AWARDEE OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

GAN FUXI

Abstract

Prof. Gan Fuxi, optical materials scientist, was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in January, 1933. He graduated from Zhejiang University in 1952, and received the Ph.D. degree from the Academy of Sciences USSR in 1959. He worked in Changchun Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, CAS in 1960～1964, as an associate professor and head of Optical Materials Division. He then moved to the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, CAS, and was appointed as head of Laser Materials Division (1964-1977). Prof. Gan used to serve for a long time (1977-1984) as director of Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics and vice president of Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1980 he was elected to be an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1994.
As a research professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he has long been engaged in the studies of optical and laser materials, in particular for developing new optical glasses and founding their manufacture bases in China in 1960s.
Prof. Gan Fuxi is a pioneer in development of laser materials in China. The first Nd-doped glass laser was emerged in China in 1962. The laser action of Nd3+ in phosphate and fluorophosphate glasses has been observed first in the world in 1965. A series of new Nd-doped laser glasses have been developed and put into large scale production, which have greatly promoted the development of high energy and high power solid state laser systems in our country. In 1980's he put more emphasis in development of tunable laser materials and fiber laser materials.
Since the middle of 1980's, Prof. Gan Fuxi put his efforts in opto-electronic materials, especially in optical data storage materials. He led the national development project for digital optical disks. He and his groups developed the magneto-optical rewritable optical disks and organic recordable CD disks in our country for the first time based on domestic resources and our own technology.
For his contribution in materials science and in optics, Gan Fuxi was awarded the National Natural Science Prize, National Prize for the Progress in Science and Technology and National Prize of Eminent Scientific Publications etc.
Prof. Gan Fuxi has long been engaged in the basic research of physics of amorphous solids, optical and spectroscopic properties of solids and optical memory. He has published more than three hundred scientific papers in foreign and domestic journals and as many as eight copies of treaties. The publications of their researches have been quoted at home and abroad.
Gan Fuxi is a research professor of Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, CAS, director of Joint Laboratory for Optical Disk Technology, CAS, chairman of Academic Committee of National Laboratory for Laser Technology. He is the supervisor of the Ph.D. degree students of both optics and materials science and member of Academic Degrees Committee of State Council. At present he is a member of Standing Committee of China Association for Science and Technology, vice president of the Chinese Optical Society and the Chinese Ceramic Society. He is also a member of editorial board of six international journals: such as Optical Materials, Noncrystalline Solids, and Pure and Applied Optics etc.