China Vitae

Biography

Zhang Cunhao, male, Han nationality, is a native of Wudi County, Shandong Province. He was born in 1928 and graduated from the Chemical Engineering Department of Central University in 1947. In 1948, he studied at Nankai University and obtained a master‘s degree in chemistry engineering from the University of Michigan in 1950. He joined the China Democratic League in 1952 and the CPC in 1959.

Zhang has a long and varied association with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, beginning in 1953. He has served as a research fellow, section chief, deputy director, and director of the Dalian Institute of Chemistry and Physics of the academy. His academic activities also include involvement with the national committee of the China Association for Science and Technology and the State Natural Science Fund Committee; he has worked as a deputy editor-in-chief at science-related journals.

In 1994, he assumed director responsibilities with the Chinese Academy of Sciences Chemistry Division. Two years later, he served as a member of the presidium of the general assembly at the academy.

Zhang‘s has engaged in pioneering research in the field of laser chemistry. He was a leader in the development of China‘s first supersonic diffused H2F laser and also worked in the successful advance of a pulsed chemical laser. His research has yielded several awards, among them a 1st Class Award Advancement in Science and Technology from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1998, he received an honorary doctorate from Chinese University of Hong Kong. Two years later in 2000, Zhang was awarded the Tan Kah-Kee Chemistry Science Prize.