A hearty smile, fast speech, clear logic... The first time you meet Teacher Wang Chenghai, you will be attracted by his divine 'little eyes'. 'Teacher, there is a note you need to sign.' 'Teacher, when will we leave in the afternoon.' 'Ms. Wang, we are ready'... During the interview, several colleagues and students communicated with him but after each time, he can always return to the interview quickly, and continue the unfinished words clearly, unlike an old man in his sixties.

       If you look through his friend circle, you might not think that he is a scientific researcher dealing with equations, calculation programming, climate change, and atmospheric science all day long, as if we are talking to a poet. During the Qingming Festival, he would say: 'The cold wind brings rain and the spring is soaking, and the snow envies peach flowers.' During the Chinese New Year, he would say: 'The wind is soft and warm, the lights are red and the street is idle. Whose firecrackers fall asleep, childish cheers for their new companions.' When giving away graduates, he would say: 'The chicks have grown up. There are winds and rains. Recalling youthful and immature dreams is still heartily. Sailing and sailing far, the sea is boundless. The young eagle spreads its wings and aims at the peak.'...

       He sometimes writes great poems, always immerses himself in scientific research, and always devotes himself to educating people... Since teaching for decades, he has taught countless students. Strictness is the first impression all students have of him. 'Many students have heard that I have a high demand for students and dare not to be my graduate students.' He sometimes writes great poems, always immerses himself in scientific research, and always devotes himself to educating people... Since teaching for decades, he has taught countless students. Strictness is the first impression all students have of him. 'Many students have heard that I have a high demand for students and dare not to be my graduate students.' But it is such a rigorous heart of educating people that many students still 'will not forget' him even after they leave the campus of Lanzhou University. Looking back on his study and working career, this 'engineer' who has been in the party for 25 years and stimulates countless students' interest in the sky, atmosphere, and environment, is still advancing on the road of scientific research and students.

 

 

       Wang Chenghai was born in Qin'an, Gansu in 1961. From elementary school to middle school, he has always studied step by step. The experience of reading in Xinhua Bookstore in his freshman year inspired him to yearn for science. 'After standing in the bookstore and reading 'Scientific Discovery Talk' written by Mr. Wang Zikun, I was deeply impressed by the combination of traditional culture and scientific knowledge. After saving up money for a long time, I bought this book.'

       In four years of university, due to the poor economic conditions at home, Wang Chenghai seldom went home to save travel expenses. He spent almost all his vacations at school and spent time in the library every day. During the four years of winter and summer vacations, Wang Chenghai read almost all the newspapers and magazines in the reading room. After reading the newspapers in the current month, he read the bound editions of the previous months one by one. “The books that he could read when he was a child were actually very limited. When I saw so many books in the library of the university, I wished to live in the library every day.” Because he went to read books every day and became a frequent visitor to the library, he became acquainted with a librarian, “I often help her organize the books. Do some work.” It is such a large amount of reading accumulation that allows him to retain a bit of poetic romance in addition to scientific research, which makes him full of logic and rational thinking.

       For Wang Chenghai, writing poems and writing lyrics is a leisure way to 'change the mind' apart from busy scientific research. 'Poem writing are very particular, artistic conception, peace and rhyme are indispensable. Mentioning his own hobbies, Wang Chenghai always smiles unconsciously. 'Teacher Wang, you can publish a collection of poems!' Whenever he saw someone commenting on his poems in his friend circle, he would always reply seriously.

       In addition to the 'little hobby' of poetry, Wang Chenghai has never slackened his professional study. When he was in university, he knew that English learning is very important for scientific research, and he never gave up his English learning. When doing guest research in Beijing Atmospheric Physics Research, he often went to the English corner of Renmin University of China to practice English. 'At that time, I was very close to theRenmin University of China, and I often ran to the English corner of there to learn English on a bicycle at night.' With the deepening of scientific research, he gradually realized that English learning should not only be formulaic, but should learn more about their culture. In his spare time, he learns about foreign cultures and languages in various ways.

       Once, he went on a business trip to the United States with a student. When he was waiting at the airport, he chatted with a foreign passenger next to him. The casual exchanges surprised the students. 'The students may think that we only need to understand English references. But in fact, only by understanding their culture and ideas can you know why those English papers are expressed in that way. Then you will naturally apply some habits of English expression when writing English papers.' In order to expand students’ English knowledge and enhance Everyone's English ability, Wang Chenghai will often send English novels to students to read.

       Around 2000, the college had a large number of foreign teachers, and some courses lacked teachers. Wang Chenghai not only taught basic professional courses such as 'climatology', 'atmospheric circulation', 'atmospheric dynamics', 'numerical weather forecasting' and 'statistical weather forecasting', and he also taught basic courses and general courses such as 'Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics' and 'Document Retrieval', and undertook the teaching of nearly 10 courses before and after. This not only gave him rich teaching experience, but also laid a solid foundation for his subsequent scientific research.

       He is engaged in numerical weather prediction, land-atmosphere interaction in cold and arid regions, and short-term climate prediction research and results transformation. He has presided over 2 key projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 1 international (regional) cooperation project, and 6 general projects; He has participated in the completion of a number of national '973' projects (national key basic research and development plan) and meteorological industry special projects.

 

(Wang Chenghai is on the right)

 

 

       He often calculates and derives every important formula on the blackboard, and works with the students at the same time to manually calculate the key examples. Wang Chenghai attaches great importance to summing up experience in teaching practice, exploring teaching rules, and combining scientific research results with teaching in time to improve teaching quality.

