AWARDEE OF CHEMISTRY  PRIZE

YANG CHENGZONG

Abstract

Yang Chengzong(Yang Jeng-tsong), founder of radiochemistry in New China, was born 1911 at Wujiang county, Jiangsu Province. He commenced his study of radiochemistry 1934 in the Institute of Physics-Radium of National Academy of Peking. Yang worked in the Curie Laboratory of University of Paris since early 1947 under the direction of Madame Irene Joliot-Curie, and succeeded in the study of separation of trace amounts of radioelements from weighable quantities of carrier substance. He was awarded the Doctor Degree in 1951.
When Yang was preparing his way home, Professor Frederic Joliot-Curie, the President of World Council for Peace, asked Yang deliver his confidential  message to President Mao Tse-tong: “......you must guard the peace and oppose the atomic bomb, you must have the atomic bomb yourself......".Yang returned  to his motherland in fall 1951. It is reported the message had helped the ultimate decision by Chinese authorities to develop the atomic weapon.
Yang acted as the Head of Radiochemistry in Institute of Atomic Energy of the Academy,  he established the first radiochemical laboratory in China, numerous young successful radiochemists emerged from there. Concurrently, as Head of Laboratory of Application of Radioisotopes, Yang was charged of their proper utilization in fields of industry, agriculture and medicine.
After the retreat of Soviet experts from China, Yang was recruited in 1961 by Government to be the Vice-Director of Institute of Uranium. He and his colleagues accepted the heavy task, invented a new processing model, built a pilot plant for the production of nuclear pure uranium. After two years of hard work they attained the quantity sufficient for the first atomic explosion test 1964, absolutely without any aid from abroad.
Yang was professor of radiochemistry in the University of Science and Technology in  1958. From 1970,he went to Hefei to join the University removed there. As the Head of Chemistry Department he presided the National Congress for Combustion Mechanism in Rocket Propellants. He proposed and finally succeeded to build a synchrotron radiation facility in the University. Then he directed nuclearchemical researches by means of photonuclear reaction resulted from the 200 MeV electron accelerator. He paved ways suitable for nuclear scientific workers in Chinese inland cities. Yang was named Vice-President of USTC since 1979.
In 1980,Yang proposed the creation of a new conception high educational institution for the city -the Hefei Union University. He was appointed as its first president, about 20 000 students were graduated  so far while the Government paid only little subvention.
Yang was the Chairman of  Professional Committee of Nuclear and Radiochemistry of the Chinese Chemical Society, as well as that of the Chinese Nuclear Society.  Yang was elected  delegate of the 3th、4th、5th、6th、7th National People's Congress, was Deputy Chairman of Standing Committee of Anhui Provincial People's Congress, and was the President of Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Association.