Qian Weichang

Qian Weichang

Qian Weichang (October 9, 1912 - July 30, 2010), born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, is a world-famous scientist, educator and outstanding social activist.

After graduating from the Department of physics of Tsinghua University in 1935, he was admitted to the Research Institute of Tsinghua University. In 1940, he went to the Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Toronto, Canada, majoring in elasticity. In 1942, he received a doctorate from the University of Toronto. After returning to China in 1946, he was employed as a professor in the Department of mechanical engineering of Tsinghua University, as well as a professor in Peking University and Yanjing University. In 1955, he was elected member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1956, he was elected as a foreign academician of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Vice chairman of the sixth to Ninth National Committee of the Chinese people's Political Consultative Conference, vice chairman of the fifth, sixth and Seventh Central Committee of the China Democratic League, honorary chairman of the seventh, eighth and Ninth National Committee, and vice chairman of the first and second Council of the Chinese society of mechanics. He once served as deputy director and researcher of Institute of mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, director and director of Preparatory Office of Institute of automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, academic secretary of Chinese Academy of Sciences, director of Organization Department of all China Federation of Natural Science Societies, Deputy Secretary General of all China Youth Federation, member of the Standing Committee of China Democratic League, Deputy Dean, Dean and vice president of Tsinghua University, Shanghai University of technology He is the president of Shanghai University, the honorary president of Zhangzhou Vocational University, the honorary president of Shazhou Polytechnic, the Honorary Presidents of Nanjing University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the honorary president and honorary chairman of Jiangnan University, the honorary president and chairman of Jinan University, the honorary chairman of Yangzhou University, the honorary president of Shanghai University Affiliated Middle School, the honorary president of Tianjin Yaohua middle school, and Chongqing Jiaotong University He is the chief editor of Applied Mathematics and mechanics, the honorary president of Shanghai European American Association, the president of China Overseas Exchange Association, and the president of China Association for promoting peaceful reunification.

Qian Weichang is also good at applied mathematics, mechanics, physics and Chinese informatics. He has made great achievements in elasticity, variational principles, perturbation methods and other fields.

