Star scientist stops accepting invitations for academic lectures

Yan Ning speaks during the 2019 Qiu Shi award ceremony held at Tsinghua University in Beijing. From next year, apart from the ones she has already accepted, she will stop accepting any invitations from individuals or institutions to give academic lectures, unless they are from students, Yan Ning, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and founding president of the Shenzhen Medical Academy of Research and Translation announced at her Sina Weibo account recently. Her Weibo has more than 1.27 million followers and the post has ignited public debate of whether star scientists have spent too much time in attending academic conferences and giving lectures, instead of doing academic research. Star experts like Yan have been favored by many academic events due to their influence and their academic perceptive and exploration process can offer inspiration to others. The public statement of Yan has been viewed as a "Nay" to such academic culture and the self-awareness of star scientists.