Lu Jiaxi

Lu Jiaxi

Lu Jiaxi

(1915.10.26-2001.6.4), a native of Tainan City, Taiwan Province, born in Yongding County, Fujian Province, is a physical chemist, educator, social activist and leader of scientific and technological organizations.

In 1934, Lu Jiaxi graduated from the Department of chemistry of Xiamen University; in 1939, he received a Ph.D. from University College London; in 1955, he was elected member of the academic department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (academician); in May 1981, he became president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; in 1988, he was elected vice president of the Third World Academy of Sciences; in March 1993, he was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress.

Lu Jiaxi's work involves physical chemistry, structural chemistry, nuclear chemistry and materials science. He has made outstanding contributions to the research of structural chemistry. He has proposed the structural model of nitrogenase active center and engaged in the research of the relationship between structure and properties. He has played an important role in promoting the development of cluster chemistry in China. He has also made great achievements in the research of new technology crystal materials science. In his early years, he designed the reciprocal map of LP factor for equiangular weissen crystal X-ray diffraction photography, which was recorded in the international X-ray crystallography manual, known as "Lushi map".

Life of the characters

Early experience

Lu Jiaxi was born on October 26, 1915 (the fourth year of the Republic of China) in Xiamen, Fujian Province. He originated from Tainan City, Taiwan Province, and his ancestral home is Jiaokeng village, Chendong Township, Yongding County, Longyan City, Fujian Province. His father, Lu Dongqi (Zixia Village), set up an old school to teach students, and his family was very cold. When Lu Jiaxi was a child, he studied with his father. His parents had high expectations, and he originated from family studies. Therefore, he had a good foundation in poetry and was good at couplets.

In 1926 (the 15th year of the Republic of China), Lu Jiaxi studied in a public primary school.

After 1927 (the 16th year of the Republic of China), he successively studied in Xiamen Yucai society and Datong middle school for one and a half years.

In the autumn of 1928 (the 17th year of the Republic of China), he was admitted to Xiamen University and was 13 years old.

He graduated from Xiamen University in 1930.

In 1934 (23 years of the Republic of China), he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree and completed the main courses of the Department of mathematics. During the University, he served as the president of the society of chemistry and the vice president of the society of mathematics. After graduation, he stayed in the University as a teaching assistant of the Department of Chemistry for three years. At the same time, he also served as a mathematics and English teacher of Xiamen provincial middle school.

The way to study abroad

In August 1937 (the 26th year of the Republic of China), Lu Jiaxi was admitted to the fifth Sino British boxer fund for studying abroad at public expense. He went to London University College and engaged in artificial radioactivity research under the guidance of famous chemist s. Sugden.

In July 1939 (the 28th year of the Republic of China), Lu Jiaxi passed the defense and obtained a Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry from the University of London. In August of the same year, he went to California Institute of technology, and then worked as a visiting researcher in structural chemistry at L. Pauling, who won two Nobel prizes.

In the summer of 1940 (the 29th year of the Republic of China), Lu Jiaxi continued to work for more than five years under the guidance of Professor Bao Lin. During this period, he published a series of academic papers, many of which became classic literatures in structural chemistry.

In 1944 (the 33rd year of the Republic of China), Lu Jiaxi was recruited to the Maryland Research Office of the 13th Bureau of the US Defense Research Council to participate in wartime military scientific research, and made outstanding achievements in the research of combustion and explosion.

In 1945 (the 34th year of the Republic of China), Lu Jiaxi was awarded the "scientific research and development achievement award" by the U.S. Bureau of scientific research and development

Return home with determination

In the winter of 1945, at the age of 30, Lu Jiaxi returned to China with the enthusiasm of "saving the country through science" and was employed as a professor and head of the Department of chemistry of Xiamen University.

From 1947 to 1948, at the invitation of Zhu Kezhen, President of Zhejiang University, and Hu Gangfu, Dean of Science College of Zhejiang University, he taught physical chemistry courses in Zhejiang University twice.

After 1950, Lu Jiaxi successively held the posts of Dean, deputy provost, deputy director of research department, minister, assistant to President and vice president of Xiamen University, and began to train postgraduates. With his efforts, Xiamen University is no longer only famous for its Department of Economics (founded by President Wang Yanan), but also one of the national key universities due to the rise of its Department of chemistry.

In 1955, he was elected member of the Chemistry Department of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (later renamed academician). In the same year, he was employed as a first-class professor by the Ministry of higher education. He was one of the youngest members and first-class professors in China at that time.

In 1956, Lu Jiaxi joined the Chinese agriculture and industry Democratic Party.

