How Do I Become a Biochemistry Professor?

Wu Xian (1893-1959), a native of Fuzhou, Fujian. Biochemist, nutritionist, medical educator. The first academician of the Academia Sinica and a visiting professor at the University of Alabama. ^[1]

Wu Xian

(Biochemist, nutritionist)

Family background

In 1893, Wu Xian was born in a government-educated and co-authored family in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. Grandfather Wu Weizhen (1831-1903) was a local salt merchant, his father Wu Xiaozheng (1874-1954) and his mother Liang Rongfu (1875-1939). There were three siblings in the family, and he ranked second. Wu Xian spent his childhood at his grandmother's house. At the age of six, he returned to his parents and began to study the scriptures.

Because of his intelligence and diligence, he was a talented student and took the national imperial examination in 1904. In 1906, he entered the preparatory class of the Fujian Higher School (now the predecessor of Fuzhou No. 1 Middle School) and received a new education. After 4 years of schooling, he passed the Gengyang Examination organized by the Qing government.

In the spring of 1911, he entered the preparatory class for studying in the United States (the predecessor of Tsinghua University). After a semester of training in the United States, Wu Xian, as one of the first 62 members of the school, went to Shanghai to study in the United States by ship. He arrived in San Francisco, USA on September 4, and studied at MIT. Before he left, he went home and saved the family, and was ordered to marry a girl who was unknown to his grandmother.

Study in the United States

Wu Xian published 163 papers in his lifetime, of which

From 1921 to 1927, he was a member of the Chemistry Group of the Chinese Scientific Nomenclature Review Committee.

1926, participating organizations

Wu Xian's contributions to the international biochemistry and Chinese scientific undertakings are outstanding, which has earned him his reputation in the international academic community and his status in the Chinese scientific community.

He is international

Wu Xian is a slender, strong, energetic, sharp-minded, calm, resourceful, self-cultivating and compassionate person who is taciturn. He has a wide range of interests, a passion for life, and a human touch. He once told his colleagues: "My motto is three truths: true knowledge, truth, and truth. You need to be knowledgeable when you are learning, you must be truthful when you are experimenting, and you must always be seeking truth." ", Careful thinking, experimentation, discernment, and dedication" are not only the pursuit of his life, but also the true portrayal of his life. There are many outstanding qualities in his personality. The most distinctive feature is his unswerving pursuit of perfection. No matter what he does, whether for himself or for others, he always asks himself this way. His colleague said: "Whether he published a paper or reviewed other manuscripts, he carefully considered and modified every sentence, every data, and even every punctuation mark in the manuscript until he felt satisfied." His pursuit of perfection is not only reflected in his career, but also in his personal life.

desire

He desires and seeks perfect and harmonious family life. He never knew each other before marrying his first wife. He went to the United States to study immediately after marriage. During the past nine years, he repeatedly wrote letters to go home and asked his wife to go to school. However, due to various reasons, his request was not accepted, so the couple It is conceivable that the interests of each other are quite different. In the first year after returning to China, Wu Xian was not only busy with work, but also devoted a lot of energy and time to help and affect his wife, in order to eliminate the gap between the two sides, so that she can spend life with her like-minded, but his efforts Still failed. In the end, he had to make a painful conclusion: this is a marriage that should not have existed, and it should be lifted. Divorce at that time required great courage. For the long-term interests of both parties, he withstood the pressure and misunderstanding from all sides, and obtained the consent of his wife to terminate the marriage. Later, he met at work

As an outstanding scientist, Wu Xian belongs not only to his family, but also to China and the world. After Wu Xian died on August 8, 1959,

American scholar J. Reardon-Anderson described him as "the giant of Chinese chemistry" and commented: "There is no doubt that Wu Xian was China's greatest chemist in the first half of the 20th century, or rather Is the greatest scientist. When he published his first research in 1919, there was no chemical research of any kind in China. "By 1949," when chemical research had developed throughout the country, for this cause, No one contributes more than Wu Xian. "As a master of science, Wu Xian's contributions are mainly reflected in two aspects, namely academic research and the development of Chinese scientific undertakings.