Li Aizhen (; born May 1936) is a Chinese scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (). An expert in semiconductor material, she was elected a foreign associate of the United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2007.

Biography

Born in Guangbian Village, Yongning Town, Shishi,

Fujian Province Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...

, Li graduated from

Quanzhou Quanzhou, postal map romanization, alternatively known as Chinchew, is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China. It is Fujian's largest metrop ...

First High School in 1954, and entered Fudan University to study chemistry. She started her research career at Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy of CAS—now Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology—in 1958. From August 1980 to October 1982, Li was a visiting scholar at department of electronic engineering of Carnegie-Mellon University in the United States. During her stay in the States, she visited

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

and met with

Alfred Y. Cho Alfred Yi Cho (; born July 10, 1937) is a Chinese-American electrical engineer, inventor, and optical engineer. He is the Adjunct Vice President of Semiconductor Research at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs. He is known as the "father of molecular be ...

, the "father of

molecular beam epitaxy Molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) is an epitaxy method for thin-film deposition of single crystals. MBE is widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, including transistors, and it is considered one of the fundamental tools for the devel ...

". On May 1, 2007, Li was elected a foreign associate of the

United States National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(NAS),72 New Members Chosen by Academy
/ref> thus became the first female Chinese scientist to receive this honor. As of 2018 Li has not been admitted into the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and is the only non-academician from China who has been elected into the NAS as a foreign associate. She is also a recipient of the 2004 Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) Prize in Engineering Sciences.

Contributions

Li has made substantial contributions to the development of electronic devices and laser technology.

Honours and awards

*2003 Member of the Asia Pacific Academy of Materials (APAM) *2004 Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS) Prize in Engineering Sciences *May 2007 Foreign associate of the

(NAS)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Aizhen 1936 births Chinese women physicists Living people People from Shishi, Fujian Hokkien scientists Physicists from Fujian Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Fudan University alumni TWAS laureates