Life of the characters

On October 9, 1912, Qian Weichang was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. His father was Qian Zhi, the eldest brother of Qian Mu, a master of Chinese culture. In 1925, he studied in Wuxi Rongxiang public welfare school, Wuxi County junior high school and Wuxi Guoxue school (the predecessor of Suzhou University). In 1928, after his father died of illness, he went to high school in Suzhou to study mathematics, chemistry and Western history. He graduated from Suzhou middle school in 1930 and was admitted to Tsinghua University, Jiaotong University, Zhejiang University, Wuhan University and Central University. In 1931, he won the "cold scholarship" set up by Wu Yunchu. He scored 5 points in physics, 20 points in chemistry and mathematics, and entered the History Department of Tsinghua University with 100 points in Chinese and history. On September 18 of the same year, after the September 18 Incident, Qian Weichang decided to abandon literature and study in physics. During the period of school, he and his classmate Gu Hanzhang measured the atmospheric electrical parameters in Beijing. In 1935, he was admitted to the Research Institute of Tsinghua University and won the scholarship of Gao mengdan. He did spectral analysis with his tutor Wu Youxun and studied solution theory under the guidance of Huang Ziqing. In December of the same year, he took part in the 129 movement. In 1936, he joined the vanguard of Chinese national liberation, an anti Japanese and national salvation organization established under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. In 1939, he went to Kunming to teach thermodynamics in southwest United University and married Kong Xiangying. In January 1940, students who were admitted to the Sino British boxer association were sent to Canada because of the outbreak of the Second World War. Study in Canada. In August, Qian Weichang finally went to the University of Toronto, Canada to study elastic mechanics. He studied the theory of plates and shells with his tutor Xinji. In 50 days, he completed his paper intrinsic theory of elastic plates and shells, which was published in the collection of 60 year old congratulatory works of von Kamen, the father of missiles in the world. In 1941, he put forward the theory of plate and shell intrinsic. from 1941 to 1942, he studied the reactance in the radar waveguide, and cooperated with A. Weinstein to study the vibration of a clamped square plate in tension. In 1942, he received a doctorate in Applied Mathematics from the University of Toronto. from 1942 to 1946, he was the research chief engineer of Jet Propulsion Institute of California Institute of technology, and engaged in postdoctoral scientific research under the guidance of von Karman, the father of world missiles. The trajectory of rocket, aerodynamic design of rocket, meteorological rocket, orbit of artificial satellite, air resistance loss, parachute motion, stability of rocket flight, torsion of variable torsion rate, supersonic symmetric cone flow and so on are studied. And published the first theory on singular perturbation in the world, which is internationally recognized as the founder of this field. In May 1946, Qian Weichang returned to China and was employed as a professor in the Department of mechanical engineering, Tsinghua University, Peking University and Yanjing University. from 1946 to 1957, he studied large deflection perturbation solutions and singular perturbation solutions of circular thin plates, lubrication theory, calendering, continuous beams, torsion problems, architectural history, shallow shell jumping and large deflection of square plates. From 1946 to 1948, he took part in the progressive movements against the United States and Japan, the civil war, hunger and aid from the United States. After 1949, he successively served as Professor, deputy provost and provost of Tsinghua University. In 1950, he was a member of the Standing Committee and head of the Organization Department of the all China Federation of Natural Science Societies. In 1951, he was member of the Standing Committee and Deputy Secretary General of the all China Youth Federation, and director of the Department of mechanics, Institute of mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1952, he participated in the Chinese cultural delegation and visited Myanmar and India. In 1954, he put forward the theory of large deflection of circular thin plate (won the second prize of National Science Award in 1956). He was deputy to the first National People's Congress from 1954 to 1958. He was selected as a member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (academician) in 1955. In 1956, he formulated China's first 12 year scientific plan and was appointed Vice President of Tsinghua University. He founded the Institute of mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with Qian Xuesen and others. At the same time, he served as deputy director of the Institute of mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, academic secretary of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, member of the Science Planning Commission of the State Council, and director of the Preparatory Committee of the Institute of automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the same year, he was elected a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. in 1957, the Chinese society of mechanics was established, and he served as vice president. In January of that year, he published the training objectives of higher education, which opposed some working ideas in the Soviet Union's education system, advocated the integration of science and engineering, and attached importance to basic disciplines. This led to a three-month discussion in Tsinghua University. In June of that year, he was finally classified as a rightist in the anti rightist movement for the reasons of proposing the integration of science and engineering and participating in the NLD conference, and criticized as a reactionary academic authority and omnipotent scientist, Stop all work. On January 15, 1958, Qian Weichang was officially declared as a "rightist" at Tsinghua University, and was designated as an extreme rightist (this is the most serious level). Except for retaining his professorship, all his other positions were abolished and criticized. Later, Mao Zedong said, "Qian Weichang can still be a professor," which saved him from the misfortune of labor reform in Beidahuang, but he was reduced from a first-class professor to a third class professor. After being classified as a rightist, Qian Weichang was forced to reform through labor. He first worked as a laboratory assistant, sweeping the floor for one year, and his children were forbidden to go to university. Later, he went to the countryside, but he still insisted on scientific research. From 1957 to 1976, he was engaged in aircraft flutter, submarine keel design, chemical tube sheet design, oxygen top blown converter cover design, large motor parts design, high energy battery, trigonometric series summation, and Lagrange multiplier method in variational principle. In 1964, he independently deduced the generalized variational theory and submitted it to Acta mechanica Sinica, but it was not published because of his identity at that time. from 1968 to 1971, he worked as a foreman in the steel-making workshop during the "labor reform" period of the capital special steel plant. He helped the plant design and manufacture an 800 ton hydraulic press and a 2000 square meter heat treatment workshop and its equipment. In 1972, Qian Weichang was named by Zhou Enlai and attended a delegation of scientists to visit Britain, Sweden, Canada and the United States. From 1977 to 1990, he was engaged in the research of ring shell theory, generalized variational principle, finite element, Chinese information processing, thin plate, maximum deflection, tube plate, fracture mechanics, stiffened shell, armor piercing mechanics, trigonometric series summation, etc. In 1979, the central government abolished the decision to classify Qian Weichang as a rightist. In 1980, he returned to be a member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and served as a member of the Standing Committee of the fifth CPPCC National Committee and the Chinese character reform committee. In May of that year, he founded Applied Mathematics and mechanics in Chongqing Jiaotong University (now Chongqing Jiaotong University). In 1981, he was appointed president of Chinese information society and editor in chief of Applied Mathematics and mechanics. in 1982, "Research on generalized variational principles" (completed in 1979) won the second prize of National Natural Science Award. In 1982, Deng Xiaoping wrote in the report of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee on approval of Qian Weichang's appointment as president of Shanghai University of Technology: his appointment is not limited by age. On January 19, 1983, Qian Weichang became president of Shanghai University of technology. From 1983 to 2003, he successively served as vice chairman of the sixth, seventh, eighth and Ninth CPPCC National Committee. In 1984, he proposed the macro glyph coding of Chinese characters, referred to as "Qian code". In the same year, he served as vice chairman and honorary chairman of the Central Committee of the Democratic Alliance and director of Shanghai Institute of Applied Mathematics and mechanics. in 1986, in the first national Chinese character input scheme evaluation meeting organized by the National Bureau of standards, among 34 schemes, "Qian code" was rated as a scheme. "Money code" won Shanghai prize in 1985

Chinese PinYin : Qian Wei Zhang