Bei Shizhang (; October 10, 1903 – October 29, 2009), or Shi-Zhang Bei, was a Chinese biophysicist, embryologist, politician, and writer. He was an academician at the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

. He was born in

Zhenhai Zhenhai is a district and former county of the sub-provincial city of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province in eastern China. It has a population of 200,000. History The town of Zhenhai grew up at the foot of Zhaobao Hill on a tongue of land at the mo ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

province, on October 10, 1903. He was the oldest member of both the

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, la, 1=Academia Sinica, 3=Chinese Academy; ), headquartered in Nangang, Taipei, is the national academy of Taiwan. Founded in Nanking, the academy supports research activities in a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ...

and the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the time of his death. He was the founder, the first chief director and honorary director of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was a pioneer of Chinese

cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...

and the founder of Chinese

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations. ...

. He was considered the "Father of Chinese Biophysics". The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

31065 Beishizhang was named in his honour on the occasion of his 100th birthday. He obtained his doctorate from

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

in 1928.

Death

Bei Shizhang died in his home in Beijing on October 29, 2009, aged 106.

References

1903 births 2009 deaths Biologists from Zhejiang Cell biologists Chinese biophysicists Chinese centenarians Embryologists Delegates to the 1st National People's Congress Delegates to the 2nd National People's Congress Delegates to the 3rd National People's Congress Delegates to the 4th National People's Congress Delegates to the 5th National People's Congress Delegates to the 6th National People's Congress Educators from Ningbo Members of Academia Sinica Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Men centenarians People's Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang Physicists from Zhejiang Politicians from Ningbo Scientists from Ningbo Tongji University alumni Academic staff of the University of Science and Technology of China University of Tübingen alumni Academic staff of Zhejiang University {{China-scientist-stub