On the evening of October 4, the official website of Nankai University released an obituary saying that Comrade Li Zhengming, an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a famous educator, chemist, pesticide scientist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Nankai University, died in Tianjin at the age of 90 due to illness at 11:16 on October 4, 2021.
He spent his life to "correct the name" of Chinese pesticides, trained a large number of pesticide scientific talents, presided over the development of China's first ultra-efficient green herbicide with independent intellectual property rights "monopyrosulfuron", and pushed the development of Pesticide Science in China to a new height.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="76" > "I want to go back to my homeland"</h1>
Li Zhengming was born in Shanghai in 1931 to an intellectual family. Grandfathers, uncles, fathers, and mothers all returned to China to work after studying abroad. Li Zhengming learned from his ancestors to return to China and serve the country, setting an example for his life choices many years later.
In 1948, Li Zhengming was admitted to the United States Private University Joint Scholarship to study chemistry at Erskine College in the United States. Independent in life and hard work in school, Li Zhengming soon emerged in school. In particular, he excelled in the organic chemistry course, and Professor E. A. Sloan, the head of the chemistry department at the university, was very satisfied with it and entrusted him with some of the management of the experimental class.
Returned to his alma mater, Erskine University
In 1951, during the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the United States constantly set off a wave of anti-China and anti-New China. Li Zhengming, who was full of patriotic feelings, was very dissatisfied with this, so he began to consider interrupting his studies and returning to China early. After overcoming a series of obstacles, Li Zhengming finally returned to the embrace of New China in 1953 as the first batch of students to return to China by boat.
Recalling this past many years later, Li Zhengming said with emotion: "Most of our generation cherish the ideal of saving the country through science. When I went to the United States to study advanced science and technology, I wanted to serve the motherland after I finished my studies, and my parents have always taught me to return to China to contribute after getting a degree. I have a lot of older generation of scientist friends around me, all born in that era, with the same ideals, all of them are very talented, and finally choose to return to their homeland. If there had been no Korean War, no discrimination, no exclusion, I might have continued my PhD there, but I would have returned to my home country in the end. ”
He felt that in order to build a modern motherland, it was his greatest personal happiness to unite and struggle with comrades, share the worries of setbacks and share the joy of success, and get the understanding and support of his family, and sprinkle the sweat of youth on the land of the motherland.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="75" > a hundred wastes to be revived</h1>
In 1953, Li Zhengming was assigned to work at Nankai University. At that time, not long after the founding of New China, the cause of science and technology had just started, and it was still in a situation of waste waiting to be rebuilt.
China's pesticide industry is blank, and pesticide production urgently needs a large number of professionals. In 1956, Yang Shixian,then president of Nankai University (chemist, educator, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences), participated in the formulation of China's first science and technology development plan personally presided over by Premier Zhou Enlai, and was entrusted by Zhou Enlai to undertake the task of pesticide development and study organophosphorus chemistry, which was still blank in China at that time. Li Zhengming took the initiative to connect his research direction with the needs of the country, and shifted from elemental organic chemistry to pesticide chemistry research.
In 1958, Yang Shixian assigned Li Zhengming to organize and coordinate several young researchers to complete the synthesis process of the organophosphorus insecticide project of the new Tianjin Pesticide Factory. This is the first organophosphorus insecticide "parathion" in China, because there is not much relevant information, and the research process is very difficult. Li Zhengming and several of them lived in the laboratory in order to catch up with the task, and worked for more than 40 days and nights, and they were stunned to attack the key technical difficulties and provide production units to adopt.
In 1962, the institute of elemental organic chemistry of Nankai University, the first professional institution for chemical research in colleges and universities, was established, which was the initial stage of organophosphorus pesticide research in China. Li Zhengming also participated in the research project "Phosphorus 32, Phosphorus 47 New Pesticide" led by Yang Shixian, and won the National Science Conference Award in 1978.
In 1962, in the early days of the construction of the Institute of Elemental Organic Chemistry, Li Zhengming (first left in the back row) and colleagues took a group photo in front of the main building of Nankai University
In 1981, Li Zhengming (first from the right) attended the International Conference on Organophosphorus Chemistry
In 1985, Li Zhengming and other comrades applied for the construction project of the State Key Laboratory of Elemental Organic Chemistry and was approved, and Li Zhengming was appointed as the first director and director of the academic committee. With their efforts, the State Key Laboratory has promoted high-level academic exchanges and gathered and cultivated a group of high-level scientific and technological talents.
At the first national summary and commendation conference of the "State Key Laboratory", the State Key Laboratory of Elemental Organic Chemistry of Nankai University was rated as one of the eight outstanding state key laboratories in the country, and Li Zhengming was rated as an advanced individual and won the Golden Bull Award.
