Li Siguang

Geologist Li Siguang (1889-1971), founder of China's geomechanics, made outstanding contribution to changing the situation of "oil-deficiency" in the country, enabling the large-scale development of oil fields to raise the country to the ranks of the world major oil producers.
A native of Huanggang, Hubei Province, Li studied in Japan and the United States in his early years. He became a geological professor at Peking University upon his return from abroad in 1920. After New China was founded, Li held the positions of deputy president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and minister of geology.

The geomechanics principles developed by Li Siguang advocates observation of the crustal movement so as to find the law in the geological movement and mineral deposits. The previous belief in "oil-deficiency" was thus reversed in theory, and the country was predicted to have rich oil reserves. In 1956, Li himself conducted the general survey and exploration for oil. Within a short time, several oil fields of Daqing, Shengli, Dagang, Huabei and Jianghan were discovered, making a great contribution to the development of China's petrochemical industry. Li's geomechanical theory has been proved by practical production in later years. Many natural resources, such as petroleum, uranium, diamond and chromium, tungsten and geothermal heat, have been found under its guidance.

Li Siguang discovered the remains of the Quaternary ice age and reversed the incorrect conclusion that China had no Quaternary ice age, previously held by many international glaciology authorities. Geological research on the Quaternary ice age has provided reliable basis for the work of irrigation, soil and water conservation, mineral exploration, designing and construction of large buildings.

In his later years, Li developed his research and used geomechanical theory as a basis for earthquake study. The effective methods invented by him in observing the changes of crustal stress and predicting earthquakes laid a solid foundation for China's studies in the field.

Qian Xuesen

Qian Xuesen (1911-- ), with his ancestral home in Hangzhou, Jiangsu Province, was born in Shanghai. Qian graduated from the Shanghai Jiaotong University in 1934. One year later, he went to the United States for advanced studies respectively at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and California Institute of Technology, winning a Ph.D. in 1938.

Qian was honored to have had the world-renowned aerospace master Theodore von Karman, also known as a founder of modern mechanics, as his tutor. Of his many important achievements, the most outstanding is the result regarding ultrasonic hydromechanics jointly conducted with his mentor.

This has become the foundation to overcome the heat and sound barriers for supersonic airplanes. The famous Karman-Qian formula has played a guiding role in the plane design. During the period of World War II, their theory was widely utilized in US rocket researches, witnessing a remarkable progress.

In 1955, six years later after the founding of New China, Qian Xuesen returned to the motherland. Since then, Qian has devoted himself to the country's astronautical undertakings, and has made great contributions in defense science and technology, along with profound feats for China's missiles and nuclear weapons.

In the 1950s, Qian began to apply cybernetic thought to technology, creating engineering cybernetics, a novel method spanning many disciplines. In the 1970s, he also put forth a suggestion to establish systematic science available for use in ordinary technology, which made an outstanding contribution to the development of China's cross-discipline scientific endeavors.

Qian Sanqiang

Qian Sanqiang was a native of Wuxing, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from Tsinghua (Qinghua) University in 1936. One year after his graduation, he was sent abroad to study under the guidance of Marie Curie's daughter in France. During his overseas study, many new inventions were created in collaboration with his teachers and tutors.

After the founding of New China, Qian proposed the establishment of a nuclear energy institute, where a large batch of young- and middle-aged professional personnel have since been trained.
Qian personally participated in the design and manufacture of the country's first atomic bomb, exploded successfully on October 16, 1964. Qian made great contributions to the development of China's nuclear energy industry.

Li Guohao

Li Guohao (1913-- ), China's celebrated bridge engineering expert, earned his nickname of "Suspension Bridge Li" from his German counterparts. His method of calculation, with a high degree of precision although of extreme complexity, can cut down the cost of engineering and promote bridge stability.

Li, born in Meixian County, Guangdong Province, once studied in Germany. In 1946, he assumed the position of president of Tongji University after he returned to the China.

In view of the structure of reinforced concrete bridge in common use, Li broke with convention to tackle a key problem related to calculation. This became known as Li's Theory, and has been widely adopted in the design of international bridges.

Li Guohao participated in several famous bridge designs and constructions such as Chengdu-Kunming Railway Bridge and Nanjing-Yangtze Bridge. In 1973, he wrote a major book entitled the Torsion Theory of Spar--Truss Bridge Torsion, Stability and Vibration. This book of several hundred thousand words provided a reliable basis for truss bridge design and construction.

Due to his outstanding achievements, Li was rated as one of top 10 world famous bridge experts by the International Bridge and Structural Engineering Association in 1981.

Tang Aoqing

Research on the structure and function of complicated inorganic substances and metal organic compounds is one of the frontier subjects related to modern chemistry, which is named as the "ligand field theory".

Guided by Chinese chemist Tang Aoqing (1915-- ), a research group began such research in the 1960s. The effort has made the level of research and application by China in this field rank first in the world, paving the way for developing new materials for laser integrated circuits and rare earth elements. So, it has aroused wide-ranging attention in the world's chemistry circles.

