Li Shu-hua

Li Shu-hua was a Chinese physicist and diplomat who was one of the earliest modern Chinese physicists, and is regarded as the founder of modern Chinese physics. He graduated from Tsinghua University in 1912 and obtained his PhD from the University of Munich in 1918. He returned to China in 1920 and worked at the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China and at the Academia Sinica. He also served as a professor and the director of the Department of Physics in Peking University. He was a pioneer in the study of physics, biophysics, and meteorology in China. He named and described many new physical phenomena, such as the Li effect, the Li-Fermi paradox, and the Li-Shen equation. He also participated in the excavation and research of the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian, which was a major discovery of human evolution. He was awarded the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award in 2005, which is the nation's highest scientific prize, and the International Meteorological Organization Prize in 2003, which is the highest award in meteorology. He was also a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He served as the President of the Executive Yuan (Premier) of the Republic of China from May to November 1948. He also participated in the conference for the founding of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and served as the chairman of the Chinese delegation to several general conferences of UNESCO. He died in 1979 at the age of 88 and was honored as a pioneer, a visionary, and an inspiration to many.