AWARDEE OF EARTH SCIENCES PRIZE

CHENG YUQI

Abstract

Prof. Cheng Yuqi(Yu-Chi Cheng), geologist, was born on 7th October, 1912 in Jiashan, Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the Department of Earth Science, Tsinghua University with B. Sc. in 1933.  He received his Ph.  D. in 1938 and Hon.  D. Sc. in 1988 from the Liverpool University, U. K. He held the posts of Senior Geologist, Geological Survey of China, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Geology, Chief Geologist of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources and President of the Geological Society of China. He is at present the Honorary President of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and Chief Editor of the quarterly journal Acta Geologica Sinica.  He is also an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(elected in 1955).  He won the Special Award of the Li Shiguang Prize in Geological Science in 1995 and also other scientific and technological prizes and awards since the 1940's.  He is one of the leaders of the Chinese Geological Community since 1949.
In the field of metamorphic geology, his classic investigation in the Bettyhill migmatite region, North Scotland in the late 1930's, has elucidated the metasomatic mechanism of the formation of different types of migmatites from their parent metamorphic rocks.  In 1962, he proposed a very detailed classification of regional metamorphic rocks and migmatites in the treatise entitled “Some basic problems   of metamorphic rocks and related methods”. His current ideas, such as types of migmatization, polystage metamorphism and basic characters of metamorphic series and metamorphic belts of China, are summarized in 1986 in the book entitled “The Geology of China”, co-authored by Yang Zunyi and Wang Hongzhen and published in Oxford.  Since 1994, he has been studying on the anatectic transformation of the Late Archaean high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Taihang Mountains in North China with rather promising results.
In the domain of mineral resources investigation and metallogeny, the high-grade Kunyang phosphate deposit discovered by him and his colleagues in 1939 was first of its kind ever found in China. The concept of minerogenetic or metallogenetc series put forward by him and his co-workers in the late 70's has been accepted by many Chinese geologists as a working principle in the metallogenetic and prognostic studies of mineral deposits with rather fruitful results, and was one of the two main topics of discussion in the 9th IAGOD Symposium held in Beijing in 1994.
Since 1949, he also devoted to the study of Precambrian formations, especially the Early Precambrian metamorphic rock formations, of China, resulting in the publication of serial papers and relevant monograph and maps, and thus making important contributions to the development of Precambrian geology of China.
He published more than one hundred papers and eight special publications, either in China or abroad.