SOLVING DEEP-SEATED PROBLEMS: EXPLORING THE GROWTH PATH OF WORLD-CLASS MASTER-LEVEL SCIENTISTS

The independent cultivation of top-notch innovative talents in basic sciences, particularly in physics, is a critical factor determining China's technological competitiveness and long-term development. However, current talent cultivation faces multiple deep-rooted challenges, including short-termism, exam-oriented education, cultural traditions that inhibit innovation, hindered international exchanges, and the impact of artificial intelligence, which urgently call for systematic responses at both conceptual and institutional levels. This report summarizes the practical experiences of Tsinghua University's Top-notch Talent Program from Phase 1.0 to 2.0. It analyzes the current state of national talent cultivation, the contemporary response to “Qian Xuesen’s Question, ” the characteristics of China's scientific progress, and the in-depth reform of university teaching in the age of artificial intelligence. It also examines the deep-seated issues faced by physics top-notch talent training bases in talent cultivation, including domestic and international social environments, the spiritual and intellectual dimensions of teachers and students, and artificial intelligence, and puts forward several guiding suggestions. This paper reproduces Academician Zhu Bangfen's entire report on cultivating future-oriented original innovative talents centered on the core values of “independent spirit and free thought.”