Meemann Chang
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Meemann Chang (; born 17 April 1936) also known as Zhang Miman, is a Chinese
paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...
at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP). She completed her undergraduate studies at
Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...
and completed her PhD thesis entitled 'The braincase of '' Youngolepis'', a Lower Devonian
crossopterygian Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe-finned fish. These vertebrates ar ...
from Yunnan, south-western China' at
Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...
. She was the first woman to become head of IVPP in 1983. For her many career achievements, she received an honorary degree from the University of Chicago in 2011 and the Romer-Simpson Medal from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2016.


Biography

Zhang was born into a wealthy and highly educated family in
Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...
,
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 ...
, on 17 April 1936, while her
ancestral home An ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family, particularly the home owned and preserved by the same family for several generations. The term can refer to an individual house or estate, or to a broader geographic area such as a ...
is in
Shengzhou Shengzhou (), formerly Shengxian or Sheng County, is a county-level city in central Zhejiang, south of the Hangzhou Bay, and is the south-eastern part of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing. It is about 1.5 hours drive from the provincial c ...
,
Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...
. Her father graduated from the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. As a child, she was determined to become a doctor. After the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...
broke out, her family fled to different cities to take refuge. After initially living in Beibei,
Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
, they then moved to
Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...
, and finally they settled in
Nantong Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...
. After graduating from Shanghai Tongji High School in 1953, she was admitted to Beijing Institute of Geology (now
China University of Geosciences (Beijing) The China University of Geosciences (Beijing) is a public university located in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, and co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Natural Resources. The university is ...
). Soon after, she was sent to
Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...
to study at the expense of the government. When she returned to China, she was dispatched to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology 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 ...
. In 1965, she became a visiting scholar at the National Museum of Natural Science in
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
. After the
reform and opening up Reform and opening-up ( zh, s=改革开放, p=Gǎigé kāifàng), also known as the Chinese economic reform or Chinese economic miracle, refers to a variety of economic reforms termed socialism with Chinese characteristics and socialist market ...
in 1980, she went to Sweden again and received her PhD from
Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...
in 1982. She was director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in 1983 and held that office until 1990. She became chairman of the Paleontological Society of China in 1993, and served until 1997. In 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of Chicago. On 5 October 2015, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the
American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...
. On 2 July 2021, asteroid 347336 was named after her.


Contributions

Species named in her honour include the extinct
sarcopterygian Sarcopterygii (; )—sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii ()—is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as lobe-finned fish. These vertebrates ar ...
fish ''
Meemannia ''Meemannia'' is a genus of extinct bony fish from the early Devonian period. It was initially classified as a lobe-finned fish; however, a restudy conducted by Lu ''et al.'' (2016) indicates that it was actually an early-diverging ray-finned fis ...
'', the
theropod Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodom ...
dinosaur ''Sinovenator changii'', and the extinct
ornithuromorph Euornithes (from Greek ' meaning "true birds") is a natural group which includes the most recent common ancestor of all avialans closer to modern birds than to the enantiornithines. This group was defined in the ''PhyloCode'' by Juan Benito and ...
birds '' Archaeornithura meemannae'' and '' Meemannavis ductrix''. There is also a unique organ of yunnanolepid
antiarch Antiarchi ("opposite anus") is an order of heavily armored placoderms. The antiarchs form the second-most successful group of placoderms after the arthrodires in terms of numbers of species and range of environments. The order's name was coin ...
placoderms Placoderms (from Ancient Greek πλάξ 'plax'', ''plakos plate' and δέρμα 'dermaskin') are vertebrate animals of the class Placodermi, an extinct group of prehistoric fish known from Paleozoic fossils during the Silurian and the Dev ...
named "Chang's Apparatus" after her. , a special book volume on fossil fish, was published in her honour. Chang notably first described and later re-described the fossil genus ''
Paralycoptera ''Paralycoptera wui'' is an extinct species of basal osteoglossoid from Early Cretaceous freshwater environments of what is now China. ''P. wui'' was originally described as a lycopterid osteoglossomorph close to '' Lycoptera'', though, late ...
'', and also described the fossil genera ''
Diabolepis ''Diabolepis'' is an extinct genus of very primitive marine lungfish which lived during the Early Devonian period. It contains a single species, ''D. speratus'' of Yunnan, China, from the mid-late Lochkovian of the Xitun Formation. It is one of ...
'' and '' Youngolepis''.


