朱棣文, 美籍华裔物理学家，斯坦福大学教授，1993年当选美国国家科学院院士，1998年当选中国科学院外籍院士。朱棣文教授1994年获美国物理学会在激光科学领域颁发的亚瑟萧洛奖和美国光学学会颁发的威廉梅格斯奖。1997年，他与美国科学家William D.Phillips和法国科学家Claude Cohen－Tannoudji因发明用激光冷却进行低温下俘获原子的方法获诺贝尔物理学奖。曾任美国能源部部长。
诺贝尔奖获得者朱棣文教授
尊敬的Faust校长，哈佛校董会各位董事，监事会各位监事，各位老师，各位家长，各位朋友，最重要的是，今天的各位毕业生：
感谢大家邀我共享今日之盛典。
我不能肯定我能否堪当哈佛大学毕业典礼演讲嘉宾这一高规格的重任。去年，亿万富翁小说家J.K.Rowling女士登台演讲，其学生时代主修古典文学。前年，百亿万富翁，痴狂电脑的慈善家Bill Gates先生站在这里。悲催的是，你们今年看到的是我。我虽富裕不足，但痴狂有余。
哈佛大学授我荣誉学位，不胜感激，意义于我，诸位实难想象。诸位今天早上或有耳闻，我乃家中学术上的“失败者”。我的一兄一弟，皆毕业于哈佛。兄长Gilbert先获河畔另一所大学（麻省理工学院）物理学博士，后来获得哈佛医学/哲学博士；小弟Morgan Chu毕业于哈佛法学院，现供职哈佛监事会。当我获得诺奖的时候，我以为母上大人定会欣喜万分，然而并非如此。获闻得奖当日早晨，我打电话报喜，母亲听后只说：“不错，但是你什么时候再回家看我？”如今三兄弟中的最后一位亦获哈佛学位，或许母亲终于可心满意足。
在哈佛大学毕业典礼上演讲的另一个难题是，部分学子会觉得今天的内容我以前讲过，别人也讲过。恳请诸位谅解，理由有二：
其一，想要人听进去, 老调重谈很必要。
其二，凡借鉴前人经验者，必取精用弘。
18岁就毕业于哈佛的爱默生曾说：“我所有最好的思想均被古人所‘窃’。”毕加索也曾言：“优秀艺术家，借之；伟大艺术家，窃之。”就毕业典礼，演讲人何故被另立高杆？
此外，有点讽刺的是，我虽今日在此向哈佛毕业生发表演说，但若当年斗胆申请哈佛，定会被拒。我夫人Jean曾任斯坦福大学招生办主任。她坦言，我若当年申请斯坦福，定被她拒之门外。我将此演讲稿给她过目，她对我使用"rejected(拒绝)"一词强烈反对，盖因她从不“拒绝”申请者。其拒信一般写成：“我们无法为你提供入学机会。”我很难理解这两种表达的本质区别，窃以为众名校的招办主任实乃“拒办主任”。当然，自我推销仍需苦心钻研。
此次演讲，我将沿用毕业典礼演说之古典奏鸣曲式。适才为“第一乐章”，轻松愉悦之闲谈，随后，来几条上杆子的忠言。忠言少被重视，鲜被牢记，从未被实践。就如Oscar Wilde所言：“良言这东西，唯一能做的就是传递下去，自己从来不用。”请听忠言。
忠言一：心怀感恩之心。每次庆功之时，都要感谢那些帮助过你的人。感恩助你之父母与亲朋，感恩予你灵感之教授，尤其是感恩课程讲授不够精彩的老师，因为他们促你自学成才。漫漫人生路，自学能力实乃博雅教育之要义，成功之关键。拥抱同窗好友！感恩他们与你一次次秉烛夜谈，于你求学之路启迪无限，千金难换。当然，勿忘感恩母校哈佛，你若忘记，校友会会提醒你。
忠言二：未来多慷慨仁厚。凡磋商谈判，切勿不依不饶，榨尽所有小利小益。谨记合作中，功劳并非恒量。合作成功，人人有功。
电影《我的朋友叫哈维》中，Jimmy Stewart所饰Elwood P.Dowd，深谙此义。模仿能力有限，我努力还原。其言：“多年前，母亲曾多次告诉我，Elwood，在这个世界上，你要么做个能人，要么做个好人。”我做能人已多年……但是，我还是建议你们做好人。欢迎转发此观点啊。
忠言三：人生路上，务必心有所向。如没有，继续找。生命如此短暂，你必须要对一样东西倾注深情。当我跟你们一样年轻时，我矢志成为一名物理学家。大学毕业后，我在加州大学伯克利分校攻读研究生和博后8年，然后在贝尔实验室工作9年。岁月荏苒，我思、我恋与我享皆物理学是也。