Tang Aoqing has achieved abundant and excellent results in quantum chemistry, high polymer physical chemistry and chemical nitrogen fixation. In 1952, Tang originally put forward an academic thesis entitled "a functional problem of rotary obstruction within numerators" which won third prize awarded by the State. Furthermore, Tang made much headway in the polymer structure and research on the function theory.

In the years from 1963, he led his counterparts to achieve further development on the ligand field theory in six areas, with a result of accomplishing an important work of The Theory and Method on Ligand Field. It was given first prize of natural science awarded by the State in 1982.

With such huge achievements, Tang Aoqing is honored to be included in the list of world-renowned quantum chemists. In 1981, he was elected a member of the International Quantum & Numerator Scientific Research Society, the only Chinese representative, and is now earned a name as "Father of China's quantum chemistry" in the world's chemistry circles.

Yuan Longping

In the 1970s, hybrid rice was successfully bred in China, winning a reputation as the "second green revolution". Through successful popularization in many countries of Asia, Africa and America, the hybrid rice was considered a key scientific invention with great bearing on tackling the problem of world grain shortages following the successful breeding of quarter-butt wheat in Mexico.

This achievement should be attributed to Prof. Yuan Longping (1930-- ), Director of the Hybrid Rice Research Center under the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who took the lead in realizing his dream in this field.

Yuan Longping, a native of Hunan Province, was born into an ordinary farmer's family. After he graduated from the Agriculture Science Department of Southwest Hunan Agricultural College in 1959, Yuan used to be a teacher majoring in genetic breeding at the Hunan Qianyang Agricultural Vocational School.

While teaching in the school, Yuan also meticulously studied rice growing in the surrounding paddy fields.

In summer of 1964, Yuan discovered for the first time the rice belonging to a kind of male sterility, subsequently scoring a first by putting forth a device in breeding rice through hybridization in terms of male sterility and male sterility maintainer and restoring line. Yuan has often conducted painstaking experiments in the paddy fields.

In 1973, he at last broke the back of a tough job, firstly to breed long-grained hybrid rice with a prominent superiority in the world. Between 1974 and 1975, he achieved sound results growing rice on a trial basis in many places in South China. In 1976, hybrid rice began to grow in popularity.

Therefore, China has become the first country to realize the utilization of the superiority of hybrid rice in the world. According to the practice of production at home and abroad, the output of hybrid rice usually is higher by 20-30 percent or even 50 percent than ordinary rice grown under the same conditions.

In 1980, China transferred the patent right of the long-grained hybrid rice to the United States, the first such export patent by China, and it was introduced by many rice producers around the world in a short period.

In recognition of Yuan's outstanding contributions to the country and people, the State awarded him the first special invention prize in 1981 since the founding of New China. In 1985, Yuan Longping was given the invention gold prize by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization. He was also bestowed with the prize of science by the UNESCO in 1987, and won a special international prize awarded in London in 1988, as well as earning the crown of "Father of China's Hybrid Rice" from his overseas counterparts.

Wang Yongmin

In August 1983, the plan regarding the computer input system of Chinese characters by five-stroke type invented by Wang Yongmin passed its technical test, marking the birth of "five-stroke-character-type input technology", one of the computer technologies with an important historical significance that can compare favorably with letterpress.

Thus, the ancient Chinese Han characters finally entered the information era in the wake of achieving input of 100 characters per minute, which has given full play to the modern socialist construction.

Wang Xuan

During a short period from 1987 to 1993, China's press and printing industry underwent a tremendous technical reform, saying farewell to letterpress printing while greeting the era of photo-typesetting by computer. This initiative has come from Prof. Wang Xuan who is working with the Computer Research Institute under the Peking (Beijing) University.

With his ancestral home in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, Wang Xuan was born in Shanghai. At the age of 17, Wang was admitted to the Beijing University's Mechanics Department. During his work at his alma mater for 10 years after graduation, Wang accumulated practical experiences in the fields of computer software and hardware.

Since 1975, Wang took charge of the manufacturing task concerning the precision photo-typesetting system of Chinese characters. And, in 1976, Wang worked out a plan to directly manufacture the fourth generation of laser photo-typesetting system instead of just making a transition from the second and third generations of photo-typesetting.

The photo-typesetting system presided by Wang became a matured commodity in 1988. From 1988 to 1993, the product was popularized by means of selling on the market, with a volume of more than 10,000 units, in addition to exporting to 10 countries and regions. The move has produced a huge economic result, giving impetus to forming a booming industry.

Due to such a remarkable progress, Wang Xuan won many prizes including the gold prize of the Geneva international invention fair, the first prize of the state scientific and technological progress, Bi Sheng Prize, Chinese patent gold prize and Tan Kah Kee (Chen Jiageng) prize. And, in 1991, Wang Xuan was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.