This book presents the exceptional biography of the 20th century Chinese astronomer Cheng Maolan, who came to France in 1926 on a China-France cooperation program to do his Ph D with the idea of returning to China after a few years. Instead, he lived two lives. He first stayed in France and studied astronomy in Lyon, the “Silk city”, where he suffered the hardships of the German occupation, but also witnessed the construction of the Haute-Provence Observatory. After the war, he started a promising career at Lyon Observatory. However, in 1957 he decided to live a second life, by returning to the motherland, which had in the meantime become the People’s Republic of China. There, he suffered the hardships of the Cultural Revolution, but he managed to play a pivotal role in establishing the Beijing Observatory as its director. In particular, he prepared the ground for the Xinglong 2-m telescope, which saw its first light in 1989, ten years after his death.
Cheng Maolan is now considered a ‘Chinese hero’: an ‘Astronomy and Technology Museum’ was built and named after him in 2018, in his native city of Boye, Hebei Province, China, featuring a tall, white statue in front of the building.
Table des matières
The French “Silk Road” towards Astronomy (1926-1957).- Return to the motherland (1957-1978).- Appendix: Chinese students in astronomy at the Institut Franco-Chinois de Lyon (1921-1947) and their careers.- Name Index.
A propos de l’auteur
Thierry Montmerle is currently Director of Research with the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris. His main area of scientific expertise can be summarized as ‘High-energy phenomena in star-forming regions’, but he also has interest in planet formation and astrobiology. He has published nearly 400 papers and organized many international conferences, serving as Co-Editor of their proceedings. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supéreure in Paris, he obtained his Ph.D. in astrophysics in 1975. He spent most of his career as staff member of CEA, the French Atomic Energy Commission (Service d’Astrophysique), and took a leave as Director of the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Grenoble from 2006 to 2010. He has been General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) from 2012 to 2015. During the IAU General Assembly in Vienna (2018), he participated actively in the Symposium celebrating the IAU Centenary (the Union had been created in 1919 along with several other scientific Unions), and he organized an international conference in Paris in October 2019, entitled ‘Astronomers as Diplomats’, focusing on the role of the IAU in scientific diplomacy in the times of international crises. He edited and authored several books including part of the Proceedings and ‘IAU Transactions’ of the Beijing (2012) and Honolulu (2015) General Assemblies, as well as “Young Sun, Early Earth, and the Origin of Life” (2012) and the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology (2015+). Based on the Paris ‘Astronomers as Diplomats’ conference, he has co-authored two books for Springer’s Historical and Cultural Astronomy Series: (i) ‘Astronomers as Diplomats: When the IAU builds bridges between nations’, co-edited with Danielle Fauque (Orsay); (ii) ‘China and the IAU: Divorce, Separation, and Reconciliation (1958-1982)’, with a Chinese co-author (Yi Zhou). The present book (‘The two lives of Cheng Maolan’) is the third volume of the “trilogy” stemming from the Paris Conference.
Yi Zhou (first name: Yi, family name: Zhou) is a seasoned Journalist/Translator/Researcher, born in Xi’an, China. He is now based in Paris, where he is a “curious observer” of current world events. He is passionate about contemporary history and investigative journalism. He has worked for the Chinese service of the French public radio station “Radio France International” (RFI) since 2015. Previously, he finished high school in Columbus, Ohio, USA, and he went on studying in France at “Sciences Po” (the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris) for both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, specializing in political and social sciences. He obtained a Master’s degree in International Affairs and Development from the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) of Sciences Po. Coming from China and having studied in the USA, France and the Netherlands, this has given him a special set of understanding skills and rare experience in dealing with cross regional and international political and social subjects.
Yves Gomas is a former high school physics and chemistry teacher and middle school headmaster. He obtained his Ph D in 2017 in History of Science from Lyon University, with a biography of Jean Dufay (1896-1967), Director of the Lyon Observatory and founder of the Haute-Provence Observatory. Yves Gomas is now an associate researcher in history of science at University of Lyon 1. He is studying the history of observatories, astronomers and astronomical instrumentation, particularly in Lyon and Haute Provence. He is currently writing articles for Springer’s Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers.
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