8月26日，中国日报第7版“小康路上的外国人”栏目以“New lab a formula for   success”为题，报道西安交大航天学院外籍教授陶益壮的科研故事，现将全文转载如下：

Marie-Jean Thoraval has recently been kept busy by the relocation of his   laboratory to the new campus of Xi’an Jiaotong University in Shaanxi
province.

His current lab, located on the Xingqing campus of the university in      downtown Xi’an, the capital of the province, is 70 square meters.The  new lab in the Western China Science & Technology Innovation Harbor in the    Xixian New Area of Xi’an, is more than double that at 150 square meters.

The harbor is a national project established by the Ministry of Education
and the Shaanxi government intended to facilitate the university’s
implementation of key national initiatives, including the Belt and Road   Initiative.

With the goal of becoming a worldclass center for scientific research,    talent nurturing and the transfer of advances in science and technology,
the harbor has attracted a large number of foreign professors and         researchers.

Thoraval, a professor of fluid dynamics from France, is one of them.

“Apart from a bigger space and having newer equipment, we’ll also have  more chances to cooperate with other research teams,organizations and     universities. I really look forward to our work there,” he said in fluent Mandarin.

The 36-year-old started as a researcher at the university in September
2015, after studying and doing research work in Saudi Arabia and the      Netherlands.

Thoraval was eager for an opportunity to work in China and heard that the university was recruiting young professors and researchers, and would     support them in the establishment of a fluid dynamics laboratory at the
School of Aerospace Engineering. He applied and became a professor the    next year.

Using high-speed imaging techniques to study multiphase flows,drops and   bubbles, Thoraval said his research could be applied in areas such as 3D  printing, needlefree injections, water treatment and cooling systems.

However, he added it might take a long time for his research to be applied in everyday scenarios.“Basic study is very important. It’s like turning on the light in a dark room, it lays the foundation for further studies,” he said.

What pleased him is that the university and the Xi’an city and Shaanxi   governments all paid great attention to his research and offered strong   support. After five years’ painstaking effort,Thoraval and his colleagues have achieved their goal and formed a fluid dynamics laboratory at the
university’s School of Aerospace Engineering.

“We have started to make achievements in this research field. The first
seven months of the year have seen six of our papers published in core
international journals,” Thoraval said with pride.

Over the past five years, he has also integrated into life in Xi’an and  witnessed many changes in the city, which has a long history and rich     culture.

“In the past, it was not very convenient to come to Xi’an, as people
had to spend at least 30 hours on a train from Beijing to get here,” he
said. “Now the time has been reduced to about five hours as highspeed
trains have been put into operation between the two cities.”

He added that only five years ago,the innovation harbor was still only
an idea.

The newly completed campus covers an area of 23 square kilometers,and     students have been living and studying there for a year.

Thoraval said he has high expectations about his future work at the new   lab.“I hope that we can attract more talented people to join us, so that we can conduct more research and boost the development of fluid dynamics  research in China,” Thoraval said.