The Academic Growth Experience And Contribution Of Professor Zhichao Li

Li Zhichao(1935-2020)has long been devoted himself to the research and teaching of the history of science and technology.He is a famous contemporary historian of science and technology,and a pioneer in the history of science and technology and scientific archaeology of the University of Science and Technology of China.Mr.Li was born in Kailu County,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in 1935,graduated from Department of Physics,Peking University in 1960 and then remained there as a teacher.In 1974,he was transferred to the Department of Physics in University of Science and Technology of China(USTC),teaching optics,spectroscopy and leading the advanced physical experiment course;in the next year,he entered the translation group of“MengXiBiTan”,and started to study the history of science and technology.In 1980,together with Chen Guang,he set up a research laboratory for the history of natural sciences.Then he was promoted to an associate professor in 1981.In 1983,he joined with several teachers from the structural center to establish a scientific and archaeological association.And in 1988,he was promoted to a professor.He served successively as the executive deputy director of the Research Office of the History of Natural Sciences of the University of Science and Technology of China,and a member of the 4th Standing Council of the Chinese Society for the History of Science and Technology.As for his academic research,Mr.Li has been engaged in studying the history of science and technology for a long period of time,doing lots of creative works in the aspects of astronomy history,ancient instrument restoration,Chinese scientific thoughts as well as ancient Chinese language in science and technology,achieving a series of research results.Besides,it is also the most impressive feature of Mr.Li's research on the history of science and technology that he has made a lot of significant achievements in the research of ancient Chinese language in science and technology.In addition,he has published dozens of related theses and participated in the writing and compiling of more than ten books.The main results of him include the simulation experiment of clepsydra precision,the discovery of the triggerism etc.Among them,the simulation experiment of clepsydra precision has proved that China's timing technology ranks the first in the world;the discovery of the triggerism proves that ancient China has a unique understanding about the control mechanism of things movement,which is particularly obvious in thoughts from Chinese traditional philosophy,namely the jifa of theory.In the early development of the discipline of history of science and technology,shouldering the work of academic organization,Mr.Li has made important contributions to the establishment and initial development of the discipline.He has not only cultivated a batch of talents for the history of science and technology,but also yielded a series of research results.In the discipline of science and technology archaeology,he is also one of the organizers and initiators of the science and technology archaeology association,thus the archaeological work of USTC can be developed earlier.