Xu Caidong (; 27 March 1919 – 14 April 2016) was a Chinese

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

, politician, and

academician An academician is a full member of an artistic, literary, engineering, or scientific academy. In many countries, it is an honorific title used to denote a full member of an academy that has a strong influence on national scientific life. In syst ...

of 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 ...

(CAS).

Biography

Xu was born in

Fengxin County Fengxin County () is a county in the northwest of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. It is under the jurisdiction of the prefecture-level city of Yichun. Administrative divisions In the present, Fengxin County has 10 towns and 3 towns ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

. He graduated from Tangshan Engineering College, Chiao Tung University in 1943. He went to France in 1946 and obtained a

doctor's degree A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...

from

École Nationale Supérieure d'Électrochimie et d'Électrométallurgie de Grenoble The École Nationale Supérieure d'Électrochimie et d'Électrométallurgie de Grenoble, or ENSEEG, was one of the French ''Grandes écoles'' of engineering (engineering schools). It has been created in 1921 under the name ''Institut d’électroc ...

(ENSEEG) in 1949. After returning to China, he joined the faculty of the

Guizhou University Guizhou University (; Pinyin: Guìzhōu Dàxué), known as Guida (贵大 Guì Dà), is a provincial research university located in suburban Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, China. Founded in 1902, it is the flagship institution of higher learning i ...

School of Engineering in the same year. He joined

Jiusan Society The Jiusan Society () is one of the eight legally recognised minor political parties in the People's Republic of China under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. The party's original name was "Democracy and Science Forum" on its in ...

in 1956. Xu's research was mainly focused on the

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

. He operated the

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

in smelting

mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

, the industrial synthesis of

potassium permanganate Potassium permanganate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula KMnO4. It is a purplish-black crystalline salt, that dissolves in water as K+ and , an intensely pink to purple solution. Potassium permanganate is widely used in the c ...

by the electrolytical method, and the industrial synthesis of calcium-magnesium phosphate in the shaft furnace. Xu was elected an

of the

in 1980. He became the vice-governor of

Guizhou Province Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the ...

in 1983. He was elected as the executive vice chairman of the central committee of Jiusan Society in 1990. He was appointed as the president of Guizhou University in 1997 when Guizhou Agricultural College, the Guizhou Institute of Arts, and the Guizhou Agricultural Cadre-Training School were merged into Guizhou University. Xu died on 14 April 2016 in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, at the age of 97.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Caidong 1919 births 2016 deaths Chinese metallurgists Chinese physical chemists Academic staff of Guizhou University Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Members of the Jiusan Society People from Yichun, Jiangxi People's Republic of China politicians from Jiangxi Scientists from Jiangxi Southwest Jiaotong University alumni Vice-governors of Guizhou