Lu Yonggen (; 2 December 1930 – 12 August 2019) was a Chinese agronomist,

plant geneticist A plant geneticist is a scientist involved with the study of genetics in botany. Typical work is done with genes in order to isolate and then develop certain plant traits. Once a certain trait, such as plant height, fruit sweetness, or tolerance to ...

, and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

. He served as President of

South China Agricultural University South China Agricultural University (SCAU; ) is a provincial public university in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Founded in 1909, the university is considered to have an advantage in the field of agricultural science. It is a Double First Class ...

from 1983 to 1995, and was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993. He was named China's second most generous philanthropist in 2017 after donating his entire life savings to his university.

Early life and education

Lu was born on 2 December 1930 in

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

, into a middle-class family that hailed from

Hua County Hua County or Huaxian () is a county under the administration of Anyang City, in the north of Henan province, China. Its predecessor administrative area Huazhou/Hua prefecture was first established in 596 during the Sui dynasty. In 606 it was ...

(now Huadu),

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province. When the Japanese attacked Hong Kong in 1941, his father sent him to Hua County for safety, where he became familiarized with agricultural practices. He returned to Hong Kong two years later for middle school. This experience with Japanese invasion made him sympathetic to the Communist cause, and in 1947 he joined the New Democratic Youth Association of Hong Kong, which was secretly led by the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...

(CCP), and joined the CCP itself in August 1949. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Lu moved to

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

to study agriculture at

Lingnan University Lingnan University (LN/LU), formerly called Lingnan College, is a public liberal arts university in Hong Kong. It aims to provide students with an education in the liberal arts tradition and has joined the Global Liberal Arts Alliance since ...

. In 1952, the agricultural schools of Lingnan University and Sun Yat-sen University were merged to form South China Agricultural College (now South China Agricultural University), and Lu became one of the first students of the new college.

Career

Upon graduation in August 1953, Lu was hired by South China Agricultural College as an assistant professor and later lecturer. He formed a close relationship with

Ding Ying Ding Ying (; 1888–1964) was a Chinese agronomist who served as the first president of South China Agricultural College and the first president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He was elected a founding academician of the Chi ...

, the first president of the college, and served as the latter's research assistant and secretary from 1962 to 1964. Ding had collected more than 7,000 seeds of

wild rice Wild rice, also called manoomin, Canada rice, Indian rice, or water oats, is any of four species of grasses that form the genus ''Zizania'', and the grain that can be harvested from them. The grain was historically gathered and eaten in both ...

for research and conservation. After Ding's death in 1964, Lu took over the collection and further expanded it to more than 10,000 seeds. Lu made significant contributions to the research of rice genetics, especially the "specific compatibility gene". He established the new concept of "pathoklisis gene", and the categorization of China's main

indica rice ''Oryza sativa'', commonly known as Asian rice or indica rice, is the plant species most commonly referred to in English as ''rice''. It is the type of farmed rice whose cultivars are most common globally, and was first domesticated in the Yan ...

variety into two categories and four types. From 2012 to 2017 alone, his team developed 33 new rice breeds. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993. Lu was promoted to associate professor in 1978 and full professor in 1983. He served as President of

from 1983 to 1995. During his tenure, he broke from the old seniority-based system and promoted promising young scientists directly to professorship. Lu died on 12 August 2019, at the age of 88.

Philanthropy

Lu lived a frugal life and regularly ate at the school cafeteria with students, but made annual donations to education and poverty relief. In 2014, he donated two ancestral houses in his hometown Huadu to the local primary school. In 2017, Lu and his wife, Professor Xu Xuebin (), donated their entire lifetime savings of 8.8 million yuan (US$1.34 million) to South China Agricultural University. It was the largest single donation ever received by the university. They left no inheritance to their only daughter, who Lu said was capable of supporting herself. The

Ash Center Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, formerly known as the Ash Institute, was established in 2003 and is part of the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The Center’s mis ...

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

ranked him at No. 2 in its list of most generous Chinese philanthropists for 2017, and he was selected as one of the ten people featured on

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

's annual program ''People Who Moved China''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lu, Yonggen 1930 births 2019 deaths Biologists from Guangdong Chinese agronomists Chinese geneticists Chinese philanthropists Educators from Guangdong Hong Kong scientists Lingnan University (Guangzhou) alumni Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Plant geneticists South China Agricultural University alumni Academic staff of the South China Agricultural University 20th-century philanthropists