Profiles

Top scientists win national award

By Liu Weifeng and Guan Xiaofeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-10 06:07
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Ye Duzheng

Ye Duzheng a leading name in the world meteorological community has been universally recognized as the founder of New China's meteorological research.

As a pioneer of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Meteorology, Ye was the first in the world to stress the importance of the roof of the world as a heat source in summer and a cold source in winter.

Top scientists win national award
Ye Duzheng. [Xinhua]
His research in the field for almost half a century is considered as a major contribution to the understanding of general circulation over Asia.

Ye extended his studies to include the general circulation over the whole northern hemisphere.

His outstanding academic achievements have won him numerous prize awards and distinctions at national and international levels.

In February 2004, Ye received the prestigious International Meteorological Organization Prize (IMO Prize) from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

It was the first time that a Chinese scientist had been awarded the honour since the inception of the prize in 1955.

Michel Jarraud, WMO's secretary-general, said Ye was awarded the prize for "over six decades of meteorological investigation, research and training, and invaluable service to meteorology not only in China but also in Asia and at a global level."

Besides serving as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ye has worked in numerous international scientific organizations.

He is a foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters, honorary member of the Royal Meteorological Society of the United Kingdom, and honorary member of the American Meteorological Society.

Yesterday, when the 90-year-old received the 2005 National Top Prize for Science and Technology from the hands of President Hu Jintao, he had every reason to think that the choice he made in 1950 to return to motherland could not have been wiser.

Ye was born in North China's Tianjin Municipality in 1916. After graduating from the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1940, Ye left for the United States to further his studies.

In 1948, Ye received a PhD from the University of Chicago, where he was taught by the world famous meteorologist Carl-Gustav Rossby (1898-1957).

During his candidacy, Ye took an active part in Rossby's researches on the general circulation of the atmosphere, particularly the then newly discovered jet streams