'Trust that the deep blue will meet you halfway'

On a modest 500-metric-ton research vessel bobbing off Zhanjiang in Guangdong province in 2022, Zhang Fan watched carefully as her team hauled instruments back onto the deck. The devices had spent weeks in total darkness several kilometers below the surface of the South China Sea, quietly recording signals from deep within the Earth.

"When every single instrument came back intact, it felt like the ocean had returned a favor," said Zhang, now a principal investigator at the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The ocean-bottom electromagnetic instruments used on the voyage were domestically developed. By analyzing the data they collected, Zhang's team provided new evidence to explain how tectonic plates move across Earth's surface and verified the reliability of the domestically developed equipment.

The experience left a deep impression on Zhang, as the breakthrough did not come easily or follow a straight path.

Born in 1986 in Pingyao county in Jinzhong, Shanxi province, Zhang described her childhood as one of "benign neglect" — a freedom her parents gave her to explore and choose her own path.

That freedom guided her choices and shaped her future career. While her peers often talked about how knowledge could change one's fate, Zhang preferred to wrestle with bigger questions, such as the meaning of life.

Her bachelor's studies at China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) in Hubei province opened a door to the depths of the Earth. In the classroom, she gained systematic knowledge of Earth's structure, the origins of minerals and rocks, and geological evolution. In the field, she learned to identify ores by hand and observe how gemstones formed within their host rocks, cultivating a fundamental interest in geology.

While many of her classmates chose business as a second major to prepare for lucrative careers, Zhang followed her curiosity and studied English; a decision that later laid a foundation for her studies abroad. For her, taking the graduate entrance examination was less about launching a career than about buying more time to read, think and make sense of her own life.