Zeng Chengkui: I have been cultivating the sea all my life. He said, I am the son of the sea.

Zeng Chengkui, a marine biologist, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, one of the main pioneers of my country's marine science, one of the founders of my country's seaweed research and kelp cultivation industry, and one of the pioneers of my country's seaweed chemical industry. June 18 is the 113th anniversary of Zeng Chengkui's birth.

In his 76-year scientific research and teaching career, Zeng Chengkui has devoted all his efforts and achieved remarkable results. As pointed out in a scientific history research paper co-authored by Peter Newshaw and Dr. Wang Zuoyue, experts in the history of science at the University of California, "Professor Zeng Chengkui has implemented a unique path of combining basic research and applied research, which has finally made his ideal since childhood - to benefit the people through marine agriculture - a reality. Zeng Chengkui's ideas on marine agriculture have promoted the creation of a number of new marine industries in China. His success has put China at the forefront of the world's marine aquaculture industry and inspired the continuous development of the global 'blue revolution'!"

Zeng Chengkui collected seaweed specimens in the Xisha Islands in 1980

Image source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account

Farming in the sea and devoting oneself to serving the country

Zeng Chengkui was born into an overseas Chinese family in Xiamen, Fujian Province on June 18, 1909. When he was young, he saw that the country was poor and the farmers worked hard but could not eat enough and wear warm clothes. He was determined to study agricultural science and change the backward situation with science and technology. He named himself "Zenong" to show his wisdom and determination.

In 1927, Zeng Chengkui entered Xiamen University to study botany under the tutelage of Professor Zhong Xinxuan, and began to collect and study seaweed. At that time, domestic seaweed research was still a desert. When collecting seaweed, he saw people collecting seaweed for food, and the idea of ​​"marine agriculture" came to him. From then on, he became attached to the sea and began a lifelong expedition of "changing the sea and the fields".

In 1932, Zeng Chengkui studied hard at the Lingnan University Graduate School and obtained a master's degree in science. In 1935, he came to the National Shandong University (now developed into China Ocean University and Shandong University) as a lecturer and was hired as an associate professor in 1937. After that, he went to Lingnan University as an associate professor of the Department of Biology.

During this period, in order to find out the "family background" of my country's seaweed resources, Zeng Chengkui traveled from Hainan in the south to Liaoning in the north, conducted in-depth investigations on my country's coastal seaweed, collected thousands of seaweed specimens, accumulated a large amount of data, and laid a preliminary foundation for my country's seaweed research.

In 1940, Zeng Chengkui went to the Graduate School of the University of Michigan to study phycology, limnology and plant physiology, and successfully obtained a doctorate in science two years later. Subsequently, he received the Rackham Postdoctoral Fellowship from the University of Michigan. In June 1943, when his postdoctoral work was completed, he decided to return to China to establish an aquatic plant research institute, but he was unable to do so because Sino-US transportation was almost cut off during World War II. So he chose to go to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States to study physical oceanography and marine chemistry, while continuing his research on seaweed resources and their utilization.

In 1946, Zeng Chengkui, 37, was already an associate researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States. He had a generous living allowance and good research conditions. The University of Michigan and the University of Washington also wanted him to work there. But serving the motherland and fulfilling his "Zenong" aspirations have always been his obsession. He said: "My career is in China, and it is precisely because it is backward that we need to build it."

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, National Shandong University was re-established in Qingdao in 1946. Tong Dizhou, then director of the Department of Biology, was entrusted by President Zhao Taimou to hire Zeng Chengkui as a professor at the university. At that time, both living and research conditions in China were very poor, but Zeng Chengkui resolutely returned to China in December 1946. While teaching and educating people, he also engaged in marine science research.

On the eve of the liberation of Qingdao, Zeng Chengkui was one of the scientists that the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China wanted to send to Taiwan. At that time, his wife and children in Xiamen had already gone to Taiwan, and they hoped day and night that he could also go to Taiwan to reunite with the family. However, he was firm in his attitude: "I believe in the Communist Party, and I will never go to Taiwan with the Kuomintang!" His behavior was misunderstood by his family, and he and his family were separated from each other from then on.

It was not until 1975, when Zeng Chengkui visited the United States as the deputy head of the first scientific delegation of the People's Republic of China, that he was able to meet his family for the first time after decades of separation, but the misunderstanding was still not resolved. In 1995, when his second son, Zeng Yunji, a researcher at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, came to the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for academic exchanges, the father and son shook hands for the first time in the motherland.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Party and the government strongly supported the cause of science and education, which inspired Zeng Chengkui. In 1956, Zeng Chengkui submitted his application to join the Party for the first time. However, due to various reasons, on January 8, 1980, Zeng Chengkui finally joined the Communist Party of China at the age of 70.

