In 1932, old China first carried out a national college entrance examination. In that year, Tsinghua University admitted about 50 students. In this class, there was a boy brought up in Beijing named Qian Sanqiang, , who was the second son of a famous Chinese scholar Qian Xuantong.
Qian Sanqiang, born in Zhejiang's Huzhou City in 1913, was a nuclear scientist and a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1936, Qian Sanqiang graduated from the physics department of Tsinghua University. He was one of the 10 students in his class who insisted on the major when graduation.
In the early spring of 1937, he was recommended to study in France supported by Sino-France Education Fund. Then he went to Paris to work and study in the Curie Lab of Paris University and the Atomic Nuclear Chemistry Lab of France Academy in the field of atomic nuclear studies and obtained doctorate there. In 1946, he won a scholarship awarded by French Academy of Sciences. In 11 years of study abroad, Qian Sanqiang was inspired by his love for the motherland to conquer many scientific heights of the time. Qian and his wife He Zhehui, also his collaborator, discovered that of about 300 atomic fissions, there is one that partitions into 3 blocks. The discovery of triopartion and quadripartion, first by He Zehui in the world, was regarded by the Curries as the most important work of the laboratory after the Second World War. The discovery of triopartion phenomenon in uranium has deepened human understanding of nuclear fission.
In 1948, giving up all comfort and superior working conditions abroad Qian returned to China with his wife and their six-month-old daughter. He then served successively as professor with the physics department of Tsinghua University, director-general with the atomic energy research institute of Peking Research Institute, director-general with the atomic energy research institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, director-general with the planning bureau of Chinese Academy of Sciences, deputy minister with State Ministry of the Second Machinery, deputy director-general with Chinese Academy of Sciences, council chairperson with China Physics Association, honorary council chairperson with China Nuclear Association, special consultant with Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Qian is the founder of Chinese atomic energy development undertakings. It was under his leadership that China built its first heavy water atomic reactor and first cyclotron in the 1950s. In the 1960s, Qian organized a group of nuclear scientists to resolve the key technological problems in the R&D of atom bomb and hydrogen bomb. And the achievements ensured the successful development of China's first hydrogen bomb only two years plus eight months after the development of China's first atom bomb.
Qian had during his lifetime made indelible contribution to China's development of atom and hydrogen bombs and its high-energy physics and had thus been honored as "Father of China's Atom Bomb". Because of Qian's contribution in physics, the French President signed a paper to award him with military honor. Seven years later, Qian died of heart disease. In September 1999, seven years after his death, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council and the military commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decide to grant him the special prize of 'Two Bombs and One Satellite Meritorious Award'.
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