       'Numerical Weather Forecasting' is the main course for undergraduates majoring in atmospheric sciences. This course requires students to have a high level of mathematical foundation and programming ability. Many students are afraid of difficulties and can't figure out their clues. In order to help the students, Wang Chenghai summarized a 'three-three' teaching mode that organically combines professional learning, scientific research, and practice. On the one hand, he helps students clarify 'what are the foundations that you should master immediately, which are the key points that need to be carefully considered, and which are the difficulties that need to be reviewed and mastered repeatedly' for the content of each chapter, so that students can have a clearer understanding of the professional knowledge. On the other hand, he will encourage students to actively participate in various practical activities, so that they will gradually enter the door of scientific research in the process of practice. “We have organized digital earth extracurricular activities among undergraduates, who are interested in numerical prediction and climate system. Students can form a team to write their own research proposal, and if we think the proposal is more feasible, we will give them some appropriate rewards.'

       In order to make the communication between teachers and students more convenient, he led the teaching team to build the 'WeChat' and 'MOOC' teaching platforms for the 'Numerical Weather Forecast' course. Through the development of online and offline mixed teaching, teaching activities are carried out in groups such as group discussion and extracurricular practical teaching activities. This model effectively combines the key and difficult points of teachers in class with students' self-study, and promotes the integration of students' theoretical knowledge and practice. Since 2008, Wang Chenghai has led the team to compile the textbook 'Atmospheric Numerical Model and Simulation' based on the characteristics of the courses and the learning situation of students, combined with the frontier hot issues of international numerical weather forecasting, which provides a systematic and comprehensive teaching and scientific research in the field of atmospheric numerical weather.

       In 2019, he led the team to film the 'Numerical Weather Forecast' MOOC and put it online. Because everyone is not familiar with this kind of teaching method without students on site, and they have not mastered the rules of video shooting, the quality of the courses taken for the first time is not high. We all felt unsatisfied and took another shot. The teaching plan and important and difficult points of this course were made by us after repeated discussions. 'After the MOOC went online, they guided the young teachers of the team to compile the textbook 'Basics of Numerical Weather Forecast' to meet the needs of blended teaching, which was approved by the teaching team of higher education institutions in Gansu Province to continue to improve the content of the course and the quality of the teaching.

 

 

       In Wang Chenghai's view, it is extremely important and difficult to guide students on the road of scientific research. 'In my case, strictness is the first thing, but in many cases, it is really necessary to pay attention to methods.' He often gets along with students as a friend, telling interesting, vivid and profound life philosophy in the form of stories. He has never been stingy with his feelings and energy. He often revises a paper for a student until late at night, and he also interviews students on academic issues during weekends and holidays.

       Wang Chenghai is strict with students and often reminds them: “Do more research and ask why, that is why do you do it? What is the purpose and significance?” Xu Dong, a 2013 master student, says, “When I first wrote an article, I wrote it irregularly because I had no experience, but Mr. Wang patiently helped me revise it, and even the punctuation. When I got the revised article, it is full of traces of red revisions.” The teacher's seriousness and patience made Xu Dong more aware of the sacredness and meticulousness of scientific research, and will always encourage him to polish each article with a serious attitude in the future.

       Zhang Shengning, a 2019 postgraduate student who went on a field trip with Wang Chenghai, was also deeply impressed by the teacher's seriousness. 'On the way to collect soil samples, Mr. Wang was in the car observing the undulating terrain, patchy snow and the chaotic whirlwind on the ground of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at the same time discussing scientific issues related to it with us. This spirit made me realize that ‘knowing everything is learning'.'

       In fact, scientific research is not smooth, but Wang Chenghai never decreases the demands on students because of the difficulties on this road. In the weekly group meeting report, Wang Chenghai asked the students to summarize their week’s work in one sentence, “When doing research, you will concentrate on solving a small problem at each stage, which can be summarized in one sentence. At that time, you have actually found the core work you did in the previous stage.' In his view, when you can summarize the work in one sentence, you can also use three or two sentences, or even more words to describe the situation. Then you can master the entire research work systematically.

       The 2015 doctoral student Wu Di encountered bottlenecks at the beginning of the research. “In the summer of 2015, I encountered problems when analyzing the mechanism of convective precipitation and could not be solved. Teacher Wang asked me to take a walk with him on the campus, which inspired me. I remember his ideas for scientific research and how to find and solve problems. I remember all his words and sentences of the day.' Such a plain and easy way of guidance made Wu Di gradually become more interested in scientific research. 'Because I love the changing clouds in the sky. I always look up at the sky when I walk.'

       'Every time I go abroad to attend a conference, I always encounter students who come to say hello to me. This is very surprising and moving to me.' In Wang Chenghai's view, he is not a 'popular' teacher. I am very strict with students.” Sun Jianqi, a 1997 grade student, was one of the students instructed by Wang Chenghai. “We have a lot of communications, and I don’t remember it very much. The most impressive are three times. I asked him to have a deep discussion about the thesis. It was very impressive.' Under the strict requirements of Wang Chenghai, he completed his undergraduate thesis. Until now, he has become a researcher at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the winner of the National Outstanding Youth Fund. He still sighs when he sees the teacher, 'Fortunately, Mr. Wang gave such strict guidance.'

       'Teachers should have a broad mind, care about the country from a professional perspective, and do the contribution to the society.' This is the motto that Wang Chenghai often says. Although he has reached the sixtieth birthday, when he talks about the future, his eyes are still full of determination. He hopes to be able to write the name of Lanzhou University in China’s independent research and development of the earth system model, “The weather forecast we listen to now is mainly based on European and American numerical models. We need to spend a lot of money to buy it every year. We still hope to build an earth system model that belongs to China through my own efforts.'