A lifetime of belief in science to save the country Guo Yonghuai

Mondo Science Updated on 2024-03-03

Who is Guo Yonghuai? Among the 23 meritorious heroes of China's two bombs and one satellite, he has made extremely important contributions to nuclear bombs, missiles, and artificial satellites, and is the only scientist who has won three honors.

Guo Yonghuai is Qian Xuesen's best friend. In 1968, Guo Yonghuai died in a plane crash, and Qian Xuesen said sadly, "Everyone says that I, Qian Xuesen, is worth five divisions, but no one knows that Guo Yonghuai is worth two me!" “

Guo Yonghuai was born on April 4, 1909 in Guojia Village, Xitan, Rongcheng County, Shandong Province, to a peasant family. After officially going to school, whether it is mathematics, foreign languages or national languages, it is a little bit thorough.

Guo Yonghuai's experience is roughly as follows:

In 1929, he entered the preparatory science class of Nankai University.

In July 1931, due to his interest in optics, he entered the Department of Physics of Nankai University.

1933 In 1935, he studied in the Department of Physics of Peking University, and after graduation, he became a teaching assistant and researcher. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he was transferred to the Southwest Associated University in Kunming. At the time of the national crisis, Guo Yonghuai felt that in order for the country to be strong, it was first necessary to develop military science and technology and develop the aviation industry. For this reason, he gave up optics and changed his major to aeronautical engineering, starting from the course "Fluid Mechanics" offered by the United Nations University, and entered the path of aerodynamics study and research.

In 1939, Guo Yonghuai was admitted to the 7th Sino-British Geng Association Examination for Studying in the UK, and Guo Yonghuai was admitted together with Qian Weichang.

In January 1940, after consultation between the Chinese British Committee and the British side, the British ** agreed to transfer these students to study in the member states of the British Commonwealth. International students boarded a ship from Shanghai to prepare to study in Canada. After boarding the ship, the students got their passports, and when they opened them, they saw that there was a visa from the Japanese consul, which allowed them to stop the ship in Yokohama for three days and go ashore for an excursion. The international students were furious, and they strongly proposed to the British chargé d'affaires: This is not good, China and Japan have broken off diplomatic relations, and we cannot accept this visa", and immediately got off the ship with their luggage. At this time, World War II had broken out in full swing, and it was not easy to study abroad in the chaotic situation. In order to defend the dignity of the nation, they would rather sacrifice the rare opportunity to study abroad than accept the visa of the aggressor. After several negotiations, it was not until August 1940 that the students were notified to assemble in Shanghai for the third time, set off again, and finally made the trip.

In September 1940, Guo Yonghuai went to the University of Toronto, Canada, to study at J. Singh, head of the Department of Applied Mathematics l.SYNGE) conducted research under the supervision of Professor Synge, and completed the master's degree in just over half a year**.

In May 1941, Guo Yonghuai entered the Department of Aeronautics of the California Institute of Technology in the United States, and became a student of the mechanics expert von Kármán, engaged in the study of compressible fluid mechanics, especially the discontinuous solution of transonic flow, and obtained a doctorate degree with excellent results.

In 1946, Guo Yonghuai was hired by Cornell University in the United States and was one of the three hosts of the Cornell University Institute of Aeronautics. The decade from 1946 to 1956 was the first period of his scientific research, and he focused on the in-depth study of transonic theory and viscous flow, and made important contributions to mankind's breakthrough of the sound barrier. At the same time, he developed Poincare, Lighthill's deformation parameters and deformation coordinate method, which solves the singularity of the leading edge of the boundary layer. For this reason, Qian Xuesen published an article in "Advances in Applied Mechanics" in 1956, naming this method as the PLK method. Guo Yonghuai is world-renowned for his two major achievements in transonic and applied mathematics. In July 1955, he was promoted to tenured professor at Cornell University.

In the early 50s, the United States did not allow Qian Xuesen to return to China and restricted his personal freedom. Qian Xuesen confided in Guo Yonghuai, a long-time confidant, about his eagerness and anger to return to China. The two shook hands and agreed to return to China as soon as they had the opportunity. After the Korean armistice, with the efforts of China, the opportunity finally came. In October 1955, Qian Xuesen returned to China, and Guo Yonghuai was even more heartfelt. In November 1956, he resolutely gave up his superior scientific research, teaching and living conditions and returned to his motherland after a 16-year absence.

In May 1960, Guo Yonghuai came to the Ninth Academy and devoted himself to the research and development of nuclear weapons.

In October 1968, Guo Yonghuai went to the Northwest Nuclear Test Base to conduct the launch test of China's first missile thermonuclear **. On December 5, while returning to Beijing from the base to report, the plane suddenly crashed and crashed when it was more than 400 meters above the ground. While cleaning up the scene, the soldiers found Guo Yonghuai and his guard Mou Fangdong holding a briefcase tightly to their chests, and the documents of the thermonuclear missile test data in the bag were intact. Relying on this information, on December 25, 1968, 20 days after Guo Yonghuai's sacrifice, China's first thermonuclear missile was successfully tested, and the hydrogen bomb was realized.

It should be noted that there is a saying on the Internet that Guo Yonghuai, Qian Weichang, and Lin Jiaqiao were admitted to the mechanics major at the same time. After checking the information, although Lin Jiaqiao was also admitted in the seventh batch, he majored in arithmetic, and the picture below is Lin Jiaqiao's Sino-British Geng Funded Public Scholarship Certificate.

Guo Yonghuai's wife, Li Pei, is a famous linguist, known as "the most beautiful rose of the Chinese Academy of Sciences", "the bright light of Zhongguancun", "the young elderly", "the mother of Chinese applied linguistics", and has been a professor of English at the University of Science and Technology of China and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences for a long time.

Mr. Li Pei also presided over the construction of Zhongguancun; He also served as a judge of the Compilation Position Evaluation Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an editor and reviewer of national university English textbooks, and a member of the first liberal arts and science group. He served as a member of the National Council of the Chinese Translators Association, founded the Science and Technology Translation Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and served as the vice president to actively promote the development of China's science and technology.

In July 2018, the International Minor Planet Center officially named the asteroid numbered 212796 "Guo Yonghuaixing" and the asteroid 212797"Li Peixing"。

The story of Mr. Guo Yonghuai and Mr. Li Pei is many, very long, I used to look at the text and felt that they were like gods, distant and untouchable, but after seeing the Guo Yonghuai Memorial Hall of Rongcheng Museum, I felt his love and hatred as a person.

In Rongcheng for 3 days, I went to Rongcheng Museum twice. Let's talk about my feelings, I personally prefer to go to museums, and I also think that museums are the best place to start by understanding a place.

The Rongcheng Museum is not big, and there are not so many precious artifacts from other large museums, but it is comfortable, and parking is easy and free. The venues are decorated with great care.

In particular, Guo Yonghuai Memorial Hall is really attentive, not only the information is detailed, the cultural relics and models are complete, there are many experience venues, and the most important thing is that there are professional commentators to explain for free and lead the experience, just to let him better understand Guo Yonghuai.

Many of us know a lot about the gossip of such and such a celebrity, but very little about the people we need to really commemorate. You may not be able to empathize with just looking at materials or books, but you can choose to visit museums and memorials to have a conversation across time and space.

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