Doctorate student hides marriage proposal in thesis

Engineers have yet to build a reputation for being pros at romance, let alone those pursuing their PhDs, but a doctorate student in China might change that after leaving a hidden message on his thesis for his partner.

According to Times Higher Education, Rui Long, a PhD student in engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, showed a startling way to propose to his partner Panpan Mao in a subtly inserted message on the research paper.

The proposal was contained in the tail end of his paper, entitled “Performance analysis for minimally nonlinear irreversible refrigerators at finite cooling power”, in April.

“Rui Long wants to thank, in particular, the patience, care and support from Panpan Mao over the passed years. Will you marry me?” the paper states, alongside an acknowledgement of funding received.

https://twitter.com/jesswade/status/951497622300299266

The sweet message was highlighted on Twitter by Jess Wade, a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London.

“Romance is not dead, it’s just behind a paywall,” Wade said on the microblogging site.

On the outcome of the proposal, Rui Long confirmed his partner said “Yes”!

This is not the first time a doctorate candidate used an academic paper to pop the big question. In 2015, a paper published in Current Biology by Caleb Brown and Donald Henderson had a similar line hidden among details of a newly discovered horned dinosaur, Times Higher Education pointed out.

“CMB would specifically like to highlight the ongoing and unwavering support of Lorna O’Brien. Lorna, will you marry me?” one of the authors wrote in the acknowledgements.

O’Brien also said “Yes”.

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