Xide Xie
Writer, Professor
The 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Member
Director of the National Infectious Disease Medical Center (Shanghai)
Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital, affiliated with Fudan University
About The Author
Xie Xide (March 19, 1921 – March 4, 2000) was a native of Quanzhou, Fujian, a solid-state physicist, educator, and social activist. She was a member (academician) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences, the former president of Fudan University, and the former president of Shanghai Sanda University.
In 1946, Xie Xide graduated from the Department of Mathematics and Physics at Xiamen University and began teaching at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. In 1947, she went to study in the United States at Smith College. After obtaining her master’s degree in 1949, she transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to specialize in theoretical physics. In 1951, after obtaining her Ph.D., she began planning to return to China. In 1952, she returned to China via the United Kingdom and was assigned to the Department of Physics at Fudan University in Shanghai.
In 1956, she was transferred to Peking University by the State Council to help establish the semiconductor professional group. In the summer of 1958, Xie Xide returned to Fudan University and participated in the Technical Physics Research Institute jointly hosted by Fudan University and the Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where she served as the deputy director.
In 1980, she was elected as a member of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1981, she received honorary doctoral degrees from Smith College and the New York Academy. In January 1983, she became the president of Fudan University. In 1989, she was elected as an academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences, and in 1990, she was elected as a foreign academician of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997, she became the president of Shanghai Sanda University.
Xie Xide primarily engaged in theoretical research in semiconductor physics and surface physics. She was one of the main advocates and organizers of scientific research in these two fields in China. She passed away on March 4, 2000, in Shanghai, at the age of 79.