us all."

When Professor Roberts came to Nanjing five years ago, it coincided with the National Day Golden Week. Now, with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the PRC approaching, as a distinguished international professor, Roberts will attend various receptions at different levels.

Being a cyclist and coffee lover, he has go-to coffee shops around Nanjing University's Gulou Campus, and the city of Nanjing also offers him ideal cycling routes. While cycling, he enters a meditative state and hopes to have new ideas. "That's a good part of life," he said.

Source: inJiangsu

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