‘BeiDou Goddess’: key figure in China GPS-equivalent satellite system, earns PhD by 26

A Chinese scientist behind China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System rejects the “goddess” label, asserting that research transcends gender.

Xu Ying, 43, hails from Sichuan province in southwestern China, born to a maths teacher mother and an agricultural technician father.

As a gifted child with a passion for physics and mathematics, Xu began primary school at the age of four, entered university at 16 to pursue communications engineering, and consistently ranked at the top of her class each school term, according to reports from mainland sources.

At 20, she enrolled in a combined master’s and doctoral programme at the Beijing Institute of Technology, and three years later, she became part of the team developing BeiDou, China’s indigenous satellite navigation system.

Now a competitor to the US GPS and Russia’s GLONASS, BeiDou is utilised in transport, weather forecasting, disaster relief, and public safety, boasting cooperation agreements with 137 countries and regions.

  

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