In the first half of his life, after graduating from Tsinghua School, he went to the United States to study, showed his talents, made outstanding contributions to chemical research, and emerged in the world physical chemistry community. After returning to China, he worked hard and did his utmost to realize the ideal of saving the country through science and education. In the second half of his life, he devoted himself to the development and construction of Peking University, tirelessly devoted himself to teaching, scientific research and the management of the Department of Chemistry of Peking University. He led by example and cared for faculty, staff and students with modesty and care, and was loved by everyone. This passage describes Sun Chengwei, the pioneer and educator of theoretical chemistry in the mainland.
He was one of the earliest pioneers engaged in chemical kinetics research in China, and served as the head of the chemistry department of Peking University for a long time, working the education front for half a century, and making significant contributions to the cause of science education in the mainland.
Sun Chengwei (1935)
Source: Tsinghua Alumni Network
Famous overseas, with a heart for the family and country
Sun Chengchen's ancestral home is Shandong, born in 1911. He was bright when he was young and promising, and was a typical child prodigy "scholar", who was admitted to Tsinghua School at the age of only 12. At the age of 18, Sun went to the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his bachelor's and doctorate degrees in just four years, and was hired as a research assistant at Princeton University, when he had just turned 22.
Sun Chengwei at the University of Wisconsin (1913)
Source: Tsinghua Alumni Network
At that time, Princeton gathered the brightest minds in the world, was a scholar's paradise, and the academic atmosphere was extremely strong. Sun often consulted the Mathematical Physics Library in the Department of Mathematics, where scholars had afternoon tea and exchanged ideas.
"The small talk of afternoon tea led to many interdisciplinary combinations of common interests, and gave birth to new interdisciplinary results." In this environment, Sun Chengwei's research horizons have been expanded, and his academic foundation has become increasingly solid, and he has been involved in cutting-edge sciences such as thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and spectroscopy. Sun's deeper influence was undoubtedly on the Frick Chemical Laboratory where he worked. Here, he followed Arryn, the pioneer of quantum chemistry at the time, in his research.
In 1934, Sun Chengchen carried out a lot of computing work with a hand-cranked computer under the guidance of Arlin. The following year, the paper "Absolute Reaction Rate of Homogeneous Atomic Reactions" co-authored by teachers and students was published in the American Journal of Chemical Physics. The results of this paper were listed by the American Chemical Society as one of the centennial achievements of physical chemistry in 1976, and are still cited in chemical kinetics textbooks and monographs in various countries. Sun Chengchen is undoubtedly lucky to have been exposed to the most cutting-edge and promising scientific fields at such a young age, and to have made achievements that are recognized by everyone. But he is not attached to the achievements and status he has achieved in the American academic community, and he is always concerned about the land of his homeland. In 1935, Sun Chengchen resolutely bid farewell to the superior scientific research environment abroad and returned to the motherland where mountains and rivers were broken at that time.
He returned to China for the second time and devoted himself to chemistry
After returning to China, Sun Chengchen came to Peking University to teach, becoming the youngest professor at Peking University at that time. According to his student, Gu Delin, a later professor at the China University of Mining and Technology, recalled: "He gave well-organized, accurate and serious lectures. Be good at turning complexity into simplicity and turning difficulty into easy. The thesis topics he supervises are well-chosen, and he is kind to students and personally helpful. "So good teaching results can be achieved.
After the outbreak of the "Seven-Seven Incident" in 1937, Beiping and Tianjin fell one after another. Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Nankai University were forced to move south, and Sun Chengchen also moved to Kunming with the school, and continued to teach at Southwest Associated University. During this period, he was responsible for teaching courses such as "General Chemistry" and "Physical Chemistry".
Despite the difficult conditions, he has done research on the relationship between material structure and physical properties, the discussion process of organic chemistry reverse application activation energy calculation, and has published a series of high-level research papers. In 1947, Sun Chengchen was given a research opportunity to go to the United States to engage in research, and he came to the University of Minnesota to engage in the field of spectral theory.
