Text | "China Science News" reporter Shen Chunlei
Opening remarks
From "two bombs and one satellite" to "Chang'e" to the moon, from "Jiaolong" to the Liaoning ship, from hybrid rice to oil exploration...... The academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering have taken the initiative to take the initiative to take on the mission, move forward pragmatically and courageously, and have made outstanding contributions.
2024 is the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and this newspaper will launch the column "Great Power Project, Mission Responsibility" from now on, telling the moving story of the academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering who are deeply engaged in their fields, rooted in the front line, and have the "great man of the country" in mind, and strive to be the "four examples", so as to review the development process of national engineering science and technology, carry forward the spirit of scientists, and encourage the majority of engineering and scientific and technological workers to continue to strive for the prosperity and strength of the country and the rejuvenation of the nation.
Courtesy of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
One day in late August 2023, at a test base in northwest China, an elderly man in his nineties was guiding the test at the site. He is Wang Zeshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. He said that only when he came to the scene and got the data as soon as possible could he rest assured.
"In my life, I'm not good at anything other than the study of explosives. As the first person to complete the research, this expert who is "only good at" the research of explosives has won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award once, the first prize of the National Technological Invention Award twice, and won the highest national science and technology award in 2017, known as the "triple crown" of fire explosives.
Professional no hot or cold
"Don't be a slave to the country", Wang Zeshan remembered this sentence in his childhood. Wang Zeshan was born in Jilin City, Jilin Province in 1935, when the three northeastern provinces of the mainland were occupied by Japan and the "puppet Manchukuo" was established.
"You are Chinese, your motherland is China. Wang Zeshan's father often whispered in his ear. Under the teachings of his father, Wang Zeshan, who witnessed the atrocities of the Japanese invaders, planted a seed in his heart to serve the country.
"A country without a national defense force is weak and has no right to speak. With this conviction, in 1954 Wang Zeshan applied for the Military Engineering Academy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and he was the only student in his class who voluntarily studied explosives.
Because of the narrow field of fire explosives research and the high danger of fire explosives, the development of fire explosives technology on the mainland has been relatively slow in the past few hundred years. Someone asked Wang Zeshan why he chose this unpopular major, and he replied: "This major is set up by the state, and if the country needs it, someone should do it." ”
It doesn't matter whether the major is hot or cold, as long as the motherland needs it, any major can shine. With such a belief, Wang Zeshan started a career of playing "fire", and since then he has brought "fire" to an unpopular major.
But it's not an easy road. At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the research and production of explosives in China was very backward, and it mainly relied on the support and support of the Soviet Union. Later, Soviet experts returned to China, and the mainland's research on fire explosives technology was difficult for a time.
"Tracking imitation will always be restricted by others, and we must be at the forefront of the world. Wang Zeshan practiced this sentence with a lifetime of research.
In 1960, after graduating from the Military Engineering College, Wang Zeshan entered the gunpowder laboratory of the Artillery Engineering College to engage in research and development. Wang Zeshan, who had just joined the work, had neither technical support nor advanced research platforms, but he was not discouraged, but was stimulated with a strong fighting spirit.
How did he make world-leading scientific research results in a backward small laboratory? This has puzzled many foreign military experts.
At that time, Wang Zeshan started from the construction of basic principles and theoretical systems, and little by little built the "four beams and eight pillars" in the professional field of mainland explosives. Even in the most difficult times, he did not give up research.
Hard work pays off. In this field of explosives, which was once considered "unpopular", Wang Zeshan finally ushered in a "big explosion" of scientific research through hard work.
Fire explosives "Triple Crown"
Gunpowder is one of the four great ancient inventions of the mainland, and it is also the ancestor of modern explosives. But in times of peace, those that have been stockpiled for an extended period of time are potentially harmful to the environment and society.
Internationally, there are three common ways to dispose of expired explosives. The first is to throw them on the high seas, but they are extremely polluting to the marine environment; the second is to bury them deeply, and expired fire explosives will generally fail after being buried for decades, but there are hidden dangers; and the third is to burn them in a concentrated manner, which not only pollutes the environment, but also is relatively dangerous in the process of operation.
Countries around the world are studying how to deal with expired fire explosives. Wang Zeshan led the team to run between the factory and the troops, overcame one difficulty after another, and finally successfully transformed the expired explosives into important industrial raw materials that can produce economic benefits, not only turning waste into treasure, but also selling well at home and abroad.
As the first person to complete the technology, Wang Zeshan won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 1993.
Subsequently, Wang Zeshan led the team to devote himself to a new research field - low-temperature sensing technology, which is a cutting-edge technology that has been of great concern at home and abroad for many years but is difficult to overcome.
