What does an ecologist do? Everyone may have a different answer to this question. On June 5, it was our honor to have ecologist and chief engineer of the Institute for Urban Risk Management of Tongji University, Dr. Qu Mingzhi, give a lecture to SHSID students on what it is like to be an ecologist.

Dr. Qu started his lecture with an interesting question: Why was I born to be an ecologist? Students were amused by his humor. Then, he shared three stories to demonstrate that research can come from whimsical ideas: a 3-minute waste battery induced water contamination test, teaching bacteria to count, and even studying why insects can crawl on branches quickly without falling down. Research projects from these ideas were not only challenging and fun but ended up winning international awards. After sharing stories, Dr. Qu started talking about ecology. Ecology has changed greatly during the past decades in terms of what the field studies—from conservation of threatened species in the past, to protection of degraded ecosystems nowadays. The development of ecology was propelled largely by a new awareness of the connections between human and natural systems, the availability of big data, and advancements in technology. For example, inspecting all of the rivers in the Xuhui District takes two or three days for a worker, while an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) can finish the same job within 40 minutes and submit real-time reports on issues that require attention. The goal of ecology is not only to understand the relationships between living things and their environments, but also to use these relationships to help address various complex and challenging environmental problems. Solving these problems is not an easy task—even with the snap of Thanos’ fingers, which randomly destroyed half of the creatures living in the universe. Dr. Qu showed students why an ecological balance could be achieved by Thanos’ finger snap by using high school biology. At the end of the lecture, Dr. Qu gave the students hoping to become ecologists a few practical suggestions on how to prepare for future work, such as developing interdisciplinary problem-solving skills.

Dr. Qu’s outstanding research ability and his humorous lecture attracted many fans. Mona Wang from 11(7) said: “I used to consider research boring and repetitive. After this lecture, I found that whimsical ideas can develop into good projects. I was deeply impressed.” Emma Hui from class 9(2) said: “I didn’t expect this lecture to be so interesting. It made me understand more about ecologist’s work and gave me inspiration.” After the lecture, there were only 10 minutes remaining until 5th period. However, many students stayed to ask questions. This lecture explained ecologists’ work in a lively way, sparked students’ interest in research，and helped students interested in ecology prepare for their future career.

（Written by Chengbo Zhou       Pictures by Chengbo Zhou）