Editor's Note
A hundred years of wind and rain baptism, the party flag is more bright red. July 1, 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Communist Party of China, whether it is a war year or a period of peaceful construction, whether it is reform and opening up, or into a new era, Dalian has emerged a number of outstanding Communist Party members, they are the model of the times, is the hero of the nation.
Dalian News media group, together with the Party School of the Dalian Municipal CPC Committee, the Party Research Office of the Dalian Municipal CPC Committee, the Dalian Federation of Trade Unions, and the Dalian Military Sub-district, jointly launched the column "100 Faces of Dalian in the Centenary of the Founding of the Party", with the intention of reliving history and facing the future. Let these 100 faces of hometown people become the eternal memory of the city and the vivid connotation of the spirit of Dalian.
"100 Dalian Faces in the Centenary of the Founding of the Party", No. 46, "Zhang Dayu: One of the Pioneers of Catalysis Science".
Zhang Dayu
Zhang Dayu is a famous physical chemist in China, one of the pioneers of catalytic science, and one of the founders of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics).
In June 1960, Zhang Dayu joined the Communist Party of China. He has made outstanding contributions to the development of China's scientific research and laid a solid foundation for the development of Dalian Institute of Chemicals.
Zhang Dayu was born in January 1906 in Jiangyin County, Jiangsu Province. He was admitted to the first university class of Tsinghua University with excellent results. After graduation, he went to Germany to study, and then returned to Tsinghua to teach, along the way, witnessing the scenes of the motherland being wantonly trampled by the great powers and the tragic persecution of his compatriots. Zhang Dayu was impatient and determined to save the motherland from water and fire with "industry" and "science".
In 1940, Zhang Dayu accepted a letter of appointment from the Institute of Chemistry of the Academia Sinica, and after obtaining the important result of "obtaining the first high-quality gasoline and a large amount of asphalt from the low-temperature dry distillation of Lignite in China", Zhang Dayu began to travel around for industrial transformation. In September 1945, tsinghua university hired Zhang Dayu as the first head of the department of chemical engineering in the School of Science. At the same time, the Yunnan Economic Commission also issued an invitation to him, and he accepted the invitation to travel from Kunming to Shanghai to found the China Oleochemical Plant and serve as the chief engineer.
In 1949, under the arrangement of the party organization, Zhang Dayu set off from Shanghai and arrived in Dalian after several trips. After taking up a position at the Institute of Scientific Research of Dalian University, Zhang Dayu immediately began to investigate and visit. Inspired by his aspirations to serve the country, Su Ziyu, Dong Wantang, Lou Nanquan, Lu Peizhang, Jiang Bingnan, Guo Xiexian, and Guo Hefu, the eldest son of Guo Moruo, who returned to China, came to the institute one after another. Under Zhang Dayu's strategic planning, a scientific research institution that has experienced the war has been transformed into a petrochemical and coal chemistry research institution managed by the Chinese, the Petroleum Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
From the original Institute of Science of Dalian University to today's Dalian Institute of Chemicals, behind several name changes, it is related to a number of major scientific research issues in national construction, and Zhang Dayu will always appear. He timely adjusted the research direction and discipline layout of the institute, scientifically formulated higher development goals, and promoted the development of catalysis and chromatography, filling the gap in Chinese chemical research at that time. Faced with the heavy trust of the Ministry of Chemical Industry, Zhang Dayu resolutely took over the development of three catalysts required for the new process of gas purification of synthetic ammonia raw materials. In June 1966, Shijiazhuang Fertilizer Plant Synthetic Ammonia Plant was successfully put into operation and rapidly promoted and applied, China's synthetic ammonia industry level jumped from the 1940s to the level of the 60s, and is still known as "the miracle in the history of Chinese chemistry".
On February 20, 1989, Zhang Dayu died of illness at the age of 83. He was concerned about the lifeblood of the national economy, dared to face the cutting-edge problems of national defense, and successively led the research institute to undertake arduous tasks such as the development of aviation fuel and solid rocket propellants, heavy water research, fuel cell research, etc., and made indelible contributions to national defense science and technology represented by "two bombs and one satellite".
Source: Daguan News
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