最后一项忠言：个人追求虽重要，人生切勿止于此。白发苍苍、垂垂老矣之时，回望人生，定为自己所做的而自豪。自豪未必源自“名”，也未必源自“利”，定源自那因你而改变的生命，因你而改变的事物。
在贝尔实验室呆了9年后，我决定离开那座温暖、舒适的象牙塔，去往我认为的“现实世界”——大学。贝尔实验室，就像大家对Mary Poppins的评价一样，“在各个方面近乎完美”。但我愿为世界留下更多，不只是写写文章。我想去教书，我想培养科学领域的传承人。
我的朋友Ted Geballe，也是我斯坦福的杰出同事。他早我几年从伯克利到贝尔实验室，再到斯坦福。剖析动因，他一语道破：“在大学里教书最美好的是与学生相伴。青年学子生机勃勃，激情洋溢，思维开放，未经风霜。或许他们自己没有意识到，但他们确是这个世界最美好事物的受众者。人生思维开放、锐意创新的黄金阶段，非大学时期莫属。他们初入大学，笃信课本与权威，待发现课本与教师皆有局限，便尝试独立思考。届时，学生则为我师矣。”
我在贝尔实验室、斯坦福和伯克利的学生、同侪及同道，皆为翘楚，善思博学。其中30余位前小组成员已为教授，供职于包括哈佛在内的世界一流专业研究机构。与其交往，受益匪浅。即使现在，周末偶尔上网，我和仍从事生物物理学研究的组员隔空交流。
我身存报世之意，踏上为师之途。得之多于予之。就此引出我演讲最后一章。此章始于一项非凡的科学发现以及随之而来的新挑战。其为战之号令，变之号令。
数十载时光荏苒，全球气候变化从未停歇。60万年中，地球经历6次冰河期。而最近研究数据显示，气候变化愈演愈烈。如今，9月北极冰盖的面积仅为50年前的一半。直接测量海平面始于1870年，如今海平面上升的速度已是昔时初测的5倍。一项非凡的科学发现就此诞生：人类历史上科学第一次预测出我们的行为将会如何影响50年、100年以后的世界。究其原因，自工业革命以来，人类释放到大气中的二氧化碳持续增加，地球气温大约上升0.8摄氏度。即使我们立即停止所有温室气体排放，气温仍将上升约1摄氏度。为什么呢？让深海变暖需要几十年，气温才能达到新的平衡。
如果人类依旧我行我素，根据联合国政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）预测，到本世纪末气温将有一半的可能性上升超过5摄氏度。切莫小觑这区区5度，可知上一次冰河期全球气温仅比现在低6度。这一时期，从加拿大到美国俄亥俄州和宾夕法尼亚州大部分地区，冰川终年覆盖绵延千里。反之，全球气温若上升5度，地球将会是一个完全不同的世界。全球气温变化如此迅猛，包括人类在内的许多物种都将难以适应。比如，有人告诉我，在一个温暖得多的世界，昆虫个头会明显变大。我想知道身边这个飞来飞去的嗡嗡之虫，是不是个“先锋”，太糟糕了。
我们还面临另一个幽灵——非线性“气候引爆点”，地球将面临更严峻的变化。就此仅举一例，永久冻土层的融化。永久冻土层历经千万年累积而成，含有大量冰冻有机物。如果冻土融化，微生物会突然活跃起来，造成冻土层中有机物迅速腐烂。众所周知，零度以上和零度以下的生物活动迥然不同。冷冻食物即便在冰柜长时间保存仍可食用，一旦解冻，食物很快腐烂变质。多少甲烷和二氧化碳可能将从腐烂的永久冻土中释放出来？哪怕只有少部分碳被释放出来，都或将超过人类工业革命以来释放的所有温室气体。一旦开始，就会发生失控效应。
气候问题非人类发展之初衷。因化石能源，我们方能冬暖夏凉，逃离暗夜，羁旅行舟，遍及天涯。能源乃盛世基石，今日繁荣怎会轻言弃之。美国以3%世界人口竭25%世界能源。对比一下，世上仍有16亿人用不上电，亿万土灶尽燃柴火粪土。此等盛世繁华，发展中国家民众却求之不得。