Strategic leadership will benefit future generations

Zeng Chengkui's scientific research activities for more than 70 years have been related to marine science. He insists on meeting national needs and embodying independent innovation. While conducting basic research and exploring the laws of nature, he never forgets to transform scientific research results into productivity. He has persisted for a long time and achieved remarkable results.

Zeng Chengkui has been engaged in the research of seaweed biology for a long time. He discovered more than 100 new species, two new genera and one new family in the research of algae classification and morphology. He presided over the compilation of "Chinese Seaweed" and became one of the most authoritative algae taxonomists in the world.

Dr. Joanna Jones, an internationally renowned Australian phycologist and president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Applied Phycology, commented: "Zeng Chengkui is a giant in the field of phycology. He lived in turbulent times, but never deviated from his pursuit of algae knowledge and his pursuit of using algae to improve human life as much as possible."

In the 1930s, Zeng Chengkui traveled all over the coastal areas of China to conduct investigations and research on seaweed resources, and established close business contacts with well-known algae scientists in Sweden, Denmark, Britain, the United States and Japan. Some museums in these countries still well preserve the precious specimens of Chinese seaweed he sent back then. In the 1940s, he was responsible for organizing and conducting research on the production and processing methods of agar raw materials in the United States around the production and control of strategic material agar products. He also engaged in investigations and research on the resources and processing methods of alginate and carrageenan, and accumulated a wealth of experience.

Around the 1950s, the study of the life history of Porphyra became a hot topic in the world algae community at that time. Zeng Chengkui immediately seized this scientific and technological problem in Qingdao and carried out research. He soon made key progress and became one of the first two scientists in the world to break through the production of conchospores from Porphyra filaments and the production of thallus from conchospores, thus laying a solid foundation for the artificial seedling cultivation of Porphyra. The term "conchospore" first named by him was unanimously recognized and accepted by all authoritative algae scientists in the world at that time after several years of verification, and has been used to this day. In 1956, the scientific research results of the life history research of Porphyra gansu, which he presided over, became one of the first batch of national science and technology award projects in New China.

Kelp was originally a traditional Chinese food, but it was not a Chinese product. Every year, China needs to import about 15,000 tons of dried kelp from Japan and the Soviet Union to meet market demand. In the early 1950s, Zeng Chengkui selected the research on the principles of kelp cultivation as one of the research directions of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and presided over and completed this important research task. With the support of the former Ministry of Fisheries and government leaders at all levels, after more than ten years of joint efforts, great success was finally achieved in the cultivation of kelp summer seedlings, offshore fertilization and southward migration cultivation, which played a key role in promoting the establishment of the world's largest kelp cultivation industry in China. Subsequently, China's kelp cultivation industry developed rapidly and became the leading industry in China's marine aquaculture industry.

In the early 1970s, the total output of artificially cultivated kelp in China reached 300,000 tons of dry products, which was six times the 50,000 tons of natural kelp output in Japan and the Soviet Union, shocking the world's algae and aquaculture communities. As Professor Susan Brawley, an internationally renowned algae scientist, pointed out: "For the world scientific community in the 20th century, Dr. Zeng Chengkui is a milestone figure, and his contribution to algae is immeasurable!" The "Research on the Principles of Kelp Cultivation" personally hosted and led by Zeng Chengkui won the 1978 National Science Conference Award.

The huge success of large-scale marine cultivation of kelp in China is not only a typical example of the transformation of science and technology into productivity, but also opens a new chapter for the development and utilization of the ocean by mankind. It is in this context that, referring to the development model of kelp and drawing on the development experience and lessons of kelp, China's cultivation of other seaweeds such as laver, kelp and asparagus has also achieved success and developed rapidly. Subsequently, animal shellfish (mussels and scallops) farming, shrimp farming and fish farming also first developed rapidly and on a large scale in China.

While making progress in the development of kelp cultivation, Zeng Chengkui and his collaborators carried out research on the extraction and processing methods of agar and alginate in the mid-1950s, organized and completed the research on the extraction of alginate from Sargassum, and established my country's first alginate production workshop in Qingdao in 1956, thus creating a new field in my country's chemical industry - seaweed chemical industry.

