Lu Jiaxi

Lu Jiaxi
卢嘉锡
Lu Jiaxi in the early 1960s
President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
In office 1981–1987
Preceded by	Fang Yi
Succeeded by	Zhou Guangzhao
Chairman of the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party
In office 1988–1997
Preceded by	Zhou Gucheng
Succeeded by	Jiang Zhenghua
Personal details
Born	26 October 1915 Xiamen, Fujian, China
Died	June 4, 2001(2001-06-04) (aged 85)
Political party	Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party
Spouse(s)	Wu Xunyu (吴逊玉) (m. 1936)

Lu Jiaxi (Chinese: 卢嘉锡; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lô͘ Ka-sek; 26 October 1915 – 4 June 2001), or Chia-Si Lu, was a Chinese physical chemist and educator who is considered a founder of the discipline in China. He served as President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, director of Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter (FJIRSM), and Vice President of Fuzhou University, as well as high-ranking political positions including Chairman of the Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress.

On 26 October 1915, Lu Jiaxi was born to a scholarly family in Xiamen (Amoy), Fujian, China. A child prodigy, he finished elementary school in a single year, before spending another year and a half in junior high school. Before turning 13, he passed the entrance examination to a preparatory class for Xiamen University. He received the Tan Kah Kee scholarship for four years and graduated from Xiamen University in 1934 with a degree in chemistry. He then taught at the university for three years.

In 1937, Lu passed a competitive examination and received a national postgraduate fellowship to study at University College London, where he studied under Samuel Sugden and obtained a Ph.D. at the age of 24. With the recommendation of Sugden, he was admitted to the California Institute of Technology in 1939, and studied structural chemistry under Linus Pauling, the future Nobel laureate. In 1944, he worked at the Maryland Research Laboratory of the US National Defense Research Committee (NDRC). His research in the area of combustion and explosion earned him an R&D prize from the NDRC.