这是一个两难困境。凡父母之爱，天下大同。舐犊情深，故而殚精竭虑；一心爱子，必当为之计深远，此小家之爱，天性使然。逆转气候变化之恶果，非百年不足以彰显！我等寰球民众，可愿为生存之所、为后世子孙赴汤蹈火、全力以赴？
我虽担心，但还满怀希望，我们将会解决问题。我继任劳伦斯·伯克利国家实验室主任，部分是因为想招揽学界翘楚，帮助应对气候变化之困。履职4年有余，是该实验室78年历史中任期最短的主任。离任之际，一些能源机构相继在伯克利实验室和加州伯克利分校成立，我心甚慰。
有幸成为奥巴马政府一员，愿助力美国及全世界踏上可持续能源发展之途。今时即良机，不可错失。总统先生近日之言，尽显乐观与机遇，非黯淡与失望。我深以为然。须知前途令人生畏，但我们能够成功，也一定会成功。
我们已解部分难题，节能提效，立竿见影，效果斐然。节能之举，随手可行。例如，建筑物有望通过投资降低80%能耗，不出15年成本即可收回。而今建筑能耗占总能耗40%，转变成节能建筑，则可减少1/3碳排量。
为筑美国繁荣，我们力争革新利器。始创新法，有效利用太阳能、风能、核能，隔离捕获发电厂排放的二氧化碳。改良生物燃料、推广电动汽车，尽少受制于外国石油。
未来数十年，油价上涨，碳限排收紧，似成定局。我们有机会引领发展新工业革命。冰球名将Wayne Gretzky被问及如何在冰上跑位，答曰：“我滑向冰球要去的方向，而非它去过的地方。”美国也应这么做。
奥巴马政府夯实新基，促美国繁荣、促能源可持续。但是我们并非无所不能，仍需大家献策献力。此时此刻，我请求你们，哈佛毕业生们，加入我们。诸位是未来知识领袖，应了解当前危局，运用知识指导行动。诸位是未来科学家和工程师，我请求你们，给我们更优秀的技术解决方案。诸位是未来经济学家和政治科学家，我请求你们，出台更好的方针政策。诸位是未来商业领袖，我请求你们，把可持续发展贯彻到企业经营的方方面面。
最后，心存善念，以人为本。气候变化最辛辣讽刺在于，最受害之人恰是最无辜之人——世界上最穷困之人和尚未出生之人。
至此最后乐章的尾声，想与诸位分享两位人道主义大家之言。
第一段话出自马丁·路德·金于1967年呼吁结束越南战争时所作讲演，恰适今日之气候危机。
“我呼吁世人团结一心，摒弃部落、种族、阶级、国籍的隔阂。其实质即呼吁对全人类包罗一切、无条件之大爱。此概念频受误解、屡经误读，曾被信奉尼采哲学之徒看作软弱、胆怯，而弃之如敝屣，而今乃人类生存之必需。朋友们，明日即今朝，此为事实。在此危急时刻，我等须尽心竭力，切莫他日追悔莫及。”
第二段话出自William Faulkner。1950年12月10月，他在诺奖晚宴致辞中，谈到身处核毁灭阴影之下的世界，人道主义者有何可为。
“我相信人类能忍耐，更能获胜。万物中人类之所以不朽，非唯其无穷尽发声，而因其有灵魂，有同情心，有忍耐力，有牺牲精神。书写凡此种种，于诗人、作家而言，是责任，也是殊荣，能提振士气，唤起人类往日荣耀——勇气、荣誉、希望、自豪、同情、怜悯和奉献，以助人类经受考验。”
诸位优秀学子，海阔凭鱼跃，天高任鸟飞。追求心之所想，仍心怀世界，积极呐喊，各施所长，勿论大小。若得此愿，此生无憾矣。
最后，请接受我对各位毕业生最热烈的祝贺。愿诸位成功，愿诸位保护、拯救我们的星球，为今日之少年，亦为明日普天下之所有少年。
附：英文原文（根据朱棣文教授现场演讲视频整理）
2009 Harvard Commencement Address
Secretary Steven Chu
Thursday,June 4,2009
Madam President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, faculty, family, friends, and, most importantly, today's graduates:
Thank you for letting me share this wonderful day with you.
