AWARDEE OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

YU GUOCONG

Abstract

Professor Yu Guocong (Kuo Tsung Yu), a specialist in chemical engineering, was born in Guangzhou on November 18, 1922. After graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Southwest Associated University in 1943, he worked in the Central Bureau of Industrial Research in Chongqing for a short time and went to United States for advanced study. He received his M.S. degree from the University of Michigan in 1945 and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1947.  Since then he was assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh (1948-1950).
After the founding of People's Republic, Professor Yu came back to China in 1950 and served as professor and head of Chemical Engineering Department at the Tangshen Engineering College of North Jiaotong University.  In 1952, he was transferred to Tianjin University after the national reorganization of educational institutions.  In the mid-fifties, he initiated distillation research in China in simulating industrial equipment and close rectification. From late fifties, he engaged in      the research of producing heavy water for the national need, and later was one of the chief experts in the national heavy water program. He also organized a specialty in Tianjin University for training the first group of university graduates specialized in heavy water production as well as stable isotope separation in China.
In the eighties, Professor Yu as director of Chemical Engineering Research Center at the Tianjin University resumed his distillation research, covering both fundamental and applied area. With his innovations of new tower intemals and process modeling, he and his research team had emical and chemical industries with improving both capacity and product quality as well as resulting huge economic gains. In the nineties, in view of his achievement, a leading base for promoting the scientific and technological levels of distillation in China were established in Tianjin under his academic direction by the Chinese authority, consisting of national promoting center, state key laboratory and national engineering research center.
Professor Yu has published about 200 technical papers and edited 7 books.  He has been in frequent international academic exchanges and research co-operations in United Kingdom, United States and other countries.  He has received 8 prizes of scientific and technological advancement from the State and the State Education Commission, and the May First Labor Medal for outstanding scientific researcher.  He was elected as member of The Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.