AWARDEE OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

YANG JIACHI

Abstract

Yang Jiachi, satellite control specialist, was born in July 1919, in Wujiang, Jiangsu Province. He graduated with B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Jiaotong University of Shanghai in July 1941. He obtained graduate degrees of M.S. (1947) and Ph.D. (1949) from Harvard University of U.S., and served as Research Associate at University of Pennsylvania and Senior Engineer at Rockefeller Institute in U.S.A. He returned to China in 1956 and worked as a research fellow in the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Beginning from 1968, he worked for the development of satellites at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology. Long time he engaged in the research and development of instrumentation and control systems for rockets and nuclear bomb testing. His main contribution was the development of three axis attitude control systems for the returnable satellite. He is one of the four initiators of China's High-tech Development Plan(863 Plan) authorized by the Chinese government in 1986. He was one of the awardees of a Special Class Prize  for the Advancement of Science and Technology in 1985. He received personally a Tan Kah Kee Prize in Information Science in 1995. He was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics in 1985. At present, he is a consultant to the Chinese Academy of Space Technology.