Fang Fukang (; 28 February 1935 – 4 February 2019) was a Chinese physicist and systems scientist. He established the study of systems theory at

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU, ), colloquially known as Beishida (), is a public research university located in Beijing, China, with a strong emphasis on humanities and sciences. It is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China ...

and served as president of the university from 1989 to 1995.

Biography

Fang was born on 28 February 1935 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, with his ancestral home in

Dinghai () is a district of Zhoushan City made of 128 islands in Zhejiang province, China.The total area is 1,444 square kilometres.The land area is 568.8 square kilometers, the sea area is 875.2 square kilometers, and the coastline is more than 400 kilo ...

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 ...

. He graduated from the Department of Physics of

in 1956, and researched and taught

nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

afterwards. In the 1970s, he studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium under the Nobel Prize laureate

Ilya Prigogine Viscount Ilya Romanovich Prigogine (; russian: Илья́ Рома́нович Приго́жин; 28 May 2003) was a physical chemist and Nobel laureate noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems, and irreversibility. Biogra ...

, and earned his Ph.D. in 1980. After returning to China, he introduced Prigogine's dissipative system theory to China, and established the study of systems theory at Beijing Normal University. From May 1989 to May 1995, Fang served as president of Beijing Normal University. He also served as party secretary of the university. Fang died on 4 February 2019 in Beijing, at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fang, Fukang 1935 births 2019 deaths Physicists from Shanghai Beijing Normal University alumni Université libre de Bruxelles alumni Chinese expatriates in Belgium Systems scientists Presidents of Beijing Normal University Educators from Shanghai