Zhang Litong, female, a scientist in advanced aerospace materials, was born in Chongqing in April 1938, and graduated from Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, in 1961. She worked on ceramic matrix composites aimed for large space station in NASA Center for Commercial Development of Space on Materials for Space Structures as a senior visiting scholar from April 1989 to January 1991. She was elected the academician of the Academy of Chinese Engineering in 1995.
Prof.Zhang has been in charge of more than 30 projects by the financial supports from the state and other related departments. She won the First National Science and Technology Invention Prize in 2004. Before then, she had got one first, one second and two third prizes for the National Science and Technology Progress respectively. She also achieved the first or second Award at the provincial and departmental level for 16 times. 18 patents have been granted in the field of ceramics and their composites. More than 260 academic papers have been published and more than 200 papers were indexed by SCI, EI and ISTP. 78 students got their PhD or Master degree under her supervision. She was firstly entitled as the National Expert Made Outstanding Contributions in Science and Technology, in 1986. She was granted the Shaanxi Provincial Highest Technological Achievement Award in 2005.
Since 1970s, she had been working on investment castings for aeroengine blades. She found out the solutions to controlling the shape, roughness and impurities of the blades. A new kind of ceramics was invented to improve the precision of castings. This work made China enter into the advanced team in the field of investment casting. One first, one second and two third prizes of the National Science and Technology Progress Award were granted for this outstanding research.
Since 1990s, she has been working on Ceramic Matrix Composites (CMCs). She put forward a new theory to manufacture high performance CMCs with higher strength and toughness. She invented techniques for manufacturing lowcost and high performance CMCs characterized by longlife and oxidation resistance. China becomes the third country that grasps this technology because of this outstanding work. She was granted the First National Science and Technology Invention Award in 2004 for this outstanding research.
She is the creator of the National Key Laboratory of Thermostructural Composite Materials. The Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense entitled her research group as an Excellent Creative Research Group in National Defence Science, Technology and Industry. Currently, she is in charge of a Creative Research Group Development Program supported by the Ministry of Education.