Zhang Zongxuan (June 1, 1915 – June 30, 1969), a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, was a physicist who was mainly engaged in the research and teaching of theoretical physics, especially statistical physics, quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics and quantum field theory.
In 1930, Zhang Zongxuan entered the Department of Physics of Yenching University.
In 1931, Zhang Zongxuan was transferred to the Department of Physics of Tsinghua University and was guided by Wu Youxun, Zhao Zhongyao and other famous teachers.
In 1934, after graduating from Tsinghua University, Zhang Zongxuan entered the Tsinghua Research Institute and applied for Gengzi Compensation to study abroad in the same year.
In 1935, there was only one place in the physics major, and Wu Shi suggested that Zhang Zongxuan change to the astronomy major, Zhang Zongxuan obeyed the order, after a short-term quick course, that is, to obtain the Mei Geng fund, and then went to the Purple Mountain Observatory for half a year to practice, ready to go to the United States. However, Zhang Zongxuan had great ambitions in mathematics and theoretical physics, and at that time, the international academic standards were higher in Europe than in the United States; so he gave up the "Mei Geng Model".
In 1936, Zhang Zongxuan applied for the "Yinggeng Section" mathematics major, and the fourth "Yinggeng Section" mathematics major was two students Xu Baolu and Zhang Zongxuan.
In 1937, Zhang Zongxuan and Xu Baoluo came to the Department of Mathematics of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and like Wang Zhuxi in the United Kingdom in the early years, under the door of the statistical physicist R.H. Fowler, engaged in the research of statistical physics, published seven papers in two years, and obtained a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.
In 1938, Fowler recommended Zhang Zongxuan to work at the Institute of Theoretical Physics in Copenhagen, led by N.Bohr in Denmark. Here, he was influenced by the pioneers of modern physics, such as Dirac, Pauli, Rosenfeild, Wick, Moller, and Wilson, who changed his research direction to the emerging theoretical physics.
In 1939, Zhang Zongxuan went to the Federal University of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, where he worked with Wolfgang Pauli and wrote his first academic paper on quantum theory, "The Dependence of Processes Containing Mesons on Azimuth Angles". When Zhang Zongxuan's stay in The United Kingdom expired at public expense and the extension of one year was not approved, Niels Bohr expressed his willingness to stay in the Copenhagen laboratory to solve the problems of life. However, Zhang Zongxuan had always disliked experiments, and because the situation in Europe was very tense, he was worried that the expansion of the war would not return to the motherland, so he refused the care of Niels Bohr, bid farewell to Copenhagen in the autumn of 1939, and returned to Chongqing several times to become a professor of physics at Central University.
In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Zongxuan, who was Chinese New Year's Eve years old at the time, was recommended by Needham to go to cambridge university in the United Kingdom as a senior researcher of the British Council to conduct scientific research.
From 1946 to 1947, Zhang Zongxuan completed four high-level papers in Cambridge, and he proposed to start classes in Cambridge, which Dirac supported and arranged for him to teach field theory, which was the first time Chinese stepped on the Cambridge pulpit.
In 1947, Dirac recommended Zhang Zongxuan to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton for short-term research.
In 1948, Zhang zongxuan was invited to teach at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Philadelphia; due to visa delays and the fact that Peking University issued him a letter of appointment, he returned to China in the fall of that year to teach at Peking University. After returning to China, he completed the article "Field Theory of Relativity" and published it in the Physical Review of the United States.
In 1951, because he was good at the application of mathematics in physics, he began to work as a joint researcher at the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
At the end of 1956, Hua Luogeng suggested that Zongzong be admitted to the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as a first-class researcher and director of the Theoretical Physics Research Office.
In 1957, Zhang Zongxuan was elected as a member of the Faculty of Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Faculty of Physical Chemistry).
On June 30, 1969, Zhang Zongxuan died at the age of 54 after being persecuted by the ultra-left line.
Zhang Zongxuan has been engaged in education work for many years, and has made remarkable achievements in teaching, which has won praise from everyone. He has trained a number of graduate students, and his students are playing a backbone role in various relevant scientific research fields in China. Zhang Zongxuan loved the motherland, resolutely returned to China on the eve of liberation, he supported the party and socialism, he loved science, studied business assiduously, and contributed his life in the research of theoretical physics and the cultivation of talents.