I am not sure I can live up to the high standards of Harvard Commencement speakers. Last year, J.K.Rowling, the billionaire novelist, who started as a classics student, graced this podium. The year before, Bill Gates, the mega-billionaire philanthropist and computer nerd stood here. Today, sadly, you have me. I am not a billionaire, but at least I am a nerd.
I am grateful to receive an honorary degree from Harvard, an honor that means more to you than you might care to imagine. As you may have heard this morning, I was the academic failure of my family. Both my brothers have degrees from Harvard. My older brother Gilbert, after getting a Ph.D. in physics from that other school down the river, got an M.D. - Ph.D. from Harvard while my younger brother Morgan Chu who you just heard name today at the Board of Overseers has a Law Degree. When I was awarded a Nobel Prize, I thought my mother would be pleased. Not so. I called her on the morning of being announced, she replied, "That’s nice, but when are you going to visit me next?" Now, as the last brother with a degree from Harvard, maybe, at last, she will be pleased.
Another difficulty with giving a Harvard commencement address is that some students may disapprove of the fact that I will borrow material from my previous speeches as well as from others. I ask that you forgive me for two reasons.
First, in order to be heard, it is important to deliver the same message more than once.
Second, authors who borrow from others are following in the footsteps of the best. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who graduated from Harvard at the age of 18, noted "All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients." Picasso declared "Good artists borrow. Great artists steal." Why should commencement speakers be held to a higher standard?
I also want to point out the irony of speaking to graduates of an institution that would have rejected me, had I the chutzpah to apply. I am married to "Dean Jean",a former dean of admissions at Stanford. She assures me that she would have rejected me, if given the chance. When I showed her a draft of this speech, she objected strongly to my use of the word "rejected".She never rejected applicants; her letters stated that "we are unable to offer admission." I have great difficulty understanding the difference. After all, deans of admissions of highly selective schools are in reality, "deans of rejection".Clearly, I have a lot to learn about marketing.
So my address will follow the classical sonata form of commencement addresses. The first movement, just presented, were light-hearted remarks. This next movement consists of unsolicited advice, which is rarely valued, seldom remembered, never followed. As Oscar Wilde said, "The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself." So, here comes the advice.
First, every time you celebrate an achievement, be thankful to those who made it possible. Thank your parents and friends who supported you, thank your professors who were inspirational, and especially thank the other professors whose less-than-brilliant lectures forced you to teach yourself. Going forward, the ability to teach yourself is the hallmark of a great liberal arts education and will be the key to your success. To your fellow students who have added immeasurably to your education during those late night discussions, hug them. Also, of course, thank Harvard. Should you forget, there's an alumni association to remind you.
Second, in your future life, cultivate a generous spirit. In all negotiations, don't bargain for the last, little advantage. Leave the change on the table. In your collaborations, always remember that "credit" is not a conserved quantity. In a successful collaboration, everybody gets 90 percent of the credit.
