Zhou Guangzhao (; born May 15, 1929) is a Chinese

theoretical physicist Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experime ...

who served as President 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 Republi ...

from 1987 to 1997.

Early life and education

Zhou Guangzhao was born on May 15, 1929 in

Changsha Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...

, the capital of

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

province. He was the 5th child of the civil engineer Zhou Fengjiu, and the younger brother of biochemist/geneticist Zhou Guangyu. He graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...

in 1951, and then did graduate work in theoretical physics for three years at

Beijing University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal chart ...

. He stayed at Beijing Univ. on the faculty after completing his PhD. In 1957 he was sent to the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

by the Chinese Atomic Energy Research Institute to work at the

Dubna Dubna ( rus, Дубна́, p=dʊbˈna) is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia. It has a status of ''naukograd'' (i.e. town of science), being home to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, an international nuclear physics research center and one o ...

Joint Institute for Nuclear Research The Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ), in Dubna, Moscow Oblast (110 km north of Moscow), Russia, is an international research c ...

Professional career

Zhou returned to China in 1960, where he worked on the

Chinese nuclear weapons program The People's Republic of China has developed and possesses weapons of mass destruction, including chemical and nuclear weapons. The first of China's nuclear weapons tests took place in 1964, and its first hydrogen bomb test occurred in 1967 ...

, ultimately becoming director of the Chinese Nuclear Weapons Research Institute. He was elected to the

(CAS) and later became the Vice President (1984–1987) and President (1987–1997) of the CAS. Zhou's theoretical work focuses on particle physics. He first visited the US in 1979. In the 1980s he spent time as a visiting researcher at the University of California and

Virginia Polytechnic Institute Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

and at the

European Organization for Nuclear Research The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...

in Switzerland.

Honors

The asteroid

3462 Zhouguangzhao Year 346 ( CCCXLVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Claudius (or, less frequently, year 109 ...

is named after him. Dr. Zhou was elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 1987.

References

External links