And hailed him as a “genius“ who is changing the world and foreseeing China’s future，Lu Zhaoyang.

Is this for real? In 2021, the quantum computing award, previously given to individuals from the United States, Switzerland, and Australia, was awarded to a Chinese recipient for the first time in many years. The laureate who brought glory to the nation is only 37 years old, a young person from the post-80s generation! At a young age of under 30, he developed the world’s first optical quantum computer. Esteemed Western scientific media has praised him as the “Chinese wizard manipulating photons“ and hailed him as a “genius“ who is changing the world and foreseeing China’s future. He is none other than Lu Zhaoyang. Born in 1982, Lu Zhaoyang initially led a very ordinary life. Hailing from Luxiu Village in Huashui Town, Dongyang, Zhejiang, he embarked on an extraordinary journey from this humble village. Through diligent study and hard work, he transcended the confines of the mountainous village and the township, eventually attending the prestigious Dongyang Middle School. There, he transformed into a “scholarship winner,“ consistently earning first-class scholarships. It was at Dongyang Middle School that he encountered the legendary figure in the Chinese quantum field, Pan Jianwei. Pan Jianwei is known as the “Father of Chinese Quantum Mechanics.“ At the time, when Pan Jianwei returned to his alma mater, Dongyang Middle School, he delivered a popular science lecture on the topic of optical quantum physics. (A photon, also known as a light quantum, is the smallest basic unit of electromagnetic radiation.) At that time, optical quantum physics was still a new field internationally. Some of the effects it produced occurred on a very small physical scale, even smaller than the hair strands commonly seen in daily Chinese life by several tens of millions. In the subsequent “first quantum revolution,“ today’s computers, mobile phones, the internet, navigation, lasers, and magnetic resonance imaging, among other things, were all born. However, at that time, this entirely new microcosmic world was unheard of by the vast majority of Chinese people, let alone valued in this field. At the age of 16, Lu Zhaoyang, after listening to Professor Pan’s lecture, was immediately drawn to the mysterious and elusive world of quantum physics and decided to pursue it as his development direction. Unexpectedly, this decision added another legend to the future of the Chinese quantum field, belonging to “Lu Zhaoyang.“ Lu Zhaoyang never expected that his connection with Professor Pan had just begun. At the age of 18, Lu Zhaoyang successfully enrolled in the Department of Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China and was directly admitted to a national laboratory after graduation, with Professor Pan Jianwei as his mentor. As Professor Pan’s senior disciple, Lu Zhaoyang was entrusted with great expectations. His research tasks were extremely important and challenging; he was responsible for rebuilding the optical experimental platform and upgrading it to have the capability to manipulate six entangled photons. It is worth noting that no one in the international community had achieved the manipulation of six entangled photons in several decades! Lu Zhaoyang said, “In order to complete this task, I basically stayed in the laboratory until after 11 p.m. every day. During winter break, when there was heavy snow outside, I walked alone through the snow from the East Campus laboratory to the West Campus dormitory.“ That year, he sacrificed all his weekends and holidays, including the Spring Festival holiday, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to conducting experiments. Because it was his first time conducting research, the difficulties he encountered were indescribable. There were times that lasted for several months when he struggled to make progress to the next step. At the most difficult moments, he almost gave up using new criteria to prove his conclusions. It was Pan Jianwei’s encouragement that revived his spirits. Gradually, he built and debugged the equipment in the laboratory, overcoming one challenge after another.