:Chen Jiayong

{{short description|Chinese hydrometallurgist and chemical engineer}}

{{Infobox scientist

| image =File:Chen Jiayong.jpg

| caption =

| name = Chen Jiayong

| birth_name =

| other_names = Chia-yung Chen

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1922|02|17}}

| birth_place = Jintang County, Sichuan, China

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2019|08|26|1922|02|17}}

| death_place = Beijing, China

| death_cause =

| resting_place = Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery

| resting_place_coordinates =

| fields = Chemical engineering
Hydrometallurgy

| workplaces = Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

| alma_mater = University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
National Central University

| awards = State Science and Technology Prizes (five times)
Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize (1996)

| known_for = Developing hydrometallurgy in China

| thesis_title =

| thesis_url =

| thesis_year =

| doctoral_advisor = H.F. Johnstone

| academic_advisors = Gao Jiyu, Sherlock Swann

| doctoral_students =

| notable_students =

| influences =

| influenced =

| spouse = Liu Rong

| partner =

| children = 2

| signature =

| website =

| footnotes =

| module = {{Infobox Chinese|child=yes

| s = {{linktext|陈|家|镛}}

| t = {{linktext|陳|家|鏞}}

| p = Chén Jiāyōng

| w = Ch'ên2 Chia1-yung1

}}

Chen Jiayong ({{zh|s=陈家镛}}; also romanized as Chia-yung Chen; 17 February 1922 – 26 August 2019) was a Chinese metallurgist and chemical engineer. He was a research professor and Vice President of the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). A pioneer in the development of hydrometallurgy in China, he was elected an academician of the CAS in 1980. He was awarded the State Science and Technology Prizes five times and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 1996.

Early life and education

Chen was born on 17 February 1922 in Jintang County, Sichuan. He was the fourth child and eldest son of his father Chen Songpu ({{zh|s=陈松谱|labels=no}}), a school teacher. In 1925, his family moved to Chengdu, where he studied at Chengdu County Primary School and Chengdu County High School (now Chengdu No. 7 High School).{{Cite web|url=http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2014/7/299637.shtm|script-title=zh:陈家镛院士：化工"牵手"冶金|last=Mao Zaisha 毛在砂|date=25 July 2014|website=Sciencenet |language=zh-cn |access-date=27 August 2019}}

In 1939, he was admitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering of National Central University, then exiled in Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He studied under some of the then top chemists of the country, including {{ill|Du Changming|zh|杜长明}}, {{ill|Gao Jiyu|zh|高济宇}}, and {{ill|Shi Jun (chemist)|lt=Shi Jun|zh|时钧}}. After graduating in 1943, he was hired by the university as a faculty member.{{Cite journal|last1=Liu|first1=Wei|last2=An|first2=Zhentao|last3=Mao|first3=Zaisha|date=March 2015|title=Chemical Metallurgist Chen Jiayong|url=http://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-GCKG201501011.htm|journal=Journal of Engineering Studies|volume=7|issue=1|pages=96–105 |doi=10.3724/SP.J.1224.2015.00096 |s2cid=252663069 |url-access=subscription}} Under the guidance of Gao Jiyu, he was the first in China to successfully synthesize the pesticide DDT.

Career in the United States

After the end of World War II, Chen was awarded a Chinese government scholarship to pursue graduate studies in the United States in 1947. He earned his master's and Ph.D. (in 1952) from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), under the supervision of Sherlock Swann and H.F. Johnstone.

In 1952, he became a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, before returning to UIUC to work under Johnstone. His highly cited paper "Filtration of Aerosols by Fibrous Media" was published in the journal Chemical Reviews in 1955.{{Cite journal|last=Chen|first=C. Y.|date=1 June 1955|title=Filtration of Aerosols By Fibrous Media|journal=Chemical Reviews|volume=55|issue=3|pages=595–623|doi=10.1021/cr50003a004|issn=0009-2665}} In 1954, he became a research engineer at the Yerkes Research Laboratory of the chemical company DuPont.

Career in China

In 1956, the American government reached an agreement with the PRC to permit Chinese students in the US to go home, who had been banned from moving back to China since the Korean War. Chen and his wife decided to return to China with their two daughters. On the invitation of the renowned metallurgist Ye Zhupei (Yap Chu-Phay), he accepted the position as Director of the Hydrometallurgical Laboratory of the Institute of Chemical Metallurgy (renamed as the Institute of Process Engineering in 2001), which was then being established by Ye under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Although not specifically trained in metallurgy, Chen accepted the challenge to develop hydrometallurgy in China. Hydrometallurgy, a more energy-efficient and cleaner process than traditional pyrometallurgy, is especially suitable for the extraction of uranium, copper, and other non-ferrous metals. He spent years working under harsh conditions at the copper mine of Dongchuan, Yunnan, and oversaw the construction of a copper factory nearby, which was opened in 1964. He also worked at the mines in Jinchuan, Gansu and Panzhihua, Sichuan, and made technological breakthroughs to efficiently separate non-ferrous metals such as gold, silver, copper, nickel, and cobalt. During the Cultural Revolution, the technologies he developed were exported to Albania as part of China's foreign-aid program. He later served as Vice President of the Institute of Process Engineering.

Chen supervised more than 50 graduate students, and published reference books including A Handbook on Hydrometallurgy (湿法冶金手册). He was awarded the State Science and Technology Prizes five times and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 1996. Chen was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980.{{Cite web|url=http://www.chinavitae.com/biography/Chen_Jiayong/full|title=Biography of Chen Jiayong|website=China Vitae|access-date=27 August 2019}}

In 2017, the CAS named China's first satellite for chemical engineering experiment after Chen. The CHEN Jiayong-1 was launched into space from India in February 2017. It was the first satellite named after a Chinese scientist.{{cite news |title=First Satellite with Chemical Engineering Experiment Named After CAS Member CHEN Jiayong |url=http://english.cas.cn/newsroom/news/201701/t20170117_173491.shtml |accessdate=27 August 2019 |publisher=Chinese Academy of Sciences |date=17 January 2017}}

Chen was a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He served five consecutive terms as a member of the 4th to the 8th National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.{{cite news|url=http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2019/08/26/619594.html |script-title=zh:湿法冶金开拓者陈家镛院士逝世享年98岁|trans-title=Academician Chen Jiayong, pioneer of hydrometallurgy, died at the age of 98 |work=Beijing News |date=26 August 2019 |language=zh}}

Death

On 26 August 2019, he died in Beijing at the age of 97.{{cite news|url=http://news.163.com/19/0826/17/ENH9CNBR000187VE.html |date=26 August 2019 |accessdate=2020-01-02 |work=Netease|language=zh|script-title=zh:97岁的陈家镛院士走了 "陈家镛一号"卫星仍在运行}} He was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.{{cite news |author=Shi Ming 石鸣 |url=https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_4257725 |script-title=zh:湿法冶金学家陈家镛逝世今年已有20位院士作别|trans-title=Chen Jiayong, a hydrometallurgist, passed away. Twenty academicians have died this year |work=The Paper |date=26 August 2019 |language=zh}}