Productivity has certainly increased with the lack of internet in Shanghai. Blocked sites: Facebook; Twitter; Blogger; Youtube; Wordpress. Google.com is also a bit peculiar, but google.ie appears to work fine. As it is my second trip to Fudan University, I feel like I am getting to know the place. Highlights: the college canteen consists of over a dozen counters, each serving a different type of food (my favourite is a big plate of vegetable egg fried rice for ~50p); the metro system has been extended to 10 lines, all air conditioned and costing 40p to travel around the city; free museums; 24 shopping malls; everyone being world-expo crazy.
In relation to science, I was fortunate enough to participate in a workshop on multiscale modelling organised by Xingao Gong and Hongjun Xiang at Fudan. I learned that ternary topological insulators are *the* hot topic in solid-state physics; the missing ingredient in the empirical B3LYP functional is an MP2 term; surface plasmons have a role to play in the spectroscopy of nanoparticles. I also had the opportunity to visit the brand new Laboratory for Polar Materials and Devices at East China Normal University: an impressive mix of crystal growth, characterisation and theory (an integrated “family”), with a strong focus on multiferroic oxides.
After Fudan, I will stop in Beijing for the ICSNN, and then finally Seoul for the ICPS: a Summer living out of a suitcase.