Chancellor Li Qingzhao

Background

The leader of the Academy is Chancellor Li Qingzhao. She was born in Shanghai, China. Her resume:

B.S., Astronautical Engineering, Tsinghua University, 1988;

M.S. and PhD, Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994;

PhD, Public Management, Tsinghua University, 1999;

Professor of Science and Technology Policy and Management, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2000-present;

Director, C9 League, 2014-2017.

Chancellor Li Qingzhao is an outspoken advocate for the construction of the Tianyan radio telescope array and its SETI mission.

Quotes

Research

• "One cannot simply squeeze a balloon into a tin can without one or the other bursting. Which itself depends upon which you make stronger, and which you make weaker." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Interviewed for "A History of Space Travel," BBC Radio 4
• "Any species capable of contacting us would have overcome the petty divisions that plague humanity, allowing them to call out as one voice. We should therefore use all the means at our disposal to demonstrate that we too are a united and harmonious race." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Archival footage from the International Model U.N. debate
  Topic: How should humanity respond in the event of first contact with aliens?
• "Were some distant eye ever to gaze upon our world, it would see warehouse workers, denied bathroom breaks. Factory laborers paid pennies to assemble thousand-dollar phones. Children, dying in mines. Would it not question why we had not found smarter, kinder solutions?" — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, In an interview with Wired magazine
• "Consider Mansa Musa, Mali's greatest emperor and perhaps history's wealthiest man. His African kingdom spanned over a million square kilometers, yet he achieved this not through conquest, but by bringing about a golden age of knowledge, construction, and culture." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Addressing the U.N. Economic and Social Council
• "When faced with a large problem, we must think small. Look to the mongoose, fearlessly striking down the king cobra, or to the Eurasian stoat, killing prey nearly ten times its mass." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, From her guest lecture at Tsinghua University
• "The reason that conflict stains human history is because something in our nature causes us to hate our neighbor. Yet we have learned to overcome that urge, that fear. We must remain conscious, however, that a galactic neighbor may initially behave as thoughtlessly we once did." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, From her TEDGlobal talk, "Preparing for First Contact and Beyond"
• "It is a miracle of engineering and physics, yes. But, romantically, standing next to a heavy hydrogen fusion reactor is the closest you'll ever get to a star." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Public Lecture Seeing the Wonders of Engineering and Science at the Xi'an Jiaotong University
• "Colleagues, Mars and the near asteroids will be in reach without us having to ignite nuclear fires." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, speech at a C9 league summit
• "All of us here take water for granted, each and every day. Yet, no matter how humanity might evolve over the centuries to come, one thing will never change - everything we are and everything we do depends upon water." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Lecture at Xi'an Jiaotong University
• "Our atoms do not truly touch one another. Like the clouds in the sky, they have no hard boundaries. All they can do is move close enough to influence each other." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, From a guest lecture at the University of Cambridge
• "It takes so very little for one tribe of humanity to look upon a second tribe as The Other. Think of what will happen once hundreds of millions of kilometers lie between us." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, "Distributed Humanity"
• "From gigantic atom smashers to household television tubes, particle accelerators are versatile tools. Practically, I see no reason why they could not be weaponized. Ethically is perhaps another matter." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Scientific testimony during a hearing by the Central Military Commission in Beijing
• "We will never know if Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn even dreamed that their discovery of nuclear fission would one day be used to build spaceships. Let us hope, nevertheless, that we would have made them proud." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Keynote Speech at Spaceport Summit
• "I am humbled to have been chosen for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. The things they can do up here are simply incredible. Their studies on the long-term effects of microgravity are fascinating, while the strides being made in combustion could revolutionize energy production back on Earth." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Video interview from a field trip to the International Space Station
  Excerpted from the documentary Teenage Prodigies
• "Every child adores playing with magnets, yet most adults pay them no heed. Foolish, really, for one day they will become the very bedrock of our society." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, In an interview with Wired magazine, 2016
• "I was born with two club feet. For this reason, playground games were impossible for me. So instead, I read and read and read. Though they cause me daily pain, I treasure these warped feet of mine. They made me everything I am today." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Lecture at Xi'an Jiaotong University
• "The human brain can store the equivalent of 2.5 petabytes of information - or enough to record three million hours of TV. But what if we became able to watch those shows at a thousand times the speed? Then our brains would seem like a mere floppy disk." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, "Engineering Humanity"
• "Without an ozone layer to protect us from ultraviolet light, life on our planet would never have developed in the first place." — Chancellor Li Qingzhao, Astrophysics Seminar Series at Tsinghua University

Science

• As a teenager, looking at the night sky, my mind raced with possibilities as I wondered 'What if?' Now, as a woman effortlessly transitioning from station to colony to warship, I consider, 'How far?'
• Even our greatest technologies only enable us to see five percent of our universe. Just imagine what we will learn once we can gaze upon the remaining ninety-five percent.
• Life never stands still. It is always in motion. While we fixate on the problems and tasks before us, life continues elsewhere, everywhere. With at least 4,000 confirmed planets, how could it be otherwise?"
• Mankind never lacked ingenuity when it came to solving our problems through engineering and science. On the contrary, the greater the pressure, the faster we found a technical solution. What we are lacking is the ability to use this feat wisely.
• We should see nature as an example: by coming together as molecules, atoms reach a more desirable state of lower energy. So, when we come together, we can also reach a more desirable state, a better balance."
• The biggest breakthroughs in history always came hand-in-hand with free exchange of information. We should take this lesson to heart. By sharing our knowledge, we can create a brighter future for everyone.
• I am as impressed as I am distraught. This innovation will undoubtedly make the lives of our colonists much better and safer. But how long until someone figures out it can kill his neighbor?
• Coming together despite our differences is not easy. Staying together is a never-ending struggle that spans generations. What we are building is difficult, but that makes it worthwhile. Ultimately, we are what we do when it counts.

Trivia

Li Qingzhao (李清照) is named after the greatest female poet in ancient Chinese history. The historical poet was born in 1084 AD during the Song Dynasty. One of her most famous verses, Yujia'ao: A Dream, spoke of sailing upon the river of stars and conversing with a heavenly being.

Li is extremely clubfoot, which is a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. She says that she treasures them, because due to inability to participate in active games she spent a lot of time reading and studying.

Gallery