Orion Crest, Series_2

Chapter 51: Knowledge is the greatest wealth

　　The relocation of the instruments to the Institute's building was basically completed, however, for the blueprint in Orion's mind about the Gordon Institute for Advanced Studies, everything had just begun.

　　Now, there was only one Institute for Computational Materials in the whole institute, and he still needed to work hard to turn this blueprint into reality.

　　With his most capable assistant Toby, Orion walked around the brand new research building, familiarising himself with the surroundings while saying in a chatty tone.

　　"How does it feel to be moving into a new home?"

　　Toby chuckled, "The lab is much more spacious, just a little too few people."

　　Hearing this, Orion smiled. "Soon we'll be expanding with a bunch of researchers to fill the place up." With the aura of the Nobel Prize, coupled with the high-end instruments all over the lab building, he would soon be able to attract a large number of researchers to work for him.

　　Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the director's office, overlooking the entire institute, Orion said ambitiously. "The whole institute has only completed the first phase of the project, and there are still three more phases to be built behind it, not only in materials science, but also in mathematics and physics, whether it's hardware or software, we will aim for the world's first-class level!"

　　Toby: "Better than CERN?"

　　Orion: "That's for sure."

　　Toby joked, "You're really going to build a Hadron Collider?"

　　Orion laughed, "There's that idea, but it's not something that can be built in the city, and we don't have that kind of time and energy at this stage."

　　However, once the project on controlled fusion was finished and accepted, there would not be any worries about such funding. At that time, whether it was to build a hadron collider or launch a satellite in the sky to collect dark matter, as long as he had the idea, he would surely be supported.

　　Toby didn't consider things that far away and said in surprise. "I'm afraid that thing will cost a lot, it's going to be hundreds of millions, the question is where will the money come from?"

　　"Knowledge is the greatest wealth, our research itself is creating wealth." Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Orion paused for a moment and continued.

　　"Arrange a meeting with all the researchers!"

......

　　"That's all?" Looking at the empty conference room, Orion was a bit disappointed. When he held a lecture at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the scene was so crowded that those who couldn't squeeze into the lecture hall even sat in the corridor. Now, there were only about twenty people in the conference room.

　　The projector turned on and Orion cleared his throat, "As you may have heard, the Controlled Fusion Project has officially settled in Gordon."

　　As Orion spoke the words, a riotous sound came from the room, although some rumours had been heard before, apparently 'being confirmed by Orion in person' was even more shocking.

　　"...... Some of you may be asking in your mind, what does this have to do with you, after all, most of you are researchers in materials science, and even if there are those who are doing condensed matter physics research, they have nothing to do with plasma physics or nuclear engineering."

　　"However, breakthroughs in energy technology are inseparable from advances in materials science. We need larger magnetic fields to confine the plasma, and a firmer first wall to withstand the light and heat of fusion reactions."