Chinese geneticist Tan Jiazhen dies at 100

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-01 18:10

SHANGHAI -- The remarkable Chinese geneticist Tan Jiazhen died of illness at 7:18 a.m. on Saturday, at the age of 100, in Shanghai East China Hospital.

He had long suffered from multiple organ dysfunction syndrome of heart, lung and kidney, said the hospital director Yu Zhuowei, adding that the centenarian could barely speak during his last days.

Tan Jiazhen

He said that the scientist's health had deteriorated in February, but he managed to pull through and celebrate his 100th birthday in September.

Tan left a widow, his second wife, at 87. His first wife died at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

Tan, founder of China's genetic science, was a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences, one of the only 11 Chinese scientists so honored.

As the third son of a six-child family, in Ningbo city of east Zhejiang Province, Tan showed talent in science in his primary school years.

He graduated from Dongwu University in 1930 and obtained a master's degree from Yencheng University in 1932, both in China, and a PhD from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1936. He later taught at Columbia University, and returned to China in 1937.

He gained a distinguished alumni award from Caltech, received Medal of Merit from Konstnz University of Germany and obtained the title as honorary citizen of the State of California.