On September 27, Michael Levitt, professor of the Stanford University and the 2013 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, visited Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and presented his report titled "Importance of Fundamental Research in Biomedicine: Basic Science & Applied Science", which is also featured as the 6^th session of SIAT Butterfly Salon.  

Vice President Prof. Hairong Zheng of SIAT hosted the report, President Prof. Jianping Fan of SIAT, Mengjun Xie and Yuanpei YANG from Shenzhen Steinbeis Technology Transfer Co., Ltd. and over 150 Chinese and foreign scientists and students attended.  

Before the report, Prof. Levvit listened the introduction of the SIAT development, and had a lab tour to Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging. Institute of Brain Cognition and Brain Disease, and Institute of Synthetic Biology, which gave a good impression to him. 

In his report, Prof. Levitt introduced the multi-disciplinary revolution in biology revolution and how computational structural biology emerged as a tool for efficient identification of structure and dynamics in many applications. 

He emphasized the importance of basic research, and gave examples of how his personal study and research experience helped him to finally win the Nobel Prize. 

"My time at Cambridge University showed me how to do Basic Science Research," said Prof. Levitt, "and my time at Stanford University showed me how to increase the impact of Basic Science though involvement in startup companies. Key is full disclosure of interests." He told the audience to discover problems, dare to fail, and seek breakthroughs through failures. 

Prof. Levitt's presentation inspired strong interests from students and faculty.  Researchers and foreign students raised some questions at the scene related to the frontier biological fields, intelligent image processing, and transformation of scientific research results, etc. Prof. Levitt shared his understandings from different aspects with them. The audience enjoyed his report and sharing.  

At the end of report, President Jianping Fan of SIAT presented his great honor and warm welcome for Professor Levitt’s visit, and exchanged a customized IBT cross-research souvenir and a silk scarf with Chinese characteristics. 

During lunchtime, Prof. Levitt had a free exchanging with 20 students and faculty members from SIAT, sharing with them more about his personal experiences and understanding on science, life, trip, etc. 

The event was co-hosted by SIAT and the National Innovation Center for Advanced Medical Devices. 

*Butterfly Salon: Since May this year, SIAT has launched the ‘Butterfly Salon’ series events, until now, SIAT have already held 6 sessions. It aims to meet the needs of future industries for science and technology and talents, focuses on emerging cutting-edge interdisciplinary fields, and try to create an interdisciplinary research atmosphere for SIAT.  

*Prof. Levitt: a South African-born biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at Stanford University, received the Nobel Prize together with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel, for "the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems. He and his team have been exploring the cross-border fields of biophysics and chemistry, with the help of computer computing power enhancements, to achieve the first computer simulation of protein folding. 

Prof. Levvit is visiting the labs. (Photo by SIAT) 

Prof. Levvit is giving the featured report. (Photo by SIAT) 

 Exchanging souvenir to Prof. Levvit and his wife. (Photo by SIAT) 

Researchers and students from SIAT having lunch with Prof. Levvit. (Photo by SIAT) 

Group photo at the scene. (Photo by SIAT)