Hsin Pei Soh
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Shu Xingbei (; October 1, 1905 - October 30, 1983), also known as Hsin Pei Soh, was a Chinese physicist and educator.


Life


Early years

Shu was born on 1 October 1905, in Hanjiang,
Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...
. In 1924, he entered
Hangchow University Hangchow University (), also spelled as Zhijiang University and formerly known as Hangchow Christian College, Hangchow College and Hangchow Presbyterian College, is a defunct Protestant missionary university in China, which is one of the pre ...
(aka ''Zhijiang University'' 之江大学, now named Zhejiang University) in Hangzhou,
Zhejiang Province Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...
and a year later transferred to the Department of Physics at Cheeloo University in
Shandong Province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...
.


Travel/study in USA & Europe

In 1926, Shu went to study physics in the United States, where he initially studied at Baker University in
Baldwin City, Kansas Baldwin City is a city in Douglas County, Kansas, United States, about south of Lawrence. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 4,826. The city is home to Baker University, the state's oldest four-year university. History ...
, but later transferred to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). During this time, Shu was quite active in various social and political activities and communities, and it is said that he even once joined the
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...
. In July 1927, Shu left the US and travelled through
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, Korea, Manchuria, Moscow, and Warsaw, eventually reaching Germany where he principally visited Berlin, Hannover and Hamburg. Shu then went to the UK, where, in October 1928 he enrolled in the University of Edinburgh to study mathematics and physics under E. T. Whittaker and
Charles Galton Darwin Sir Charles Galton Darwin (19 December 1887 – 31 December 1962) was an English physicist who served as director of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) during the Second World War. He was a son of the mathematician George Howard Darwin an ...
, obtaining his
MSc MSC may refer to: Computers * Message Sequence Chart * Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory * MIDI Show Control * MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor) * USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...
after one year. Finally, in February 1930 Shu went to the University of Cambridge, and worked under Arthur Stanley Eddington, who that August advised him to return to the US to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Shu took this advice, becoming a teaching assistant at the MIT Department of Mathematics and obtaining a second MSc under Dirk Jan Struik.


At Zhejiang University

In September 1931, Shu returned to China, largely due to pressure from his mother to marry his fiancée, Ge Chuhua. Shu's first position was in physics at the
Whampoa Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China's ...
but in September 1932, invited by the chair (Zhang Shaozhong ) of the Department of Physics of Zhejiang University, he began teaching there. In August 1935, Shu became chairperson of the Department of Mathematics of Jinan University, which was at that time located in Shanghai. Shu was also an adjunct lecturer at Jiaotong University. In April 1936, President Coching Chu of Zhejiang University invited him to return to that institution, where, in August 1936, Shu was promoted to the rank of
associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...
, then in 1937, professor. At Zhejiang University, he collaborated closely with
Kan-Chang Wang Wang Ganchang (; May 28, 1907 – December 10, 1998) was a Chinese nuclear physicist. He was one of the founding fathers of Chinese nuclear physics, cosmic rays and particle physics. Wang was also a leader in the fields of detonation physi ...
. During this period, some famous students of his include: Cheng Kaijia, Xu Liangying,
Hu Jimin Hu Jimin (traditional Chinese: 胡濟民; simplified Chinese: 胡济民; 1919–1998) was a Chinese nuclear physicist, plasma physicist and educator. Life and career Hu was born on 26 January 1919 in Rugao, Nantong, Jiangsu Province. In 193 ...
, and Zhou Zhicheng (). Most notably, one of his students, Tsung-Dao Lee went on to win the 1957 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on the violation of parity conservation in weak interactions; Lee (together with Chen-Ning Yang) was awarded the price for the theory. Another student of his was
Chien-Shiung Wu ) , spouse = , residence = , nationality = ChineseAmerican , field = Physics , work_institutions = Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaUniversity of California at BerkeleySmith CollegePrinceton UniversityColumbia UniversityZhejiang Unive ...
, who received recognition for the experimental verification of the parity violation. She received in 1978 the Wolf Prize in physics.


