Since Qingming last year, 27 more names have been added to the list of deceased academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering.
They dedicate their whole lives to our country's science and technology, or solve major and original scientific problems, or bravely innovate "no man's land", or break through the key core technologies that restrict development... In the face of their departure, we Send condolences in words.
May 22, 2021, is a day that makes hundreds of millions of Chinese feel extremely sad.
On this day, Yuan Longping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, died in Changsha due to multiple organ failure; Wu Mengchao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, died in Shanghai due to ineffective treatment.
Two academicians were lost in one day, and people's grief rushed like a tide.
Yuan Longping, who was born in 1930, lived a life of refuge with his family since he was a child.
Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yuan Longping saw with his own eyes the starving death lying on the side of the road, and was very saddened in his heart.
With a strong desire to let everyone "eat enough", Yuan Longping chose agriculture to serve the country and vowed to solve the problem of increasing grain production and prevent the people from starving.
In the past, the academic community generally believed that rice was a self-pollinating crop without heterosis.
However, Yuan Longping was not superstitious about authority and had the courage to say no to traditional academic viewpoints. He began to study hybrid rice in 1964 and successfully bred the world's first practical and high-yield hybrid rice variety.
"Man is like a seed, to be a good seed", this is a sentence Yuan Longping often said during his lifetime.
He also spent his life writing a footnote for this sentence.
He is the pioneer of the research and development of hybrid rice in my country, and is known as the "father of hybrid rice".
Even at the age of 90, Yuan Longping never felt that he should rest.
"Hybrid rice is in his blood, his lifeblood, his soul."
This scientist who "looks more like a peasant", "is not at home, just in the experimental field; not in the experimental field, just on the way to the experimental field", really wrote the paper on the land of the motherland, and made the Chinese people's jobs firmly secure. in their own hands.
In the early 1950s, the field of hepatobiliary surgery in my country was still blank.
A well-known foreign expert asserted: "It will take at least 30 years for China's liver surgery to catch up with ours."
After hearing this, Wu Mengchao couldn't sleep at night. He got up in his clothes and wrote a report determined to "break into the restricted area", vowing that "the world of liver surgery cannot be without the voice of China!"
After thousands of anatomical experiments, in 1957, Wu Mengchao first proposed the anatomical theory of "five leaves and four segments" of the liver structure. Chinese doctors have since found the key to open the restricted area of the liver.
In 1960, he performed the first liver tumor resection in China, achieving a zero breakthrough in the field of Chinese surgery...
For more than 70 years, Wu Mengchao has completed more than 16,000 liver surgeries. He once said: "Even if one day, I will fall in the operating room, it will be the greatest happiness in my life!"
Looking up at the starry sky, there are two asteroids in the universe, one is the "Yuan Longping Star" numbered 8117, and the other is the "Wu Mengchao Star" numbered 17606 - the contributions of the two academicians to the people to mankind will always be appreciated by the world. Bear in mind.
As outstanding representatives of my country's scientific and technological circles and engineering and technological circles, academicians of the two academies are the wealth of the country, the pride of the people, and the glory of the nation.
Among the 27 academicians who have passed away in the past year, Zheng Zhemin and Min Guirong have extraordinary identities.
They are both academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Zheng Zhemin is one of the founders and pioneers of explosive mechanics in my country, and is known as the person who "tamed" explosives.
He has always taken the country's needs as his own responsibility, and his association with explosive mechanics is not his deliberate life plan.
"I don't have a clear route from the past to the present. But one thing is certain, that is, the desire to enrich the country and strengthen the people." Zheng Zhemin once said.
Zheng Zhemin has been sitting on the "bench" of explosive mechanics for decades.
During the period, he proposed the fluid elastic-plastic model, which promoted the formation of a complete explosion mechanics discipline system, which was widely used in important national defense fields such as underground nuclear explosions, armor-piercing and ground-penetrating nuclear bombs; he established the basic research on explosion mechanics The method provides a mechanical basis for weapon design and weapon effect evaluation; he opens up key technical fields such as explosive forming and explosive embankment, and solves the core problems of major engineering construction.
Min Guirong is one of the pioneers of my country's artificial satellite engineering and the pioneer of spacecraft thermal control technology. He participated in and led the development of my country's first artificial satellite and multiple return and application satellites, and made significant contributions to the development of my country's space technology.
During his tenure as the chief scientist of the National "863" Plan Aerospace Expert Committee, Min Guirong led my country's future aerospace innovation technology research and achieved a large number of important scientific research results.
Despite his outstanding achievements, Min Guirong kept a low profile and humbled himself throughout his life: "Compared with the promising aerospace industry, this is just a good start. We will continue to work hard for a long time to make due contributions to the Chinese people and the world as well. ."
There are only 34 Chinese Academy of Sciences academicians like Zheng Zhemin and Min Guirong who are also academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.
This is related to the establishment of the Academy of Engineering.
In 1994, the Chinese Academy of Engineering was established.
The first batch of academicians of the Academy of Engineering was nominated, negotiated and selected, and the preparatory leading group proposed a list of about 100 candidates (including 30 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with strong engineering backgrounds), which were submitted to the State Council for approval and appointed in the name of the Academy of Engineering.
The 30 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (later known as academicians) became the first batch of dual academicians.
In 1995, Yan Kai, Shao Xianghua, Wu Liangyong and Wu Jieping, four academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were appointed as academicians of the Academy of Engineering.
They became academicians of the two academies not as some people imagined: they were first appraised as academicians in one academy, and then they were appraised as academicians in another.
They were hired by the Academy of Engineering.
The 27 academicians who died in the past year have all reached their old age.
Two hundred-year-old academicians: Wen Shengchang and Chen Jingxiong;
15 academicians over 90 years old: Wang Yuan, Wu Mengchao, Xue Yuqun, Zheng Zhemin, Huang Hongjia, Chen Wenxin, Wu Xinzhi, Zhu Zhaoliang, Yuan Longping, Chen Qingru, Huang Xiling, Li Zhengming, Dai Yongnian, Mao Yongze, Zhang Ziyi;
10 academicians over 80 years old: Min Guirong, Guo Jingkun, Xu Houze, Zhang Hanxin, Xu Xingchu, Liu Xingtu, Jiang Jingshan, Ye Keming, Chen Niannian, Pan Ziqiang.
They shoulder the heavy responsibility entrusted by history, never forget their original aspirations, and are determined to be self-reliant and self-reliant in science and technology, setting up monuments of technological innovation on the land of the motherland.
How fortunate we are to witness the shining stars of science; how helpless we are to watch them gradually leave.
Returning to the earth in spring, let us welcome the infinite vigor and possibility, meet new opportunities and challenges with our thoughts and respect for the deceased, work hard to open up a new situation, and compose a new chapter with perseverance.
This is the best condolence to the deceased and the best memorial to history.