Ye Duzheng: "Let foreigners come to connect with us"

【Pursuing the Spirit of Scientists】

Guangming Daily reporter Zhang Lei

In the history of the development of meteorological science in New China, a name is deeply engraved - Ye Duzheng.

In his 70-year academic career, he has made outstanding achievements in the fields of atmospheric dynamics, meteorology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, East Asian atmospheric circulation and global change science, and has become one of the main founders of modern meteorology in China, the founder of atmospheric physics in China and the pioneer of global climate change research. He attaches great importance to conducting research on the frontiers of science in the world, not just following foreigners to "connect with international standards", but "to let foreigners connect with us". He trained one meteorologist after another. He often said: "If the student is not superior to the teacher, then there is no development." ”

What kind of big wishes, big weather and big pattern does such an academic giant have in his chest?

Determined to be in the era of national peril

In 1916, China had its first climate record. It was also this year that Ye Duzheng was born in the home of a Daotai in the late Qing Dynasty in Tianjin. Among the fifteen children in the family, Ye Duzheng was the seventh oldest. At the age of 14, he entered the famous Nankai Middle School – before that, he received a private school education.

In 1931, the "918" incident broke out. Three years later, the Japanese imposed the area south of the Great Wall from Beijing to Tianjin as a "demilitarized zone, where a puppet government was established. A national tragedy began to fall on the Chinese people. In the era of "north China is big, but can't put a quiet desk", Ye Duzheng actively participated in the student movement, for which he was almost expelled from school when he was about to graduate from high school.

It was precisely in that era of war and national peril that Ye Duzheng set a lofty goal for his future life path.

"The science education of Nankai Middle School is very good, which has cultivated my interest in learning science, and I am determined to study science, and I must do a good job in science in the future." Chinese've been bullied so much! I felt that many feet were stepping on me, and I couldn't breathe. ”

In 1935, the "12.9" movement broke out, and Ye Duzheng, who had just been admitted to Tsinghua University, participated in the movement. Two years later, he returned to school and met the senior Qian Sanqiang at the table tennis table. Under the persuasion of Qian Sanqiang, Ye Duzheng gave up his favorite physics major and chose a meteorology major that is more practical to the country.

In 1945, Ye Duzheng went to the United States to study under the world-famous meteorologist and oceanographer C.G. Rossby.

"I don't regret it at all now"

In 1949, Ye Duzheng, who was far away in the United States, finished his studies, and his doctoral dissertation attracted the attention of the American meteorological community. The paper, which still has a profound impact on weather forecasting today, gave Mr. Ye a job that earned $4,300 a year, while a small university professor at the time earned just over $5,000 a year. Supported by the belief that "the motherland needs me", the young and promising Ye Duzheng rejected the HIGH salary retention of the US Weather Service. In order to facilitate the visa, he restored his student status with the help of his teachers. After a long year of waiting, in October 1950, just as New China was celebrating its first National Day, Ye Duzheng boarded a ship that would dock in Hong Kong...

Ye Duzheng's return to China increased the meteorological cause of New China to another outstanding meteorologist besides Zhu Kezhen and Zhao Jiuzhang. Back in China, Ye Duzheng quickly threw himself into the preparatory work of China's atmospheric science research institutions. After decades of hard work, the scientific research group of more than a dozen people who only studied classical climate has developed into an internationally renowned research institution, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which covers almost all branches of atmospheric science.

In 1979, Ye Duzheng, as the director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, led the Chinese Meteorological Mission on a visit to the United States. A friend of the same window who had tried to dissuade him from returning home, the first question they asked 29 years later was: "Do you regret it?" Ye Duzheng replied: "I have no regrets at all now: First, I am a Chinese, I do things for China, I do things for the Chinese people; second, the United States will not give me such a stage to give advice and plan." ”

"A real great scientist"

For a long time, several research directions in which China has occupied a place in international atmospheric science have been inextricably linked to Ye Duzheng's academic contributions. Supposedly, his past achievements could have firmly established his academic position in the field of meteorological sciences, but despite his advanced age, he began to devote himself to another new field of research, "global change".

In the past hundred years, the disorderly activities of human beings have caused a sharp deterioration of the living environment. While people were immersed in the joy of rapid economic development, Ye Duzheng was worried. So, in 2003, he first proposed the concept of "orderly human activity": human uncontrolled activities can lead to climate change, and climate change in turn constrains human activities, so that cross-interaction with each other will lead human beings into a dilemma that cannot be returned; human beings must limit their actions and take the path of sustainable development.

On May 27, 2003, good news came from Geneva, Switzerland: the Executive Board of the World Meteorological Organization held a meeting and decided to award the International Meteorological Organization Award (IMO), the highest award of the 48th World Meteorological Organization, to Chinese meteorologist Ye Duzheng in recognition of his contributions in the fields of establishing meteorology on the Tibetan Plateau, discovering abrupt changes in atmospheric circulation, proposing the theory of atmospheric energy dispersion, advocating global change studies linked to sustainable development, and adapting orderly human activities to the impact of global change.

"Mr. Ye is a real great scientist... He considered the problem not only from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, but from the perspective of the development of science in the country and the world, which was the mind of a great scientist. Scientific research and scientific activities should be for the country, for the people, for all of humanity, and are susceptible to adulteration if something else is taken into account, such as individuals or the sector. Academician Li Chongyin, a famous dynamic meteorologist, said.

"If the students are not better than me, I will fail"

"If my students aren't better than me, then I'm failing. I want my students to outdo me so that I feel successful. "In cultivating and promoting future generations of talents, Ye Duzheng has his own unique insights.

"Mr. Ye is great in my mind, whether it is in learning, being a person or governing." Talking about his mentor, Huang Ronghui, a famous meteorologist in China and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, felt sincere admiration. "I had the privilege of becoming a student of Mr. Ye in 1965. Mr. Ye hates 'not knowing how to pretend to understand' the most, and thinks that he must not be sloppy in learning. Students often like to use the big word 'discovery' when doing research, and Mr. Ye is very unhappy about this: 'What did you find?' Don't you just have to point it out? I was very impressed with that. ”

"Before the Cultural Revolution, the students' economic conditions were very tight, and I only had a living expense of more than forty yuan a month. Every time I travel or go out on business, it is Mr. Ye who spends. He was so tolerant and kind that he never cared about anything. Talking about the days he used to spend with his teacher, Huang Ronghui was unforgettable.

For this kind of good "talent inheritance effect", Wang Huijun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also has a deep feeling: "Mr. Ye is a person with integrity, national spirit and scientist conscience as his name suggests. The tradition of atmospheric physics can have such a good style of study is not unrelated to the drive of Mr. Ye and other older generations. ”

"There are so many things I want to do, and if I can complete most of my plans when I leave this world, I will have no regrets in life." On October 16, 2013, Ye Duzheng left without regrets. The academic legacy and personality charm he left behind are like the "Ye Du ZhengXing" in the sky, shining forever.

Guangming Daily (2021-02-04 16 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily