Li Siguang

Li Siguang (October 26, 1889 - April 29, 1971), courtesy name Zhonggong, formerly known as Li Zhongkui, was a Mongolian nationality and a native of Huanggang, Hubei Province. He was a geologist, paleontologist, social activist, revolutionary and political figure in modern China. He was the main leader and founder of China's geological work and modern earth science. In 1904, Li Siguang studied in Japan and graduated from the Marine Machinery Department of Osaka Technical College in 1910. After returning to China, Li Siguang went to Beijing to take the study tour graduation examination and was awarded the title of Jinshi in Engineering by the Qing government. In 1911, as the youngest and first member of the Chinese Tongmenghui, Li Siguang participated in the revolution and served as the branch secretary of the Hubei Tongmenghui and the minister of the Industrial Department of the Hubei Military Government. After 1913, Li Siguang studied in the United Kingdom, studied geology at the University of Birmingham, and obtained a master's degree in 1918. In 1920, Li Siguang was recalled to China by Ding Wenjiang and became the director of the Geology Department of Peking University the following year. In 1927, Li Siguang presided over the establishment of the Institute of Geology, Academia Sinica, and became its director the following year. In 1934, Li Siguang went to England to teach "Chinese Geology" and published a book of the same name. During the Anti-Japanese War, he taught at Chongqing University and went to the UK to attend the International Geological Society meeting in 1948. In the same year, he was elected as the first academician of Academia Sinica. After March 1950, Li Siguang secretly returned to China and subsequently served as Minister of Geology, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Chinese Geological Society, Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, Vice Chairman of the World Association of Scientists, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, foreign academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, leader of the Science and Education Group of the State Council, and other important positions. He was a deputy national leader of the People's Republic of China. In his early years, Li Siguang studied the fossils of the family Li family and proposed ten identification standards, thus becoming a pioneer in micropaleontology research in China. Li Siguang also discovered the existence of Quaternary glaciers in China, founded the school of geomechanics, and proposed the concept of tectonic systems. Based on this, Li Siguang rejected the "China's oil-poor theory" and believed that oil could be explored through subsidence zones and uranium deposits could be found through "combination of geological structures and radiation surveys", making groundbreaking contributions to the development of China's petroleum and atomic energy industries. In his later years, Li Siguang proposed the method of monitoring earthquakes through in-situ stress and predicted four major earthquake zones: Tangshan, Sichuan, Xingtai and Linyi, three of which were confirmed.