Lin Junde (; 13 March 1938 – 31 May 2012) was a Chinese explosion mechanics scientist and researcher at Xinjiang Malan Nuclear Test Base. He had spent 52 years working in the Gobi Desert in

northwest China Northwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid continental climate. ...

, participating in the nuclear tests there. He held the rank of major general ( shao jiang) in the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

(PLA). He was a member of the

Chinese Academy of Engineering The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE, ) is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for engineering. It was established in 1994 and is an institution of the State Council of China. The CAE and the Chinese Academy of Sciences a ...

Biography

Lin was born in Jiefu Township of

Yongchun County Yongchun (; Min Nan: Éng-chhun; lit. 'eternal spring') is a county in western Quanzhou city of southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China, located on the upper reaches of the Jin River. It is under the administration of Quanzhou City. ...

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

, China on March 13, 1938. After graduating from

Zhejiang University Zhejiang University (ZJU) is a public university, public research university in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and D ...

in 1960, he was assigned to study at PLA Military Institute of Engineering in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

northeast China Northeast China () is a geographical region of China, consisting officially of three provinces Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. The heartland of the region is the Northeast China Plain, the largest plain in China with an area of over . The regi ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang is a province in northeast China. It is the northernmost and easternmost province of the country and contains China's northernmost point (in Mohe City along the Amur) and easternmost point (at the confluence of the Amur and Us ...

province. In May 1963 he was transferred to the PLA General Equipment Department, where he headed the development of pressure recorder for measuring nuclear explosion shock wave. From the explosion of China's first atomic bomb in 1964 to the last underground nuclear test in 1996, he participated in all 45 nuclear tests in China. In 1993 he was promoted to the rank of major general ( shao jiang). In 2001 he was accepted as an academician of the

. On May 31, 2012, he died of

cholangiocarcinoma Cholangiocarcinoma, also known as bile duct cancer, is a type of cancer that forms in the bile ducts. Symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma may include abdominal pain, yellowish skin, weight loss, generalized itching, and fever. Light colored stoo ...

at the Tangdu Hospital,

Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

. Before he died, he said: "I've only done one thing in my life, nuclear test. I'm very satisfied." In February 2013, he was honored as one of the "Ten People Who Moved China".

Personal life

In 1967 Lin married Huang Jianqin (), who was his colleague at Xinjiang Malan Nuclear Test Base.

Awards

* 1969 3rd Prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award * 2013 Order of Heroic Exemplar for Distinguished Scientist (Devoted to the cause of National Defense Technology)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Junde 1938 births 2012 deaths People from Quanzhou Zhejiang University alumni Hokkien scientists Physicists from Fujian Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering People's Liberation Army generals from Fujian Explosives engineers