Jimmy Stewart, as Elwood P. Dowd in the movie "Harvey" got it exactly right. Now, forgive me, I don’t really…cannot really imitate Jimmy Stewart very well, but, "Years ago my mother used to say to me, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be ... she always used to call me Elwood ... in this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant." Well, for years I was smart ... I recommend pleasant. You may quote me on that.
My third piece of advice is as follows: As you begin this new stage in your lives, follow your passion. If you don't have a passion, don't be satisfied until you find one. Life is too short to go through it without caring deeply about something. When I was your age, I was incredibly single-minded in my goal to be a physicist. After college, I spent eight years as a graduate student and postdoc at Berkeley, and then nine years at Bell Labs. During that time, my central focus and professional joy was physics.
Here is my final advice. Pursuing a personal passion is important, but it should not be your only goal. When you are old and gray, and look back on your life, you will want to be proud of what you have done. The source of that pride won't be the things you have acquired or the recognition you have received. It will be the lives you have touched and the difference you have made.
After nine years at Bell Labs, I decided to leave that warm, cozy ivory tower for what I considered to be the "real world",a university. Bell Labs, to quote what was said about Mary Poppins, was "practically perfect in every way", but I wanted to leave behind something more than just scientific articles. I wanted to teach and I wanted to give birth to my own set of scientific children. Ted Geballe, a friend and distinguished colleague of mine at Stanford, who went from Berkeley to Bell Labs to Stanford years earlier, described our motives best, and I quote:
"The best part of working at a university is the students. They come in fresh, enthusiastic, open to ideas, unscarred by the battles of life. They don't realize it, but they're the recipients of the best our society can offer. If a mind is ever free to be creative, that's the time. They come in believing textbooks are authoritative, but eventually they figure out that textbooks and professors don't know everything, and then they start to think on their own. Then, I begin learning from them."
My students, post-doctoral fellows, and researchers who worked with me at Bell Labs, Stanford, and Berkeley have been extraordinary. Over 30 former group members are now professors, many at the best research institutions in the world, including Harvard. I have learned much from them. And even now, in rare moments on weekends, the remaining members of my biophysics group meet with me in the ether world of cyberspace.
I began teaching with the idea of giving back, but I received more than I gave. This brings me to the final movement of this speech. It begins with a story about an extraordinary scientific discovery and a new dilemma that it poses. It's a call to arms and about making a difference. So here is the movement.
In the last several decades, our climate has been changing. Climate change is not new: the Earth went through six ice ages in the past 600,000 years. However, recent measurements show that the climate has begun to change rapidly. The size of the North Polar Ice Cap in the month of September is only half the size it was a mere 50 years ago. The sea level which has been rising since direct measurements began in 1870 is now five times faster than it was at the beginning of recorded measurements. Here's the remarkable scientific discovery. For the first time in human history, science is now making predictions of how our actions will affect the world 50 and 100 years from now. These changes are due to an increase in carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The Earth has warmed up by roughly 0.8 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the Revolution. There is already approximately a 1 degree rise built into the system, even if we stop all greenhouse gas emissions today. Why? It will be decades to warm up the deep oceans before the temperature reaches a new equilibrium.
If the world continues on a business-as-usual path, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that there is a fifty-fifty chance the temperature will exceed 5 degrees by the end of this century. This increase may not sound like much, but let me remind you that during the last ice age, the world was only 6 degrees colder. During this time, most of Canada and the United States down to Ohio and Pennsylvania were covered year round by a glacier. A world 5 degrees warmer will be very different. The change will be so rapid that many species, including humans, will have a hard time adapting. I've been told for example, that, in a much warmer world, insects were bigger. I wonder if this thing buzzing around is a precursor. Too bad.
