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Academician Zhou Guangzhao, former Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, former President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and winner of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite Medal of Merit", died in Beijing on August 17, 2024 at the age of 95 due to illness.

Zhou Guangzhao was born on May 15, 1929 in Changsha, Hunan. He is a member of the Communist Party of China, a theoretical physicist and particle physicist, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, winner of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite Medal of Merit", a researcher at the China Academy of Engineering Physics, honorary chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress, and former president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

From 1959 to 1960, Sino-Soviet relations deteriorated. The Soviet Union unilaterally tore up the agreement, refused to assist my country in developing the atomic bomb, and withdrew all experts in China, taking away drawings and materials. Zhou Guangzhao, who was engaged in particle physics research at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Soviet Union, was indignant when he learned about these situations and strongly demanded to return to China to engage in atomic bomb research.

In 1961, Zhou Guangzhao returned to China and was assigned to work at the Beijing Institute of the Second Ministry of Machine Building after arriving in Beijing. As deputy director of the Theoretical Department, he assisted Deng Jiaxian in breaking through the principles of the atomic bomb and led the theoretical design of the atomic bomb, starting a 19-year "secret work".

On the afternoon of October 16, 1964, an atomic bomb was successfully exploded in Lop Nur, and China joined the ranks of nuclear-weapon states.

Yang Zhenning once said: "Brother Guangzhao's return enabled China to explode its first atomic bomb in 1964 one or two years earlier than expected."

Editor: Yang Shijie

Editor: Deng Aihua