A student mourns the death of Qian Weichang by tying a yellow a ribbon on the campus of Shanghai University. Photo: Zhang Cao.

By Zhang Cao in Shanghai and Huang Jingjing in Beijing

Scientists across the nation are mourning the passing of Qian Weichang, a renowned scientist and professor, as well as the permanent president of Shanghai University. He was credited with the advancement of scientific research and some say his absence will be felt across the country.

Qian, who was once praised by Albert Einstein, died Friday morning at the age of 98. His admirers mourned his passing soon after the news arrived of his death.

More than 200 students gathered on the campus at Shanghai University in Baoshan district Friday night. They held banners, candles and chanted poems. Students also tied yellow ribbons and left cards on trees around a campus building.

Hou Shuangping, 26, a female graduate of Shanghai University, told the Global Times Sunday that Qian led a simple life.

"President Qian lived in a narrow room in the Lehu building of the university, and the television he watched was merely 21 inches" Hou said.

Qian Weichang gained a reputation in the academic field in 1941 after Albert Einstein praised his thesis and after he finished his research with Theodore von Kármán, a pioneer in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics study.

Three Qians

Together with Qian Xueseng, the father of China's space program, who died in 2009, and Qian Sanqiang, a nuclear physicist who died in 1992, Qian Weichang was one of the three Qians in aca-demia who made outstanding scientific contributions.

With the last Qian gone, scientists and the media say the development of science will experience a setback.

Jiangsu-based Yangtze Evening Post said in a commentary Sunday that there was no clear successor to these three scientists.

"It is truly hard for China to have successors making achievements like those made by the three Qians," Kang Xiaoguang, a researcher at the Center for China Studies, the Chinese Academy of Sci-ences, told the Global Times Sunday.

Qian Weichang

Kang said, in addition to academic successes, the three Qians were renowned for their devotion to the country.

In his biography, Qian Weichang said he studied dozens of professions, and chose his profession based on the needs of the country.

However, young people nowadays tend to choose their field of study based on earning potential, Kang said.

"As the marketing-oriented economy develops, people become more and more self-centered. Individual material needs come before social responsibility and the spirit to serve people," Kang said.

A 10th grade student from Beijing said his passion for his childhood dream to be a scientist like Einstein, has disappeared.

"I nearly forgot my childhood dream. It's too far away from me. What I have to worry about is endless homework and extracurricular exercises," Xiao Ming (not his real name), 16, told the Global Times.

Yau Shing-tung, a mathematics professor of Harvard University, told Nanfang Daily last week that current Chinese scholars lack scientific spirit.

"Many Chinese scholars are not dedicated to learning, but are eager for instant success and quick profit," Yau said.

Yau said Chinese families train their children to get ready for the college entrance exam during primary school. The teachers help students spot questions and the students do and copy the exercise accordingly.

Humble start

Qian Weichang, who was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province in 1912, did not have it easy at first.

He went to Tsinghua University at 19 and picked literature or history as his major at his uncle's suggestion. His uncle, Qian Mu, is a well-known Chinese history scholar.

However, after the Japanese army invaded Southeast China on September 18, 1931, Qian changed his major to physics, believing that he could help China to become more powerful.

"I chose my profession based on the country's need," Qian said in his biography.

However, his requests to study physics were repeatedly rejected by Wu Youxun, then the dean of physics, because Qian obtained a low score in the physics test on the college entrance examination.

Country first

To show his determination, Qian pledged to Wu that he could get a much higher score on the test after a year of study if he was admitted into the physics program. Qian did it before he graduated from Tsinghua University in 1935.

Qian went to the University of Toronto in 1940 and got his doctoral degree in applied mathematics in 1942. Later, he was hired by California Institute of Technology as an engineer.

Qian returned to China in 1946, one year after China's victory against Japanese invasion.

However, his scientific research was not so smooth during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), when he had to work for Beijing Capital Steel Company and make boilers.

Qian managed to get back into the scientific arena and in 1983, he was nominated as president of Shanghai Industrial University, which merged with three other universities in 1994 to form Shanghai University. Qian was named permanent president of Shanghai University.

An Baijie contributed to this story