Wang Zeshan's team found a new way to find low-temperature induced energetic materials by studying the compensation theory of combustion, and solved the problem of storage stability, which significantly improved the energy utilization rate. The completion of this technology won Wang Zeshan the first prize of the National Technological Invention Award in 1996.
After winning two national awards, the 61-year-old Wang Zeshan did not stop there. This time, he chose to challenge a technical problem in the field of world ordnance.
It is understood that scientists from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy have jointly carried out research on modular charges, which cost a lot of money and lasted for many years, and finally was interrupted because they could not break through the technical bottleneck.
Wang Zeshan led the team to spend 20 years and finally developed a universal universal universal modular charging technology. He won the national award again, won the first prize of the 2016 National Technological Invention Award, and was known as the "triple crown" of explosives.
"I'm only relieved if I'm there in person"
Despite the "triple crown", Wang Zeshan is still working on the front line. "My life has been inseparable from scientific research, and once I leave, I feel like I have lost the focus of my life. He said.
Because gunpowder is flammable and explosive, much of the verification work must be carried out in sparsely populated fields. The environment and conditions of the test site are very difficult, but Wang Zeshan never sits in the office and waits for the test data and results, and spends half of the time in the test site every year to guide the test.
There are many uncertainties in the verification of the performance parameters of fire explosives, and the test process is also quite dangerous. Wang Zeshan often said: "In order to collect accurate first-hand data, but also to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the entire test process, I can only rest assured if I am on site." ”
Once, at the Alxa shooting range in Inner Mongolia, when the outdoor temperature reached minus 27 degrees Celsius, the high-speed camera used for the test "struck" due to the harsh environment, but Wang Zeshan stayed outside with everyone all day. At night, Wang Zeshan also checked and verified all kinds of data obtained during the day, and repeatedly checked whether there were any omissions in the test process.
In the eyes of his colleagues, Wang Zeshan didn't seem to know tiredness at all. No matter how late he slept the day before, he would show up on the scene the next day in good spirits.
"When you do scientific research, you can't just be satisfied with winning a few awards, applying for a few patents, or publishing a few papers, you should find a way to turn the project into industrial production. In recent years, in order to promote the transformation of military projects into civilian use, Wang Zeshan has not only done his own research, but also guided enterprises to improve relevant technologies.
There is a company that needs to use explosives for the detonator it produces, and the relevant personnel of the enterprise have inquired about Wang Zeshan in many ways, hoping to seek technical cooperation. Wang Zeshan not only agreed to cooperate, but also went to the company's factory many times to do experiments and analyze first-hand data.
"Without the guidance of Academician Wang, even if the product sample is trial-produced, we still dare not organize large-scale production. The head of the enterprise said.
In order to relieve the concerns of the enterprise, Wang Zeshan not only gave specific guidance to each step, but also personally compiled the "Safety Operation Regulations" to strictly regulate the operation of each process.
"The most important thing is that the results are actually put into production. With the help of Wang Zeshan, the company's project passed the appraisal of scientific and technological achievements of gunpowder initiators by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the expected cost was at least 30% lower.
Donate tens of millions of prizes
On the one hand, he is "exquisite" to scientific research, and on the other hand, he is "attached" to material life, and Wang Zeshan has many unknown aspects.
A photo of an old man in simple clothes sitting on a wooden board eating a boxed lunch and holding a cake in his hand has gone viral on the Internet. The protagonist of the photo is Wang Zeshan, so he is affectionately called "Academician of Lunchbox" by netizens.
In December 2021, through a simple donation ceremony, Wang Zeshan donated a total of 10.5 million yuan to Nanjing University of Science and Technology, including the prize money of the highest national science and technology award.
He hopes that the funding will "support young talents who have made outstanding achievements in the field of scientific research and have obvious innovation potential in the long term". As a leader of national key disciplines, Wang Zeshan has devoted a lot of effort to discipline construction and talent training.
Over the years, Wang Zeshan has paid attention to the cultivation of talents with scientific research achievements, and introduced the latest research results into the classroom, integrated them into teaching materials, and formed monographs in a timely manner. Most of the students he trained have taken root in the front line of equipment research and development, and some have become leaders in the field of national defense science and technology.
Today, Wang Zeshan still adheres to the original intention of his youth and the responsibility of a scientist, and always pays attention to the development of China's explosives industry, hoping to push China's explosives technology to a new height, so as to defend every inch of the motherland's territory.
The fighting spirit of perseverance and never admit defeat, and the innovative spirit of pursuing excellence and bravely climbing the peak are the spiritual temperament flowing in Wang Zeshan, and they are also the driving force for his continuous exploration on the road of fire explosives scientific research.
