Zhou Ren

Zhou was born in Jiangning County, Jiangsu, on August 5, 1892. After graduating from the Jiangnan Higher School, he arrived in the United States in 1910 at the age of 18 to begin his education at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

He returned to China after graduation and worked as an engineer in a construction company under the recommendation of Shi Liangcai, the chief editor of Shen Bao. He was a professor of Nanjing Higher Normal School from 1917 to 1979. In 1919 he was hired as the chief engineer of Sichuan Steelmaking Plant, serving until 1921. In 1922, he moved to Shanghai as dean of National Chiao Tung University, he remained there until 1927. After a short period (1927–1928) of teaching students at National Central University, he went to the Academia Sinica, where he served as director of Institute of Engineering. Zhou was elected a fellow of the Academia Sinica in 1948.[2]

Zhou remained in China after the defeat of the Nationalists over the Communists in the Chinese Civil War. After the founding of the Communist State, Zhou successively served as president of Laboratory of Engineering Experiment of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Institute of Metallurgy and Ceramics of CAS, Shanghai Metallurgy Institute, Shanghai Institute of Silicate Chemistry and Engineering, and Shanghai University of Science and Technology. He became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955.

In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the ten-year Cultural Revolution, Zhou suffered political persecution in the massive socialist movement, the Red Guards searched his house and confiscated his property. They put Zhou in isolation and under investigation, where he was mistreated and tortured.[3][4] Zhou died on December 3, 1973, aged 82.