Zhao Yufen (; born 1948) is a Chinese chemist at the college of chemistry and chemical engineering at

Xiamen University Xiamen University (; Southern Min: ''Ē-mn̂g-toā-o̍h''), colloquially known as Xia Da (; Southern Min: ''Hā-tāi''), is a national public research university in Xiamen, Fujian, China. Founded in 1921 by Tan Kah Kee, a Chinese patriotic exp ...

. She has been an outspoken critic of chemical plants. She was the youngest female member elected to 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 ...

Biography

Zhao was born in

Qi County, Hebi Qi County or Qixian () is a county in the north of Henan province, China. It is under the administration of the Hebi city. Qi County is the location of Zhaoge, the former capital of the Shang Dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

, and moved to

Taiwan 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 nort ...

in 1949 with her parents. Zhao graduated from

National Tsing Hua University National Tsing Hua University (NTHU; ) is a public research university in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. National Tsing Hua University was first founded in Beijing. After the Chinese Civil War, the then-president of the university, Mei Yiqi, and other ...

(Taiwan) in 1971, and received her Ph.D from

State University of New York at Stony Brook Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public research university in Stony Brook, New York. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is one of the State University of New York system's ...

in 1975. In 1979, she went on to become a researcher at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She became a professor at

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

(Beijing) in 1988 and in 1991, was elected to the

, then the youngest female academician. In March 2007, Zhao created a petition to halt the construction of a chemical plant in

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

. Zhao was against the plant, which was going to produce

paraxylene ''p''-Xylene ( ''para''-xylene) is an aromatic hydrocarbon. It is one of the three isomers of dimethylbenzene known collectively as xylenes. The ''p-'' stands for ''para-'', indicating that the two methyl groups in ''p''-xylene occupy the diamet ...

(PX), a

carcinogen A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

, due to health risks and pollution of the environment. She said that "As a project with a high risk of poisonous emissions and explosions, the project should not be located close to a city." She also started writing letters to propose a relocation of the plant to He Lefeng, the Party chief of Xiamen. Months later, protesters used text messages to spread the word of a demonstration against the plant. Xiamen lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against the plant, which was located to Gulei Peninsula. June 15, 2014, Zhao, as the head of the Academy Zhao Yufen of Xiamen University, along with BIOasis, signed on for the construction of a Phosphorus & Marine Science Research Center to be built at the Shandong International Biotechnology Park. Zhao has work published in the ''

Journal of the American Chemical Society The ''Journal of the American Chemical Society'' is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1879 by the American Chemical Society. The journal has absorbed two other publications in its history, the ''Journal of Analytical ...

'', ''

Journal of Organic Chemistry ''The Journal of Organic Chemistry'', colloquially known as ''JOC'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal for original contributions of fundamental research in all branches of theory and practice in organic and bioorganic chemistry. It is publi ...

'', ''

Angewandte Chemie ''Angewandte Chemie'' (, meaning "Applied Chemistry") is a weekly peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published by Wiley-VCH on behalf of the German Chemical Society (Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker). Publishing formats include feature-length ...

'', ''

Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry ''Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry'' is a scientific journal focusing on the results of research on the molecular structure of biological organisms and the interaction of biological targets with chemical agents.Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry' It ...

'', ''

Chemical Communications ''ChemComm'' (or ''Chemical Communications''), formerly known as ''Journal of the Chemical Society D: Chemical Communications'' (1969–1971), ''Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications'' (1972–1995), is a peer-reviewed scientif ...

'', ''Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis'', and other journals.

References

External links

Prof. Zhao Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhao, Yufen 1948 births Living people 20th-century women scientists 21st-century women scientists Chemists from Henan Chinese women chemists Educators from Henan Environmental conservation Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences National Tsing Hua University alumni People from Hebi Stony Brook University alumni Taiwanese people from Henan Academic staff of Tsinghua University Academic staff of Xiamen University