In 1985, Li Zhengming exchanged views with comrades in the research group
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > as an affordable pesticide for farmers</h1>
Although many achievements have been made in years of work, China's foundation in pesticide development is very weak, and there is a lack of independent innovation products, which has always been a pain in Li Zhengming's heart. He was determined to create our own new pesticide products. In the 1980s, Li Zhengming set his sights on the research of green ultra-efficient herbicides and fought for more than 30 years.
In 1999, Li Zhengming (left) visited the Institute of Elemental Organic Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences
Behind the glory is unremitting hard work. A large number of field efficacy tests, toxicity tests and environmental evaluation tests, the whole creation process cycle is long, the risk is large. A cooperative enterprise knew that innovative products had to go through a lengthy review process, with a large time span and certain risks, and unilaterally withdrew the contract, resulting in the research work on the verge of extinction.
Some of the participants in the project, seeing that the future was uncertain, left one after another, leaving Li Zhengming and another technician at one point.
In 2007, monopyrosulfuron passed the approval of the official registration of new pesticides by the Ministry of Agriculture. This is China's first ultra-efficient green herbicide with independent intellectual property rights "monosulfuron", which fills the technical gap in the field of grain field weeding at home and abroad, and also enables Chinese farmers to use domestic pesticides and increase grain production. The achievement "Research on the Creation and Development of Environment-Friendly and Ultra-Efficient Herbicides" won the second prize of China's National Technological Invention Award in 2007.
In 2013, monosulfonates have undergone 11 years of strict national review and passed the approval of the official registration of new pesticides by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Recalling the process of his pesticide scientific research, Li Zhengming said: "This creation process is too long, I think, but also rely on their firm beliefs to persevere to the end." ”
Pesticide independent innovation is a complex system engineering. Li Zhengming closely combines basic research with national demand, scientific research and technological innovation, development research and industrialization, and has always unremittingly created and developed pesticide products with independent intellectual property rights in China. In the history of the three major awards of the National Natural Science Award, the Technological Invention Award and the Science and Technology Progress Award, Li Zhengming's name has been left. In 1995, Li Zhengming was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, becoming the first academician of the Academy of Engineering of Nankai University. In 2007, it was awarded the "China Pesticide Industry" Outstanding Achievement Award by the China Pesticide Industry Association.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="43" > inherit the aspirations of the predecessors and enlighten the winds of the future</h1> generations
Li Zhengming once served as the scientific research assistant of the old president Yang Shi, and after the trial implementation of the postgraduate education system in china, he became the only graduate student of Yang Shixian at that time. In 1956, Li Zhengming received the No. 001 graduate diploma of Nankai University. Under the inspiration of his mentor, Li Zhengming also aspired to devote his life to the education cause of Nankai University.
In 1978, Li Zhengming (left) and his mentor Yang Shixian (right) took a group photo
In 2014, Li Zhengming donated all the 500,000 yuan of the Tianjin Science and Technology Major Achievement Award to nankai university "Yang Shixian Scholarship" to encourage more chemistry students to stand out and achieve the goal of his mentor Mr. Yang Shixian's lifelong struggle.
"Noble thoughts will inspire great power, and I benefit from my mentor, Principal Yang Shixian, and I should also pass on the spirit of my alma mater and mentor to my students." Nowadays, the elderly Li Zhengming insists on staying on the front line of scientific research and insists on personally supervising graduate students.
In the past few decades of teaching, he has trained more than 140 doctoral, postdoctoral and master's students. Many of the graduate students who graduated from him have become the academic leaders of the new generation in the field of chemical sciences.
Doctoral and master's students graduated from Li Zhengming's research group
Li Zhengming not only pays attention to the imparting of students' knowledge, but also has a good relationship with students in private. "I regard my students as friends and my own children, and I hope that they will not only regard me as a teacher, but also as a friend and a relative."
In 2013, Li Zhengming directed the test
In addition to the busy experiments, Li Zhengming's research group will also regularly hold a variety of sports and cultural and entertainment interactions, such as hiking, dinner, badminton matches, etc. The students said: "Everyone has fun and fun together, all the haze and pressure are swept away, and they can confidently devote themselves to new learning and life." "When you come to Mr. Li's door, you will become more versatile and will become more loving of life!"
Today, Academician Li Zhengming has left us forever.
Deep condolences,
Remember forever!
Text: Collection Engineering Project Office/Innovation Strategy Research Institute of China Association for Science and Technology
bibliography:
LI Yanhong. Li Zhengming: Immersed in the three agricultural feelings are more intense[N]. China Science Daily, 2015.1.9.
Yang Yidan. Inheriting the Soul of The Master in The South, To the Rapid Changes——An Interview with Academician Li Zhengming[J]. Chinese Graduate Student,2014,05:13-16.
[3] The image in this article is from the academic growth data collection project of old scientists