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 university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

, and was an academician 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 ...

(CAS). Born in

Yixing Yixing () is a county-level city administered under the prefecture-level city of Wuxi in southern Jiangsu province, China, and is part of the Yangtze Delta, Yangtze River Delta. The city is known for its traditional Yixing ware, Yixing clay ware t ...

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 ...

, China, Zhou graduated from

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (THU) is a public university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Constructio ...

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, 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 ...

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) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

under

Eric Temple Bell Eric Temple Bell (7 February 1883 – 21 December 1960) was a Scottish-born mathematician, educator and science fiction writer who lived in the United States for most of his life. He published non-fiction using his given name and fiction ...

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 as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...

under

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

in the

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

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

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), 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 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

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 Academic staff of Peking University People from Yixing Physicists from Jiangsu Presidents of Peking University Scientists from Wuxi Academic staff of Tsinghua University University of Chicago alumni Vice chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Presidents of the Chinese Physical Society {{Physicist-stub