We also face the specter of nonlinear "tipping points" that may cause much more severe changes. An example of a tipping point is the thawing of the permafrost. The permafrost contains immense amounts of frozen organic matter that have been accumulating for millennia. If the soil melts, microbes will spring to life and cause this debris to rot. The difference in biological activity below freezing and above freezing is something we are all familiar with. Frozen food remains edible for a very long time in the freezer, but once thawed, it spoils quickly. How much methane and carbon dioxide might be released from the rotting permafrost? If even a fraction of the carbon is released, it could be greater than all the greenhouse gases we have released since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Once started, a runaway effect could occur.
The climate problem is the unintended consequence of our success. We depend on fossil energy to keep our homes warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and lit at night; we use it to travel across town and across continents. Energy is a fundamental reason for the prosperity we enjoy, and we will not surrender this prosperity. The United States has 3 percent of the world population, and yet, we consume 25 percent of the energy. By contrast, there are 1.6 billion people who don't have access to electricity. Hundreds of millions of people still cook with twigs or dung. The life we enjoy may not be within easy reach of many in the developing world, but it is within sight, and they want what we have.
Here is the dilemma. How much are we willing to invest, as a world society, to mitigate the consequences of climate change that will not be realized for at least 100 years? Deeply rooted in all cultures, is the notion of generational responsibility. Parents work hard so that their children will have a better life. Climate change will affect the entire world, but our natural focus is on the welfare of our immediate families. Can we, as a world society, meet our responsibility to future generations?
While I am worried, I am hopeful we will solve this problem. I became the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in part because I wanted to enlist some of the best scientific minds to help battle against climate change. I was there only four and a half years, the shortest serving director in the 78-year history of the Lab, but when I left, a number of very exciting energy institutes at the Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley had been established.
I am extremely privileged to be part of the Obama administration. If there was ever a time to help steer America and the world towards a path of sustainable energy, now is the time. The message the President is delivering is not one of doom and gloom, but of optimism and opportunity. And I share this optimism. The task ahead is daunting, but we can and will succeed.
We know some of the answers already. There are immediate and significant savings in energy efficiency and conservation. Energy efficiency is not just low-hanging fruit; it is fruit lying on the ground. For example, we have the potential to make buildings 80 percent more efficient with investments that will pay for themselves in less than 15 years. Buildings consume 40 percent of the energy we use, and a transition to energy efficient buildings will cut our carbon emissions by one-third.
We are revving up the remarkable American innovation machine that will be the basis of a new prosperity. We will invent much improved methods to harness the sun, the wind, nuclear power, and capture and sequester the carbon dioxide emitted from our power plants. Advanced bio-fuels and the electrification of personal vehicles will make us less dependent on foreign oil.
In the coming decades, we will almost certainly face higher oil prices and be in a carbon-constrained economy. We have the opportunity to lead development of a new, industrial revolution. The great hockey player, Wayne Gretzky, when asked, how he positions himself on the ice, he replied, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it’s been." America should do the same.
The Obama administration is laying a new foundation for a prosperous and sustainable energy future, but we don't have all the answers. That's where you come in. In this address, I am asking you, the Harvard graduates, to join us. As our future intellectual leaders, take time to learn more about what's at stake, and then act on that knowledge. As future scientists and engineers, I ask you to give us better technology solutions. As future economists and political scientists, I ask you to create better policy options. As future business leaders, I ask that you make sustainability an integral part of your business. Finally, as humanists, I ask that you speak to our common humanity. One of the cruelest ironies about climate change is that the ones who will be hurt the most are the most innocent: the world’s poorest and those yet to be born.
The coda to this last movement is borrowed from two humanists.
The first quote is from Martin Luther King when he spoke on ending the war in Vietnam in 1967, His message seems so fitting for today's climate crisis. I quote:
"This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of man ... We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late."
The final message is from William Faulkner. On December 10th, 1950, his Nobel Prize banquet speech was about the role of humanists in a world facing potential nuclear holocaust. I quote:
"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past."
Graduates, you have an extraordinary role to play in our future. As you pursue your private passions, I hope you will also develop a passion and a voice to help the world in ways both large and small. Nothing will give you greater satisfaction.
Please accept my warmest congratulations. May you prosper, may you help preserve and save our planet, for your children and all future children of the world.
