Liu Boli (; 17 March 1931 – 2 July 2018) was a Chinese

nuclear chemist Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties. It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as t ...

and expert in

radiopharmaceutical Radiopharmaceuticals, or medicinal radiocompounds, are a group of pharmaceutical drugs containing radioactive isotopes. Radiopharmaceuticals can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic agents. Radiopharmaceuticals emit radiation themselves, which ...

s, considered a founder of the field in China. He was a professor at

Beijing Normal University Beijing Normal University (BNU) () is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education of China, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the B ...

and an academician 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 ...

Early life and education

Liu was born on 17 March 1931 in

Changzhou Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhen ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

Province. After graduating from

Changzhou Senior High School Changzhou Senior High School () was founded on November 15, 1907. It is located in downtown of Changzhou, itself a city with 2500 years of history, and adjacent to the picturesque local attractions Hongmei Park and Tianning Temple. In a 2016 rank ...

, he studied at the Department of Chemistry of

East China Normal University East China Normal University (ECNU) is a public university in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education and co-funded with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. The university is part of ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, and earned his bachelor's degree in 1953. He was assigned to

, where he worked and studied under Hu Zhibin (). In 1958, he was transferred to the Institute of Nuclear Energy of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS; ) is the national academy for natural sciences and the highest consultancy for science and technology of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's largest research organization, with 106 research i ...

to study

nuclear chemistry Nuclear chemistry is the sub-field of chemistry dealing with radioactivity, nuclear processes, and transformations in the nuclei of atoms, such as nuclear transmutation and nuclear properties. It is the chemistry of radioactive elements such as t ...

under Feng Xizhang (). It was a turning point in his career.

Career

In the 1960s, Liu and his colleagues were tasked with recycling nuclear fuels from China's nuclear reactors. He worked under primitive conditions and was exposed to radiation for more than a decade, which caused his hair to turn gray before he was 40. Starting in 1974, Liu focused on the application of nuclear science in medical fields and the research and development of

s. He became a professor at Beijing Normal University and served as deputy chair of its chemistry department and director of its Institute of Applied Chemistry. He made important discoveries in the properties of

technetium-99m Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99mTc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used Radiophar ...

(99mTc), a radioactive isotope of

technetium Technetium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Tc and atomic number 43. It is the lightest element whose isotopes are all radioactive. Technetium and promethium are the only radioactive elements whose neighbours in the sense ...

, and developed several medicines using 99mTc. He also researched radioactive isotopes of

halogens The halogens () are a group (periodic table), group in the periodic table consisting of six chemically related chemical element, elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and the radioactive elements astatine (At) and ten ...

, including

bromine-82 Bromine (35Br) has two stable isotopes, 79Br and 81Br, and 35 known radioisotopes, the most stable of which is 77Br, with a half-life of 57.036 hours. Like the radioactive isotopes of iodine, radioisotopes of bromine, collectively radiobromine, c ...

iodine-131 Iodine-131 (131I, I-131) is an important radioisotope of iodine discovered by Glenn Seaborg and John Livingood in 1938 at the University of California, Berkeley. It has a radioactive decay half-life of about eight days. It is associated with nu ...

, and

astatine-211 Astatine (85At) has 41 known isotopes, all of which are radioactive; their mass numbers range from 188 to 229 (though 189At is undiscovered). There are also 24 known metastable excited states. The longest-lived isotope is 210At, which has a half-l ...

. Liu's research won many awards, including the National Science and Technology Conference Award (1979), the State Education Commission Science and Technology Progress Award, Second Class (1993 and 1998), and the

State Science and Technology Progress Award The State Science and Technology Prizes () are the highest honors conferred by the national government of the People's Republic of China in science and technology, in order to recognize citizens and organizations who have made remarkable contribut ...

, Second Class (1999). He was elected as an academician of the

in 1997.

Death

Liu died on 2 July 2018 in Beijing, at the age of 87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liu, Boli 1931 births 2018 deaths East China Normal University alumni Academic staff of Beijing Normal University Scientists from Changzhou Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Nuclear chemists Chemists from Jiangsu Chinese nuclear engineers Educators from Changzhou