Zhao Jiuzhang

Zhao Jiuzhang was a Chinese meteorologist and physicist who made significant contributions to the development and use of sounding rockets and artificial satellites in China. He graduated from Tsinghua University in 1933 and obtained his PhD from the University of Munich in 1938. He returned to China in 1950 and worked at the Institute of Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and later at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he served as the director and honorary director. He was also a professor at Peking University and Northwest University of Xi'an. He is widely regarded as the founder of Chinese atmospheric physics and the father of Chinese meteorology. He named and described many new phenomena and mechanisms in atmospheric circulation, long-wave dynamics, Tibetan Plateau meteorology, quasi-stationary active center, and physical mechanism about charged particles and magnetic field of outer-space. He established many research institutes and disciplines such as balloon sounding, observation of ozone, observation of sea wave, physical observation of cloud and mist, sounding rocket, and artificial satellite and so on. He also fostered a lot of outstanding scientists, which has a profound effect. Zhao had made pioneering and remarkable contributions to China's development of the atomic bomb, missile and satellite. He became a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955. With the approval of the International Minor Planet Nomenclature Committee, the Asteroid No. 7811, which was discovered on 23 February, 1982 by the CAS Purple Mountain Observatory, is named after Zhao – the Zhao Jiuzhang Star. To mark the late Prof. Zhao Jiuzhang, pioneer of China's modern meteorology, space science and satellite development, CAS and the International Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) jointly set up a Jeoujang Jaw Award in 2006. The prize is designed to recognize scientists who have made distinguished pioneering contributions to promoting space research, establishing new space science research branches and founding new exploration programs. He died in 1968 at the age of 61 and was honored as a pioneer, a visionary, and an inspiration to many.