Class of 2022 graduate and Duke Kunshan Running Club founder Haibei Zhang sees life as a race — and having reached the finish line of her own DKU experience wants to help future students maximize their time here.
As she prepares to start her Ph.D. in biophysics at the University of Chicago, Zhang shared five tips for thriving at Duke Kunshan. They are:
1/ Be bold — have the courage to explore the unknown, try out new things, challenge the status quo and face up to your own weaknesses.
2/ Be kind — it is important to be grateful for life and try to find beauty in it even in the face of difficulties and setbacks.
3/ Be happy — it helps if you are good at discovering the things that make you happy in life.
4/ Be yourself — nobody is perfect, the mistakes we make are great opportunities to improve ourselves.
5/ Be DKU — the most valuable skill learned over the four years is a pioneering spirit of turning dreams into reality. Innovate, dare to do and dare to be.
One of the areas in which Zhang herself trod new ground was in turning her newly found enthusiasm for running into a vibrant DKU community.
When starting her running habit as a freshman in 2018, she would often encounter other enthusiasts on campus. They soon started talking and the idea for founding the first DKU campus running club was born.
Through the efforts of Zhang and others, the club has organized many engaging and fun activities, including the Dianshan Lake and Ba Cheng 10 km running races, weekly laps in Dayu Bay and a 5 km virtual challenge.
In March 2021, inspired by the international running community Suzhou Striders, Haibei represented DKU’s Department of Athletics in co-organizing a series of park run events in Kunshan, which received a warm response locally.
Zhang staged five park runs with one event attracting over 100 participants.
“Running alone is a personal sport, while running with a group of people brings out a positive spirit of mutual motivation, inspiring and welcoming more people to take part,” said Zhang.
“Especially when everyone is affected by the COVID pandemic in one way or another, this great outdoor activity can enhance happiness and boost courage in life.”
Zhang sees parallels in the area of scientific exploration, which sometimes requires working independently but often the key to success is through team collaboration guided by research advisors.
She has identified three people in her academic life as “dream builders”.
One of those is her faculty research advisor Kai Huang, associate professor of physics. When Zhang worked on a microfluidic chip project, an important research experience during her undergraduate studies, Huang provided crucial support such as discussing possible solutions to problems. Zhang went on to study the subject as part of her Signature Work under the guidance of Huang.
Quoting ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi, Huang set out his expectations for Zhang’s research. “Act through non-action. Handle affairs through noninterference. Taste what has no taste,” Laozi wrote in his Taoism classic “The Way of Virtue”.
Huang said, “Researchers in the early stage usually focus on establishing their unique ‘way’.
“They will later find the ‘way’ of research by learning from their past failures because it requires them to constantly review how they have made breakthroughs by acting through non-action.”
Zhang said, “Without [Huang’s] patient guidance and extensive support, I couldn’t have grown up fast in academia.”
Christoph Schmidt, professor of biophysics at Duke University, is another of Zhang’s “dream builders”.
As a DKU student, she had the option to take Duke courses. She selected Professor Schmidt’s course and attended his research group meetings almost every week.
When Haibei was weighing her graduate program choices, Schmidt encouraged her to follow her original aspiration to become a researcher, and promised to keep their academic dialogue open even if she opted to study at other universities.
In her junior year, Haibei applied to the DKU GO-Flex study-away program and became an exchange student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
In addition to her studies, she participated in hiking, running and choir activities. The experience laid a solid foundation for her successful application to the Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago.
Zhang said the liberal arts education at DKU had provided her with a solid interdisciplinary approach to her studies, allowing her to explore the possibilities of carrying out research in greater depth with cross-disciplinary perspectives. At HKUST, she met Professor Qin Xu, the third “dream builder” in her research journey.
“Prof. Xu was my research advisor during my exchange at HKUST who happens to be a physics alumnus from the University of Chicago,” said Zhang.
“With his guidance and support, I built a mini workbench in the lab. Prof. Xu has provided me with many ideas and suggestions during my Ph.D. application.”
In addition to research and running, Haibei planned and participated in many other college activities. Soon after joining DKU, she founded the Hugather Club with fellow students, which offers a broad range of assistance to people in need from across the wider community.
They regularly visited elderly people at a residential care home near campus, chatting with them or providing entertainment through performances.
In sophomore year, Zhang served as a resident assistant, planning engaging and colorful activities on campus. She helped organized several events for international students to learn more about Chinese culture, including inviting the Henan Songshan Martial Arts Troupe to perform and teach kung fu on site, and asking experts to talk about the Chinese art of seal carving.
Looking to her future, Zhang hopes to apply the interdisciplinary thinking she acquired at DKU to her Ph.D. studies, and to further enhance her research skills at the University of Chicago. She harbors a long-term goal: to have her own lab and lead a research team in exciting projects.
Referring back to her love of running, Zhang said, “Sometimes I run with a few people. It was super fun and we run at a steady pace.
“Sometimes I just run alone. It’s just me on the road, without as much support and maybe I will run off course and fall.
“But no matter what, I need to stop to catch my breath and enjoy the scenery around me before moving on. After all, life for me is a long running race with myself.”