Selected publications

* Liu, H. & Chang, M. First discovery of helicoprionid in China. ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'' (1963). * Chang, M New materials of Mesoclupea from southeastern China and on the systematic position of the genus. ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'' (1963). * Chang, M. & Chou, J. On the fossil fishes in Mesozoic and Cenozoic oil-bearing strata from east China and their sedimentary environment. ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'' (1978). * Chang, M. Palaeontology: Fossil fish up for election. ''Nature'' 403, 152–153 (2000). * Chang, M., Miao, D., Chen, Y., Zhou, J. & Chen, P. Suckers (Fish, Catostomidae) from the Eocene of China account for the family's current disjunct distributions. ''Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci.'' 44, 577–586 (2001). * Chang, M., Peiji, C., Yuanqing, W. & Yuan, W. Jehol Biota. Shanghai: Shanghai Scientific and (2003). * Chen, G., Fang, F. & Chang, M. A new cyprinid closely related to cultrins+xenocyprinins from the mid-Tertiary of South China. ''J. Vertebr. Paleontol.'' 25, 492–501 (2005). * Chang, M., Zhang, J. & Miao, D. A lamprey from the Cretaceous Jehol biota of China. ''Nature'' 441, 972–974 (2006). * Wang, X. ... Chang, M. et al. Vertebrate paleontology, biostratigraphy, geochronology, and paleoenvironment of Qaidam Basin in northern Tibetan Plateau. ''Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol.'' 254, 363–385 (2007). * Chang, M. et al. Extraordinarily thick-boned fish linked to the aridification of the Qaidam Basin (northern Tibetan Plateau). ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 105, 13246–13251 (2008). * Liu, J. & Chang, M. A new Eocene catostomid (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) from northeastern China and early divergence of Catostomidae. ''Sci. China Ser. D-Earth Sci.'' 52, 189–202 (2009). * Xu, G.-H. & Chang, M. Redescription of †Paralycoptera wui Chang & Chou, 1977 (Teleostei: Osteoglossoidei) from the Early Cretaceous of eastern China. ''Zool. J. Linn. Soc.'' 157, 83–106 (2009). * Wang, N. & Chang, M. Pliocene cyprinids (Cypriniformes, Teleostei) from Kunlun Pass Basin, northeastern Tibetan Plateau and their bearings on development of water system and uplift of the area. ''Sci. China Earth Sci.'' 53, 485–500 (2010). * Chen, G. & Chang, M. A new early cyprinin from Oligocene of South China. ''Sci. China Earth Sci.'' 54, 481–492 (2011). * Wang, N. & Chang, M. Discovery of fossil Nemacheilids (Cypriniformes, Teleostei, Pisces) from the Tibetan Plateau, China. ''Sci. China Earth Sci.'' 55, 714–727 (2012).


Honours

* 1991 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 ...
* 1995 Foreign Fellow of the
Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript a ...
* 2011 Foreign Fellow of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...
* 2015 Doctor of Science, Honoris Causa ichard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History* 2016
Romer-Simpson Medal The Romer-Simpson Medal is the highest award issued by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology for "sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology". The award is named in honor of Alfred S. R ...
,
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) is a professional organization that was founded in the United States in 1940 to advance the science of vertebrate paleontology around the world. Mission and activities SVP has about 2,300 members inte ...
* 2018 and 2019
Asian Scientist 100 The Asian Scientist 100 is an annually published list of 100 prize-winning Asian researchers, academicians, innovators and business leaders from across the Asia-Pacific region and a range of scientific disciplines. Recipients "must have received ...
, ''
Asian Scientist ''Asian Scientist'' is an English language science and technology magazine published in Singapore. History and profile ''Asian Scientist'' was launched as a blog in March 2011 by Juliana Chan. The blog's popularity eventually led to a partnersh ...
''


Awards

On November 13, 2017, Chang was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science. She was nominated for "her pioneering work on fossil records leading to insights on how aquatic vertebrates adapted to life and land." In November 2017, Chang was also awarded the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Achievement Prize.


References


External links


IVPP's Professor to Receive Honorary Degree from Chicago UniversityCAS Members
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chang, Meemann 1936 births Living people Biologists from Jiangsu Chinese paleontologists Educators from Nanjing Fellows of the Linnean Society of London L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Moscow State University alumni Scientists from Nanjing Stockholm University alumni Women paleontologists Writers from Nanjing