A renowned mathematician who is also part of China’s Qian clan – a surname linked in the annals of Chinese scientific history to national pioneers in science and engineering – has become the latest US-based scientist to return to China.
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After more than 40 years in the United States, Qian Hong has left his endowed professorship at the University of Washington to join the prestigious and private Westlake University in eastern China.
Qian’s appointment last month as a full-time chair professor with the university’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, reversed a long-standing brain drain to the US and drew more attention than usual in China’s scientific community.
Generations of Qians have shaped the country’s pursuit of modernity and few names carry as much weight.
Qian’s grandfather, Qian Baojun, was a pioneer who studied in 1930s Britain before building China’s first chemical fibre programmes. Qian Xuesen is renowned as the father of its rocket programme, while Qian Sanqiang was a founder in atomic research.
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However, for decades, many of the clan’s brightest scientific minds have left for the United States where they became stars in American universities, often never to return. Among them was the Nobel-winning physicist Roger Y. Tsien, a nephew of Qian Xuesen.