Qian Sanqiang

Qian Sanqiang and He Zehui on their return to China in 1948

Qian Sanqiang (Chinese: 钱三强) (October 16, 1913 – June 28, 1992) was a Chinese nuclear physicist.

Biography

The 1936 graduation class of the physics department at Tsinghua University. He Zehui (Ho Zah-wei) is at the front, second from right; Qian Sanqiang is at the back, far left.

A native of Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, Qian was born in Shaoxing, attending Peking University and Tsinghua University. He graduated in 1936 in a class with his future wife. His father is Qian Xuantong. Qian went to France in 1937. He studied in Collège de Sorbonne and Collège de France, doing research under Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie. He returned to China in 1948 with his wife, the nuclear physicist He Zehui.^[1]

In 1954 he joined the Communist Party of China. He served successively as Director of the Institute of Modern Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Vice-Minister of the No. 2 Ministry of the Machine-building Industry, Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and honorary Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology.

Qian made outstanding contributions to the establishment of nuclear science in the People's Republic of China and to the development of the PRC's atomic and hydrogen bombs.^[1]

References

1. Kristof, Nicholas D. (3 July 1992). "Qian Sanqiang, Chinese Physicist On Atom Bomb Team, Dies at 79". New York Times. Retrieved 10 February 2015.