Published : 2025-06-30
On June 30, 2011, Ying Chongfu (應崇福), a renowned Chinese physicist, founder of China's ultrasonics research, one of the founders of the Institute of Acoustics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and a senior academician of the CAS, passed away in Beijing at the age of 93.
Ying Chongfu was born on June 15, 1918, in Ningbo, Zhejiang. After graduating with excellent results from Huazhong University in 1940, he was admitted to the graduate school of Tsinghua University at the National Southwest Associated University (NSAU).
After graduating as a postgraduate, Ying consecutively received scholarships to study abroad for three years at Brown University in the United States, where he pursued a Ph.D. in Physics.
After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1951, Ying Chongfu had to stay at Brown University's Metals Physics Laboratory for research work due to restrictions by the U.S. authorities preventing Chinese students from returning to China.
In just three years, Ying completed three highly influential papers, one of which, On Ultrasonic Scattering in Solids, was later published in the American Journal of Applied Physics and became a classic work in the research of solid-state ultrasonic scattering internationally.
In 1955, Ying Chongfu resolutely decided to return to China, despite multiple attempts by a professor in the United States to retain him.
After returning to China, Ying Chongfu dedicated his full efforts to the Chinese scientific enterprise, making outstanding contributions to the establishment and development of China's ultrasonics industry.
With Ying Chongfu's active promotion, China's ultrasonic industry developed rapidly.
By the late 1970s to early 1980s, tens of thousands of engineering and technical personnel were engaged in ultrasound detection and processing; over 20 colleges and universities had set up ultrasound specialties; and major industrial sectors had also established corresponding research organisations.
Ying Chongfu made many contributions to China's scientific enterprise throughout his life. The spirit he advocated has always inspired young scientists to devote themselves to China's ultrasonics industry.