From 1949 to 1979

In 1952, Shu was transferred to the Department of Physics at Shandong University in Jinan, Shandong Province, then in 1954 to its Department of Oceanography. In 1956, classified as a leader of anti-revolutionary forces, Shu was purged. In June 1958, during the Anti-Rightist Movement, Shu was denounced as an ultra-rightist and an anti-revolutionary. Under the program of "reform through labor" ( laogai), he was sent to work on the construction of the Yuezikou Reservoir () in Qingdao. In 1960, Shu was transferred to the Qingdao Medical College as a teacher, although he was also obliged to clean toilets in the college and to wash lab equipment. On 11 September 1974, Shu partially regained his normal life. In 1978, Shu was transferred to the Chinese
State Oceanic Administration The State Oceanic Administration (SOA; ) was an administrative agency subordinate to the Ministry of Land and Resources, responsible for the supervision and management of sea area in the People's Republic of China and coastal environmental prot ...
where he became a professor and senior researcher for oceanic dynamics at its First Research Institute of Oceanography (). In the 1970s, Shu did successful calculations for the Pacific Ocean test of the Dongfeng V
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
. In 1979, when the Oceanic Physics Branch () of the Chinese Society of Oceanography () was established in Guangzhou, Shu was elected its honorary director-general. In December 1979, the Chinese government completely removed Shu's classification as a rightist and anti-revolutionary, restoring his reputation.


From 1979 to his death

In August 1981, Shu was elected honorary director-general of the
Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
Society of Physics () and, in that same year, he was named honorary director of the
Qingdao Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
Society of Physics (). Shu Xingbei died on 30 October 1985, at the age of 77.


Personal life

Shu Xingbei married Ge Chuhua () in 1931. The couple had seven children: Shu Yuexin (), Shu Huxin (), Shu Xiaoxin (), Shu Qingxin (), Shu Yixin (), Shu Runxin () and Shu Meixin ().


Selected publications

* Soh, Hsin P., ''A new law of planetary distances and orbital velocities'', '' Popular Astronomy'', Vol. 35, p. 327 * . * . * Hsin P. Soh; ''Theory of gravitation and electromagnetism'', 1934, 国立浙江大学科学报告 (Science reports, University of Chekiang), 1(1):135-142 * Hsin Pei Soh; ''Relativity transformations connecting two systems in arbitrary acceleration''. '' Nature'', 1946, 58:99-100 * Hsin Pei Soh, Mu-Hsien Wang & Su-Chin Kiang;
Relative Nature of Electromagnetic Radiation
'; ''Nature'' 157, 809-809 (15 June 1946) , .


Books

* ''Selected Academic Works of Shu Xingbei'' (); Ocean Press; ; 2007. * ''Special Relativity'' (textbook) (); Qingdao Press; ; 1995.


References


Memorial essays

* 许良英
我所了解的束星北先生
,《科学时报》,2005年12月23日 ( Xu Liangying: ''Mr. Shu Xingbei as I Know''; ''Chinese Science Bulletin''; 23rd Dec, 2005) * 李政道
怀念束星北先生
,《中国海洋报》,2007年9月25日. ( Tsung-Dao Lee: The Memorial of Shu Xingbei; ''China Ocean News''; 25th Sep, 2007) * 李政道
启蒙恩师束星北
,《中国海洋报》,2007年10月12日. ( Tsung-Dao Lee: ''(My) Enlightenment Mentor Shu Xingbei''; ''China Ocean News''; 12th Oct, 2007) * 王淦昌
束星北的一生是伟大的
,《中国海洋报》,2007年9月25日. (
Wang Ganchang Wang Ganchang (; May 28, 1907 – December 10, 1998) was a Chinese nuclear physicist. He was one of the founding fathers of Chinese nuclear physics, cosmic rays and particle physics. Wang was also a leader in the fields of detonation physic ...
: ''The Great Life of Shu Xingbei''; ''China Ocean News''; 25th Sep, 2007) * 程开甲
真理面前百折不曲
,《中国海洋报》,2007年9月25日. ( Cheng Kaijia: ''Never Bend-over Facing Truth''; ''China Ocean News''; 25th Sep, 2007)


External links


100 Anniversary Commemoration Celebration of Shu Xingbei Held Yesterday
(in English, 2007-09-29)
Shu Xingbei's Former Residence
(in English,
Sina.com Sina Corporation (, "new wave") is a Chinese technology company. Sina operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, Sina Mobile, Sina Online, and Sinanet. Sina has over 100 million registered users worldwide. Sina was recognized by '' South ...
) {{DEFAULTSORT:Shu, Xingbei Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Educators from Yangzhou Physicists from Jiangsu Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Zhejiang University alumni Academic staff of Zhejiang University 1905 births 1983 deaths Academic staff of the Republic of China Military Academy Academic staff of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Academic staff of Shandong University Victims of the Cultural Revolution Scientists from Yangzhou Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign Republic of China science writers Writers from Yangzhou