Qian Yitai (; 3 January 1941 – 14 January 2023) was a Chinese chemist who was a professor at

University of Science and Technology of China A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

. Qian was born in Zhongqiao,

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

on 3 January 1941. After graduating from Suzhou No.2 Middle School, he earned his bachelor's degree from Department of Chemistry,

Shandong University Shandong University (, abbreviated as Shanda, , English abbreviation SDU) is a public research comprehensive university in Jinan, Shandong with one campus in Weihai, Shandong and one campus in Qingdao, Shandong and is supported directly by the ...

in 1962. He joined the faculty of

(USTC), and was later appointed Dean of College of Chemistry and Materials Science. From 1982 to 1993, he visited several US universities, such as

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

and

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

. In 1997 he was elected as an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Qian's research mainly focuses on nanomaterials and superconducting materials. In 1996 his group developed benzene-thermal synthetic method to nanocrystalline GaN. In 1998, they reported the preparation of diamond through pyrolysis process of catalytic reduction. Qian also used crystal chemical method to prepare many kinds of superconducting materials. Among Qian's notable students Li Yadong and Xie Yi were also elected as members of CAS. Qian died on 14 January 2023, at the age of 82.

Honours and awards

* 1997 Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) * 2008 Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

* 2015 Science and Technology Progress Award of the

Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation The Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation (HLHL, ) is a Hong Kong-based non-government organisation which annually bestows prizes upon Chinese scientists. It was established on 30 March 1994, with funds donated from the charitable foundations of Ho Sin Han ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qian, Yitai 1941 births 2023 deaths Chemists from Jiangsu Educators from Wuxi Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Scientists from Wuxi Shandong University alumni Academic staff of the University of Science and Technology of China 20th-century Chinese scientists 20th-century chemists 21st-century Chinese scientists 21st-century chemists