The whole world owes this beggar a Nobel Prize, and we owe him a deep debt of gratitude.
He was the first physicist to discover the existence of antimatter, and trained nine scientists including Qian Sanqiang, Deng Jiaxian, Wang Ganchang, and Zhu Guangya, as well as two Nobel laureates Yang Zhenning and Lee Tsung-dao.
The United States, desperate to keep him in the United States, issued three strong recall orders, and it was not until finally, after MacArthur detained him in Sugamo Prison in Japan, that Truman could sleep in peace.
He is Zhao Zhongyao, the pioneer of nuclear physics research in China, a scientist who occupies a top position in the field of nuclear physics in the world.
In 1920, at the age of 18, Zhao Zhongyao was admitted to one of Nanjing's top normal schools, one of China's first four normal colleges. Four years later, he not only graduated successfully, but also stayed in school and became the right-hand man of Ye Qisun, a giant in the physics field. Soon after, he moved north to Tsinghua with Ye Qisun and joined the newly established physics department team in 1926.
Aware of the huge gap with the development of Western science and technology, Zhao Zhongyao decided to borrow money to go to the United States a year later to pursue a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology. Over the course of two years, with his extraordinary talent and hard work, he discovered the antimatter phenomenon that caused a sensation in the world. But in the so-called Western world where fairness and justice reign supreme, where is true equality?
By 1936, when the Nobel Prize was awarded to Zhao's colleague Anderson, although there were still many impartial scientists defending Zhao, he himself had devoted himself to scientific research, regardless of external disputes, and continued to explore the unknown with the famous physicist Rutherford at Cambridge University in England.
As he was about to return to China, Zhao Zhongyao won Rutherford's great admiration for his talent and charisma, who gave him 50 mg of radium for radioactive experiments. In 1931, Zhao Zhongyao returned to China with this precious gift, established the first nuclear physics laboratory in China at Tsinghua University, and opened the first nuclear physics course.
In 1937, the Japanese army occupied Tsinghua Garden. At this critical juncture, Zhao Zhongyao ventured into the campus and successfully brought out the precious 50mg radium element. At that time, it was Liang Sicheng who drove him out of the city.
In the face of the country's crisis, Zhao Zhongyao decided to disguise himself as a beggar in order to protect this ray of hope, which is crucial for the future of China's nuclear technology. He shredded his clothes, covered his body with mud, clung to the jar containing radium, and went through dozens of searches and interrogations with the fleeing people, and finally came out unscathed. After more than a month, his feet were covered with blood blisters, and his body exuded an unpleasant smell, and he finally arrived at the temporary Tsinghua University in Changsha. When the doorman was about to drive him away, President Mei Yiqi of Tsinghua University passed by, unable to control the complicated emotions in his heart, and the once personable nuclear physicist grabbed Mei Yiqi's sleeve tightly and cried loudly.
In 1946, as the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, they invited representatives of China, the Soviet Union, Britain and France to Bikini Island in the Pacific Ocean to witness an atomic bomb test. In that test, Zhao Zhongyao was selected to participate, becoming the first Chinese to witness nuclear **.
When the representatives of other countries expressed shock at the tremendous power of nuclear weapons, Zhao Zhongyao chose to remain silent, he lowered his head, and silently recorded all the data he had visually detected.
After that, Zhao Zhongyao decided to stay in the United States and return to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There, he not only continued to learn about nuclear science, but also began to secretly develop key nuclear technologies, such as components for electrostatic accelerators, while saving money.
In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, Zhao Zhongyao saw the hope of national rejuvenation, and he mixed the accelerator parts accumulated over the years with some ordinary teaching equipment, divided them into more than 30 packages, and shipped them back to China one by one.
In August 1950, Zhao Zhongyao, Qian Xuesen, Deng Jiaxian and more than 100 other scholars studying in the United States boarded the "Wilson**" that returned to China. When Qian Xuesen was forcibly taken from the ship by the United States, Zhao Zhongyao, a scientist who had worked in four of the top nuclear physics laboratories in the United States for more than four years, was also detained by the US military and held in Sugamo Military Prison in Japan.
After a resolute statement, Zhao Zhongyao, a scientist who had been detained for two months for being wrongfully accused, finally returned to his beloved homeland. After returning to China, he immediately devoted himself to promoting the development of nuclear physics in China, leading the construction of China's first 700,000 electron volt proton electrostatic accelerator, and then successfully developed the 2.5 million electron volt version, which played a key role in the development of China's nuclear program.
However, in the next ten years, although he was dedicated to the country, he was unable to directly participate in the two bombs and one satellite project, which became an eternal regret in his heart.
But when his students, including Qian Sanqiang, Deng Jiaxian, Zhu Guangya, and others, contributed all their efforts to finally make China's nuclear test a success, Zhao Zhongyao's face bloomed with a smile of relief.
By 1973, the scientist, who had been misunderstood by the times, was back to work, at the age of 71.
In 1989, when the key components of the Beijing Positron Collider were installed, 87-year-old Zhao Zhongyao solemnly signed his name, and the aging scientist is still contributing to the country's nuclear science cause.
On May 28, 1998, Zhao Zhongyao quietly left us at the age of 96. I would like to pay my deepest respect to Zhao Zhongyao, the giant who shines like a star in China's scientific community and the founder of China's atomic energy industry.