In 1958, according to the decision of the organization, Lu Jiaxi went to Fuzhou to participate in the preparation for the establishment of Fuzhou University and the former Fujian Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After many adjustments, he established the Fujian Institute of material structure of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In 1960, he served as vice president of Fuzhou University and director of Fujian Institute of material structure. Lu Jiaxi devoted a lot of effort to department layout, curriculum, book subscription, purchase of scientific research equipment, appointment of teachers and organization and management.

In 1966, when the "Cultural Revolution" broke out, Lu Jiaxi, one of the main leaders of Fuzhou University and President of Fujian Branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences, was doomed. He was one of the first "capitalist groups" in the "Cultural Revolution". After countless struggles in the early period of the "Cultural Revolution", he was finally dismissed from all his posts. As the object of labor reform, he was sent to the laboratory to wash beakers, tidy tables and chairs, move equipment, do sanitation, and wash toilets.

In 1969, under the protection of Zhou Enlai, representatives of the people's Liberation Army of Fuzhou University announced that they would lift their criticism of Lu Jiaxi and allow him to do some scientific research.

After 1972, Lu Jiaxi began to restore the scientific research team and equipment of Fujian Institute of material structure, concerned about and directed the research work of structural chemistry, crystal materials, catalysis, metal corrosion and protection, and gradually formed a comprehensive research institute of structural chemistry with obvious characteristics, especially in the field of cluster chemistry and new technology crystal materials It has made remarkable achievements and has a place in the world.

In May 1981, Lu Jiaxi became president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, chairman and member of the presidium.

In 1984, he was elected to the European Academy of Sciences.

In 1985, he was elected to the Third World Academy of Sciences.

In 1988, he was elected vice president of the Third World Academy of Sciences and was the first Chinese scientist to hold the post.

In 1987, he was employed as a foreign academician of the Royal Academy of science, literature and fine arts of Belgium.

On June 4, 2001, Lu Jiaxi died in Fuzhou at the age of 86.

Main achievements

Scientific research achievements

At the end of 1930s, Lu Jiaxi realized that the first development stage of physical chemistry, i.e. thermodynamics stage, had been perfected, and that structural chemistry would become the second development stage, so he chose this discipline as the main research direction.

At Caltech, Mr. Lu participated in the study of the molecular structure of hydrogen peroxide. Lu Jiaxi and p.a. Giguere skillfully used urea and hydrogen peroxide to form urea hydrogen peroxide adduct connected by hydrogen bond, and cultivated single crystal of this adduct. Interestingly, in this single crystal, hydrogen peroxide does not undergo conformational distortion due to the presence of urea. Then, he cooperated with E.W. Hughes to complete the crystal structure determination, which confirmed the theoretical analysis of hydrogen peroxide molecular structure by W. penny and g. Sutherland.

In 1943, he and J. Donohue studied the structures of sulfur nitrogen (s4n4), arsenic sulfur (As4S4) and other compounds by electron diffraction method, and determined what they called "cradle" eight member ring configuration. This research result was later confirmed by Donohue's crystal structure determination. These sulfur nitrogen non transition element clusters have the characteristics of "multi center bond" in structure, which has aroused great interest of Lu Jiaxi and is closely related to his later research on the active center model of nitrogenase.

As for the structural analysis method, he proposed a graphical method to deal with the polarization factor and Lorentz factor of the equal angle Weisenberg diffraction point, which became a relatively simple method commonly used in the world at that time, and was included in the International Mathematical table of crystallography (Second Edition).

In the early 1960s, when he founded Fujian Institute of material structure, Lu Jiaxi organized and led the research on transition metal complexes and some clusters, sulfur nitrogen cluster compounds, new technology crystals and materials, and made some gratifying achievements. For example, he cooperated with the Institute of biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shanghai Institute of organic chemistry to complete trichosanthin egg The first molecular model of ribosome co living protein was established.

In 1978, Lu Jiaxi published the paper "structural chemistry of cluster compounds" at the annual meeting of Chinese chemical society, which promoted the research in this field in China. His main achievements in chemical simulation of biological nitrogen fixation and transition metal cluster compounds are as follows:

1. The structure model of nitrogenase active center was proposed

In the 1960s, the structure research and chemical simulation of nitrogenase active center was a very complex work. From the perspective of structural chemistry, Lu Jiaxi analyzed the abnormal inertia of dinitrogen molecule and the structural problem of strengthening the complex activation of nitrogen molecule, and proposed the complex activation strategy

Chinese PinYin : Lu Jia Xi