Qian Xuesen

Qian Xuesen was a Chinese scientist who made significant contributions to the field of aerodynamics and established engineering cybernetics. He received his undergraduate education in mechanical engineering at National Chiao Tung University in Shanghai in 1934 and took a pre-departure transitional year in aircraft design at National Tsinghua University in Beijing. He travelled to the United States in 1935 and attained a master's degree in aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1936. Afterward, he joined Theodore von Kármán's group at the California Institute of Technology in 1936, received a doctorate in aeronautics and mathematics there in 1939, and became an associate professor at Caltech in 1943. While at Caltech, Qian helped found NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. [1] He was recruited by the United States Department of Defense and the Department of War to serve in various positions, including as an expert consultant with a colonel rank in 1945. At the same time, he became an associate professor at MIT in 1946, a full professor at MIT in 1947, and a full professor at Caltech in 1949. [2] During the Second Red Scare in the 1950s, the United States federal government accused him of communist sympathies and placed him under house arrest for five years. In 1955, he was released and deported to China in exchange for American prisoners of war. He received a hero's welcome from the Chinese government, which appointed him as the director of the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of National Defense, responsible for developing China's ballistic missile program. He also founded the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and served as the vice director of the People's Liberation Army Defense Technology Commission. He was widely recognized as the "father of Chinese aerospace" and the founder of engineering cybernetics. He received many honors and awards, including the Chinese Academy of Science Academician, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Caltech, the Chinese Academy of Engineering Academician, and the Two Bombs, One Satellite Merit Medal. He died of lung illness in Beijing on October 31, 2009, at the age of 97. [3]