Li Lin (physicist)
{{short description|Chinese physicist (1923–2003)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2018}}
{{distinguish|Li Lin (biochemist)}}
{{family name hatnote|Li|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name=Li Lin
|image=Li Lin (physicist).jpg
|alt=
|caption=Li Lin in 1948
|birth_date= {{birth date|1923|10|31|df=y}}
|birth_place= Beijing, China
|birth_name = Li Xizhi
|death_date= {{death date and age|2003|5|31|1923|10|31|df=y}}
|death_place= Beijing, China
|fields= Metallurgy, nuclear power, high-temperature superconductivity
|known_for=
|years_active=
|alma_mater = {{plainlist|
}}
|work_institutions = {{plainlist|
- Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy
- Institute of Physics, CAS
- Institute of High Energy Physics
}}
|doctoral_advisor =
|notable_students =
|prizes = State Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class), 1992
|spouse = {{marriage|Chen-Lu Tsou|1948}}
|module = {{Chinese |child=yes |c=李林 |p=Lǐ Lín |w=Li Lin}}
}}
Li Lin ({{zh|c=李林}}; 31 October 1923 – 31 May 2003) was a Chinese physicist. She made important contributions to China's metallurgy, nuclear power, and high-temperature superconductivity programs, and was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980. Her father Li Siguang and husband Chen-Lu Tsou were also prominent scientists and academicians.
Early life and education
File:Li Siguang, Xu Shubin and Li Lin.jpg
Li was born Li Xizhi ({{lang|zh|李熙芝}}) in Beijing on 31 October 1923,{{Cite web|url=http://www.93.gov.cn/hero/academ/51717694002709699911.shtml|title=Li Lin|website=Jiusan Society|access-date=29 June 2018|archive-date=29 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629074249/http://www.93.gov.cn/hero/academ/51717694002709699911.shtml|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6J8xDWDqOkEC&pg=PA331|title=The International Who's Who of Women 2002|author=Elizabeth Sleeman|publisher=Psychology Press|year=2001|isbn=978-1-85743-122-3|page=331}} with her ancestral home in Huanggang, Hubei Province. Her father Li Siguang (J. S. Lee) was a renowned geologist and professor at Peking University, and her mother Xu Shubin ({{lang|zh-hans|许淑彬}}) was a pianist and schoolteacher. Her father was of Mongol descent, whose grandfather was a Mongolian beggar who migrated to Hubei in search of a better livelihood. Her family originally had the Mongol surname "Kuli" ({{lang|zh-hans|{{linktext|库|里}}}}) or "Ku" ({{lang|zh-hans|库}}).{{Cite web|url=http://finance.eastday.com/epublish/gb/paper451/2/class045100001/hwz1154559.htm|script-title=zh:父女院士：李四光和李林的故事|last=Ba|first=Yi'er|website=Eastday|access-date=29 June 2018|archive-date=23 January 2004|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040123010210/http://finance.eastday.com/epublish/gb/paper451/2/class045100001/hwz1154559.htm|url-status=dead}}
From 1934 to 1936, she lived in England where her father was teaching. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, her family sought refuge in Shanghai and then in Guilin, Guangxi, which was free from Japanese occupation.
In Guilin, she changed her name to Li Lin and attended Guangxi University, graduating in 1944 with a degree in mechanics. She worked at the Aviation Institute in Chengdu, and with the help of Joseph Needham, won a British Cultural Council scholarship to study at the University of Birmingham in 1946. After earning her master's degree in 1948, she continued her studies at the Department of Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge, where she met and married fellow Chinese scientist Chen-Lu Tsou. She became also known as Anna Tsou.{{Cite journal|last=Slater|first=E. C.|author-link=Edward Slater|date=March 2007|title=Memories of Chen-lu Tsou|journal=IUBMB Life|volume=59|issue=3|pages=190–192|doi=10.1080/15216540701210208|issn=1521-6543|pmid=17487691|s2cid=35191935|doi-access=free}}
Career
After they both earned their PhDs in 1951, Li and Tsou returned to the newly established People's Republic of China. Li worked for the Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy, and Tsou for the Shanghai Institute of Physiology and Biochemistry, both under the umbrella of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). She and her colleagues won a prize for their research in spherical graphite in 1956.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4XshAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA229|title=Who was Who in the People's Republic of China|author=Wolfgang Bartke|date=2012|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-096823-1|page=229}}
In 1956, nuclear physicist Qian Sanqiang recruited Li to work on China's nuclear energy program. After finishing her heavy water reactor project, in 1958 she was transferred to the Institute of Physics of the CAS in Beijing. She spent the next 14 years working on the nuclear program. In 1972 or 1973, she was transferred again to the Institute of High Energy Physics to work on high-temperature superconductivity.
Li was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, and won the State Science and Technology Progress Award (First Class) in 1992 for her contribution to the research of superconductivity. She also advised dozens of graduate students and published more than 100 research papers.
Personal life
File:Li Siguang family.jpg and Xu Shulin]]
Li married Chen-Lu Tsou (Zou Chenglu), a fellow Chinese student at Cambridge, in 1948. Her father Li Siguang was in England to preside over their wedding. Tsou later recalled the Cambridge years as the best time of the family.{{Cite web|url=http://scitech.people.com.cn/GB/25509/55787/74836/74843/5085883.html|script-title=zh:邹承鲁：忆恩师·回国|date=24 November 2006|website=People's Daily|access-date=28 June 2018|archive-date=29 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429155247/http://scitech.people.com.cn/GB/25509/55787/74836/74843/5085883.html|url-status=dead}} Their daughter, geologist Zou Zongping ({{lang|zh-hans|邹宗平}}),{{Cite web|url=http://tech.sina.com.cn/d/2006-12-04/18581270721.shtml |script-title=zh:邹承鲁：一生做真人 |last=Jin|first=Yu|date=4 December 2006 |work=Sina |access-date=28 June 2018}} was born in the 1950s in China. Tsou became a prominent biochemist and was also elected an academician of the CAS, making the Li-Tsou family the only one in China that produced three academicians (including Li Siguang).
References
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Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham
Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge
Category:Chinese expatriates in the United Kingdom
Category:Chinese people of Mongolian descent
Category:Chinese women physicists
Category:Guangxi University alumni
Category:Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences