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A reporter from The Paper learned from relevant departments that 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.

On the afternoon of the 18th, the WeChat public account "Modern Physics Knowledge Magazine", which is certified as the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published an article written by Hu Side, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and nuclear weapons engineering expert, for "Modern Physics Knowledge" 10 years ago to express condolences.

Hu Side introduced in the article that when the theoretical plan of the first atomic bomb was nearly completed, a special group was set up in the institute to connect experiments and production. This group was personally guided by Deng Jiaxian and Zhou Guangzhao. In order to fully equip the group with theoretical knowledge, Deng Jiaxian and Zhou Guangzhao gave them "special treatment" and gave them lectures 2 to 3 times a week. Zhou Guangzhao never used a script when giving lectures. Relying on his profound theoretical foundation, he wrote on the blackboard while deriving complex formulas, guiding everyone to think about the solution of the problem with him, from near to far, in one go, which always amazed everyone.

Hu Side recalled: Zhou Guangzhao was six or seven years older than us. Working under his guidance, he was not only a very strict mentor to us, but also more like an elder brother to us. Everyone called him "Old Zhou" or just called him Guangzhao. He often gave us advice and talked with us, and provided us with spiritual encouragement and material help.

Before the group left for the experimental base, Guangzhao gave everyone some earnest farewell words. He said: "An accomplished scientist must not only pay attention to theory, but must also pay attention to experiment. The agreement between theory and experimental results is of course a cause for celebration. However, an accomplished scientist must especially grasp the inconsistencies between theory and experimental results, because it is from such points that we can discover the deficiencies in theory or experiment, and possibly produce new breakthroughs." We all kept Guangzhao's words in mind, and they really benefited us a lot.

The following is the full text of Hu Side’s article:

In June 1959, the Soviet Union unilaterally tore up the agreement and refused to assist my country in developing the atomic bomb. In July 1960, it withdrew all its experts in China, taking away the drawings and materials. Some experts said: "This is a devastating blow to you"; "In two years, you will have no choice but to sell scrap copper and rotten iron"; "From now on, you will be in a technological vacuum, and it is estimated that you will not be able to develop an atomic bomb in 20 years."

Zhou Guangzhao, Lü Min, He Zuoxiu and other young Chinese scholars working at the Joint Research Institute in Dubna, Soviet Union, were indignant when they learned the news. They volunteered to return to China immediately to participate in the research of atomic bombs. In a letter to their leaders, they wrote: "As a generation of scientists trained by New China, we are willing to give up the basic theoretical research work we have been engaged in for many years and switch to work tasks urgently needed by the country. We are ready to obey the call of the motherland at any time!" Their request was supported and approved by the leaders of relevant departments of our country. In 1961, the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute added several talented young experts.

Later, someone asked Zhou Guangzhao: You originally studied particle physics and had a considerable status in the international academic community, why did you change your career? He replied: "If the country needs it, it is an honorable thing. I am willing to give up my profession and engage in research that the country needs... If I am famous but not the country, it will be useless in the end."

When I was in college, I read a report about Zhou Guangzhao, a young Chinese scholar working at the Joint Institute in Dubna, in a magazine translated from Russian, "Knowledge is Power". The report praised him for his youth, promise and outstanding talent. I heard of him before I met him. I got to know his name by chance and admired him very much. When I learned that Zhou Guangzhao would work at my institute in the future, I was of course very happy.

When Zhou Guangzhao arrived at the institute, he was immediately appointed the first deputy director of the theoretical department, assisting Deng Jiaxian in breaking through the principles of the atomic bomb and leading the theoretical design of the atomic bomb.

I graduated from Fudan University in 1958 and was assigned to work at the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute, where I was engaged in theoretical research and design under the leadership of Deng Jiaxian. Our original task was to learn some basic theories, improve our listening and speaking skills in Russian, and prepare for the Soviet Union's atomic bomb design information. After the Soviet Union tore up the agreement and withdrew its experts, the Party Central Committee decided to rely on its own efforts to develop the atomic bomb.

At that time, the primary task of the researchers in the Theoretical Department was to digest some data recorded by Soviet experts when they explained the atomic bomb teaching model originally provided to the leaders of the Second Ministry of Machine Building. The leaders believed that they should first calculate the teaching model correctly, understand the physical processes and laws in it, and truly be familiar with and master the design technology before they could design their own atomic bombs. The only information we had was some scattered data recorded by the leaders when they listened to the lectures. Because they did not understand the professional terms, the transcripts were as difficult to understand as "heavenly books". In fact, the experts only gave the final results of the model. In order to calculate the motion equations, calculation methods, physical parameters of materials, etc. of these physical quantities, they had to explore and establish them from scratch. Deng Jiaxian led a group of young people who had just graduated from university to use simple tools such as electric computers, hand-cranked computers, and slide rules to carry out calculations day and night. At the beginning, everything went smoothly, and the calculation results were very consistent with the data given by the experts. However, when calculating a key position, our results were half lower than those given by the experts. The calculation had to be suspended to discuss the cause of the problem. At this time, the institute had gradually mobilized a group of physicists, mechanics, and mathematicians from the Academy of Sciences, universities, and other places. Experts and young people often gathered together to discuss the reasons for the differences. First of all, of course, they still suspected that there was something wrong with our calculations. Physicists, mechanics, and mathematicians reviewed the results from their own professional perspectives and put forward different analyses and doubts. The young people tried to explain the correctness and rationality of their calculation results in detail. The debates were often very intense, sometimes even red in the face, and everyone's wisdom and creativity were highly stimulated. This kind of discussion sometimes lasted for several days. Finally, after proposing some improved conditions, it was decided to conduct a new round of calculations. A total of nine rounds of such calculations were carried out.

When Zhou Guangzhao arrived at the institute, calculations and discussions were in full swing. As soon as he started working, he was involved in this big discussion. Guangzhao listened carefully to the young people's reports and the experts' opinions, carefully checked the formulas and parameters used in the calculations, and carefully reviewed and analyzed the complicated calculation results. He felt that the problem did not seem to be in our calculations. With these first-hand materials, Guangzhao began to suspect that the data given by the Soviet experts was wrong. This was a very bold and challenging judgment! Because including all the experts, no one had ever made an atomic bomb, it was not easy to deny the data given by the atomic bomb experts! Therefore, to be convincing, there must be strict scientific argumentation. Sure enough, Guangzhao, with his profound physics knowledge, used the maximum work principle of thermodynamics to prove that even if the explosives did the maximum work, it would not reach the data of the Soviet experts, thus confirming his judgment.

Guang Zhao's argument and conclusion immediately won the approval and support of everyone, and the calculations continued, thus ending the months-long debate and hesitation, clearing the obstacles of theoretical design, and greatly accelerating the pace of my country's independent development of atomic bombs. This is the famous "nine calculations" in the stage of breaking through the principle of atomic bombs. Through nine repeated calculations, we have a deeper understanding of the implosion process of atomic bombs, mastered the characteristic line calculation method, and trained technical backbones; more importantly, we have established the confidence that we can rely on our own experts and college students to develop atomic bombs on our own.

When designing my country's own atomic bomb, Guangzhao and the experts paid special attention to the arming of relevant basic theories. The detonation theory in explosives and the shock wave theory in the medium were unfamiliar to most experts. They had 1 to 2 times a week to collectively study these basic theories. Guangzhao quickly stood at the forefront of these theories. He guided young people to combine design, decompose problems, simplify cleverly, conduct extensive research, and asked everyone to solve difficulties creatively. He himself wrote several lectures on shock wave propagation, shaping, interaction theory, etc.; combined with product reality, he developed a complete set of tolerance and focusing theories, which played an important role in completing product design. Around the end of 1962, he assisted Deng Jiaxian in completing and submitting the theoretical design plan for my country's first atomic bomb.

When the theoretical plan for the first atomic bomb was nearly completed, the institute set up a special group to connect experiments and production. This group was personally guided by Deng Jiaxian and Zhou Guangzhao. In order to fully equip the group with theoretical knowledge, Deng and Guangzhao gave them special lessons 2 to 3 times a week. Zhou Guangzhao never used a script when giving lectures. Relying on his profound theoretical foundation, he wrote on the blackboard while deriving complex formulas, guiding everyone to think about the solution of the problem with him, from the near to the far, in one go, which always amazed everyone.

Zhou Guangzhao was six or seven years older than us. Working under his guidance, he was not only a very strict mentor to us, but also more like our elder brother. Everyone called him "Old Zhou" or called him Guangzhao by his name. He often gave us advice and talked to us, and gave us spiritual encouragement and material help. Before the group left for the experimental base, Guangzhao gave us a parting gift with earnest words. He said: "A scientist who has made achievements should not only pay attention to theory, but also pay attention to experiments. It is certainly worth being happy when the theoretical and experimental results are consistent. But a scientist who has made achievements should especially grasp the inconsistencies between the theoretical and experimental results, because from such places, we can find the deficiencies of the theory or experiment, and may make new breakthroughs." We have always kept Guangzhao's words in mind, which really benefited us a lot. In the subsequent work, whenever the experimental results were inconsistent with the theory, we were neither frustrated nor let it go easily. Instead, we felt that new opportunities and challenges had emerged. We not only thought about the possible problems in the theory, but also carefully considered the authenticity and accuracy of the experimental data, and tried to find the causes of the problems. These causes should not only explain the current problems, but also be consistent with previous results. On the journey of science, we often see the poetic and picturesque scene of "when you seem to have reached the end of your rope, you will find a way out, but when you turn around, you will find another village with willows and flowers". Every time we uncover one mystery after another, more and more phenomena are explored and understood by us, we can't help but feel a special excitement and joy in our hearts, and we are sincerely grateful for Guangzhao's guidance.

In October 1984, Zhou Guangzhao visited his old colleagues at the Ninth Institute. Image from the WeChat account of "Modern Physics Knowledge Magazine"

During the critical stage of conquering the atomic bomb, the institute organized four technical committees, and Guangzhao was a member of the cold test committee led by Wang Ganchang. The task of this committee was to guide the design and implementation of various large-scale explosion experiments before nuclear tests, which were necessary to verify theoretical designs, understand the implosion process, and master the laws of physics. He endured the difficulty of aggravating his asthma due to lack of oxygen in the plateau, went to the scene many times to master first-hand materials, and analyzed the experimental results together with experimental and theoretical researchers, playing an important guiding role in ensuring the successful explosion of the first atomic bomb.

On the eve of the atomic bomb explosion, he obeyed the arrangement of the nuclear test command and stayed in Beijing, responsible for solving various problems coming from the "front line" from time to time, organizing the theoretical department to make calculations and estimates, and reporting to the command in a timely manner to ensure the smooth progress of the atomic bomb explosion.

On October 16, 1964, the atomic bomb independently developed and designed by my country was successfully detonated. The spring thunder broke the nuclear monopoly and nuclear blackmail attempts of the superpowers, and all the personnel engaged in the development and testing of nuclear weapons fired the first shot for the glory of creating the two bombs.

Zhou Guangzhao inspected the China Academy of Engineering Physics. Image from the WeChat official account of "Modern Physics Knowledge Magazine"