At the age of 33, Zhong Yang, a cadre at the level of deputy department, has been "dismissed".

Zhong Yang's life could have been very leisurely. At the age of 15, he was admitted to the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China; In his twenties, he became a young leader in the field of botany in China at that time; At the age of 33, when he resigned from Wuhan Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and became an ordinary teacher in Fudan University, he was already a cadre at the level of deputy department.

At that time, Zhong Yang was the first in the world to propose a new interactive classification data model and a new measure to detect system tree differences, and accordingly established an interactive classification information system based on biological classification ontology.

Some people say that Zhong Yang is a "weirdo". "Having achieved this, he can already sit in the office and guide a group of people working under him". However, he was willing to start over from scratch, because the construction of life science discipline in Fudan University was "imminent".

In 2000, the Department of Environment and Resources of Fudan University was on the verge of dissolution, and Professor Chen Jiakuan was appointed to establish the Institute of Biodiversity Science, in urgent need of "firefighters". After being invited, Zhong Yang almost didn't think about it and went to Fudan immediately.

"I was born to be a teacher." Zhong Yang explained to others that he was born in a teacher's family. An hour before he was born, his mother was still teaching on the platform.

In 2008, he was proposed to be the dean of the School of Life Sciences of Fudan University, but he declined again.

"Many people don't understand him, but we know that", said Chen Haoming, secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Life Sciences of Fudan University, "What he loves in his life is to be an ordinary teacher, devote himself to learning, teach and educate people. His eyes have no place for fame and wealth."

How to be a good teacher? Zhong Yang believes that a good education is not to shape students, but to support and help them to achieve what they want to become.

In Zhong Yang's eyes, every student is a precious seed. If you irrigate carefully, you will have a flower of hope.

Yang Zhen, a student suffering from muscular atrophy, was attracted by Zhong Yang's lecture and wrote to Zhong Yang that he wanted to go to graduate school. Zhong Yang soon asked him to meet and guide him to review. After enrollment, considering that he could not go out for sampling, Zhong Yang guided him to engage in bioinformatics research and assisted him in scientific research hand in hand.

Now, Yang Zhen, who has become a researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, remembers the words of Professor Zhong: "He once said to me, 'I am willing to recruit you for nothing but because you are really suitable for scientific research.' It was he who lit up the light of my life."

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 26