However, as soon as he began his research, the domestic situation underwent tremendous changes, and Sun Chengchen, who had always been concerned about the fate of the motherland, declined the retention of many friends in the American scientific community at that time, and returned to China again at the end of 1948, returning to Peking University 20 days before the liberation of Beijing.
Since then, Sun Chengchen has devoted himself to the scientific research and development of chemistry in New China. He guided young teachers and students to carry out systematic research on the myenshutkin reaction between tertiary amines and haloalkanes, and proved that there was a relationship between the induction effect of organic groups and chemical activity, and this experimental result was highly praised by the chemical community at that time.
In addition to daily lesson preparation, lectures, and handouts, he was also invited to participate in the establishment of the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In November 1953, he became a member of the 16-member Preparatory Committee of the Institute of Chemistry, and when discussing the future research direction of the Institute, he put forward the view that "as the center of the chemical community, we should not only see the present, but should combine today with tomorrow".
In 1956, as a representative in the field of chemistry, he also participated in the formulation of the "Twelve Years of Science and Technology Development Long-term Plan" presided over by Premier Zhou Enlai. For the needs of the development of petrochemical industry in mainland China, Sun Chengchen is also engaged in research on catalytic kinetics and has made a number of achievements. Since the late 70s, he has traveled to universities and research institutes around the world, giving lectures to introduce the latest developments in the field of physical chemistry in the world.
In order to promote the scientific research and teaching of chemical kinetics on the mainland, he also came to the United States again at his own expense, mobilized talents to return to China, and organized the translation of the book "Chemical Kinetics and History".
Be a role model and sacrifice yourself
Sun Chengwei has always maintained a passion for education work, tireless, and is exemplary. He loves teaching and educating people from the bottom of his heart, and regards the cultivation of students into scientific and technological talents as his ideal. Sun Chengwei did not advocate cramming education and exam-oriented education, and during the Southwest Associated University period, the general chemistry courses he taught were relatively easy, and anyone who passed the small exam could take the big exam. But being approachable does not mean laissez-faire, and if students are found to have engaged in academic misconduct, Sun will give them the harshest punishment.
The Class of 1940 graduates of the Department of Chemistry of Peking University take a group photo with their division commanders, and the third from the left in the middle row are Zeng Zhaoxuan, Qian Siliang, Sun Chengwei and Liu Yunpu
Source: Peking University History Museum
Sun Chengchen cultivates students to have their own set of methods, mainly to cultivate students' scientific research ability, which has played a good role in promoting students' future scientific research path. Academician Liu Ruozhuang, the founder of computational chemistry in mainland China, is a graduate student of Sun Chengwei. According to his recollection, Sun Chengchen once gave him a topic to try to calculate the specific heat of toluene using the mechanical product method. Although Sun Chengchen himself has a full understanding of this work, in order to cultivate students' ability to do independent research, he did not directly tell students what to do, but asked him to start from the literature, study and calculate. Sun Chengchen is frank and honest, and often actively campaigning for others to obtain better scientific research conditions.
In 1951, Xu Guangxian and Gao Xiaoxia, who had just returned to China, had a difficult life, and Sun Chengchen vacated a large room for them to live temporarily. Whenever she recalls this past, Gao Xiaoxia is still grateful. In order to solve the housing problem of the new professor, Sun Chengchen took the lead in giving up the Yandongyuan small building where he lived, and moved to the Zhongguanyuan apartment with a small area and no kitchen, and lived in this apartment of only more than 40 square meters until his death, during which many opportunities to change houses were given to others.
During his tenure as the head of the Department of Chemistry of Peking University, in order to do a good job in the administrative work of the department, he sacrificed his scientific research time and took the initiative to pave the way for others to carry out teaching and scientific research, and made outstanding contributions to the construction and development of the Department of Chemistry. Sun Chengwei's life was low-key and simple, rarely showing his face, but he was deeply loved.
He died of illness in 1991, and according to his will, everything was simple, and no memorial service and farewell ceremony were held, but many people still spontaneously rushed to see him off, including gray-haired old people and young students. In order to develop science and education, Sun Chengchen devoted his life to the motherland and people he loved infinitely.
He worked the educational front, cultivated many scientists and various specialists, and made significant contributions to the cause of science education on the mainland.