Zhou Peiyuan (; August 28, 1902 – November 24, 1993) was a Chinese theoretical physicist and politician. He served as president of

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

, and was an academician of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

(CAS). Born in Yixing,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with it ...

, China, Zhou graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbr. THU) is a national public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. The university is a member of the C9 League, Double First Class University Plan, Projec ...

in 1924. Then he went to the United States and obtained a bachelor's degree from

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in Spring of 1926, and a master's degree at the end of the same year. In 1928, he obtained his doctorate degree from

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

under Eric Temple Bell with thesis ''The Gravitational Field of a Body with Rotational Symmetry in Einstein's Theory of Gravitation''. In 1936, he studied

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

under

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...

in the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

in Princeton, New Jersey. He did his post-doc researches in

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

in Germany and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. He was a professor of physics at Peking University, and later served as the president of the University. He was elected as a founding member of CAS in 1955.

's Zhou Pei-Yuan Center for Applied Mathematics is named in his honor. In 2003, a bronze statue of Zhou was unveiled on the campus of Peking University. Zhou's most famous work is the transport equation of Reynolds stress.

References

1902 births 1993 deaths California Institute of Technology alumni Educators from Wuxi Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Members of the Jiusan Society Peking University faculty People from Yixing Physicists from Jiangsu Presidents of Peking University Scientists from Wuxi Tsinghua University faculty University of Chicago alumni Vice Chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference {{Physicist-stub