Yan Dong Sheng
Yan Dong Sheng (Tung-sheng Yen, 严东生) said “一生无憾是最大的遗憾!”
He attended Tsinghua University, but during the Sino-Japanese War, he transferred and graduated (1941) from Yanjing University with an M.A. in chemistry. He was awarded a scholarship and to began doctoral work at UIUC in 1947.
In 1949, he obtained his Ph.D. in Material Science and was offered an academic position at UIUC. Instead, he returned to New China to serve his country.
As a professor and founder of the Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, he has made many great contributions to the field. He was Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1981-1987) and is President of the Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association. In 1986 he was awarded an Honorary doctorate by the University of Illinois.
Yan Dong Sheng ( T.S.Yen, Tung-Shen Yen) was born on February 10th, 1918, into an educated family in Shanghai, China. His father graduated from Peiyang University and worked as an engineer for the Beijing-Hankou Railway Administration; his mother graduated from Hangzhou Women's Normal College. In 1935, at the age of 17, he began to study chemistry at Tsinghua University, but he transferred to Yenching University after two years. He graduated from Yenching University two years later and worked as a teaching assistant under his mentor Zhang Zigao.