On this basis, he also led the team to further carry out research on the comprehensive utilization of seaweed resources. Not only did they use seaweed to produce alginate, agar, carrageenan, mannitol and iodine, but they also used these products in the production of medicines, food and feed. As a result, my country quickly became a major alginate producer after the United States, and developed into the world's largest alginate producer.

In the early 1960s, the world's marine aquaculture industry began to grow slowly, and the domestic marine aquaculture industry began to have a dispute over breeding and fishing. Zeng Chengkui clearly advocated that "marine aquatic production must take the path of agriculture and animal husbandry". He first proposed the idea and suggestion of "cultivating the sea", personally led and deployed the "cultivating the sea" experiment in Jiaozhou Bay, and achieved a number of scientific research results. In the late 1970s, he and his collaborators published a series of papers and reports, initially forming the theory of "agriculture and animal husbandry of marine aquaculture production", which was highly valued and adopted by the Shandong Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government; in the late 1980s, he further developed the theory into a systematic idea of ​​"blue agriculture"; in 1998, he organized, prepared and hosted the 108th Xiangshan Science Conference with the title "China's Blue Agriculture Towards the 21st Century". To this end, my country's coastal provinces have successively proposed plans of "developing the sea with science and technology" and "building a strong maritime province". In 2000, China has developed into the world's leading marine aquaculture country, the first and only country where aquaculture output exceeds aquatic fishing output.

Zeng Chengkui's foresight on "marine farming and blue agriculture" has not only been widely recognized in China, but also recognized by the world aquaculture community. The World Fisheries Society awarded him the honor of "Lifetime Honorary Member of the World Fisheries Society."

In April 2002, the World Aquaculture Congress was successfully held in Beijing. This was an acceptance and recognition of China's theoretical and practical achievements in marine agriculture and animal husbandry, and also a resounding answer to the world - the Chinese people can feed themselves!

Peter Newshaw, a science history expert at the University of California, and Dr. Wang Zuoyue, collaborated to write a scientific history research paper with Zeng Chengkui as the research object, pointing out that Professor Zeng Chengkui implemented a unique path of combining basic research and applied research, which made his ideal since childhood - to benefit the people through marine agriculture - finally become a reality. His ideas on marine agriculture promoted the creation of a number of new marine industries in China. His success put China at the forefront of the world's marine aquaculture industry and inspired the continuous development of the "blue revolution" on a global scale!

In 1944, Zeng Chengkui conducted a diving experiment on the growth of Gelidium in the waters off the coast of California, USA.

Image source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account

As a strategic scientist, Zeng Chengkui always takes the lead for China's marine science at critical moments. In the 1950s, Zeng Chengkui participated in the formulation of major marine science plans since the founding of New China, and served as deputy leader of the meteorological and oceanographic disciplines of the National Science Planning Committee and deputy leader of the marine professional disciplines group of the State Science and Technology Commission. He organized and carried out the first large-scale comprehensive marine survey in the country.

In the early 1960s, Zeng Chengkui and other scientists jointly wrote a letter proposing the establishment of the State Oceanic Administration to strengthen my country's ocean management. The State Council approved it and unconditionally transferred the scientific research vessel "Practice" that was urgently needed by the Institute of Oceanology to the State Oceanic Administration for use. The State Oceanic Administration provided great support in many aspects and made important contributions to the development of my country's ocean management.

Since the 1970s, he and other scientists have actively suggested to the country to conduct Antarctic surveys and research, which has been adopted, making my country one of the few countries in the world capable of conducting independent polar research.

In the 1980s, Zeng Chengkui proposed the idea of ​​developing emerging marine biotechnology in China, and undertook the National Climbing Plan project "Basic Research on Excellent Germplasm and Disease Resistance of Marine Aquaculture Organisms". The research results were fruitful, making my country's research and application of marine biotechnology among the world's leading ranks.

In 1992, his suggestion to increase the number of projects related to marine high technology was adopted, which promoted the application of cell engineering, genetic engineering and other technologies in the research and development of marine biological resources in my country...

Over the years, Zeng Chengkui has won numerous honors, including the National Science Conference Award, the National Natural Science Award, the National Science and Technology Progress Award, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Major Scientific and Technological Achievement Award, and provincial (ministerial) awards.

In 1995, he won the Hatai Shinjizhi Award of the Pacific Regional Science Conference; in 1996, he won the "Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievement Award" of the Hong Kong Qiushi Science and Technology Foundation; in September 1997, he won the "Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation" Science and Technology Progress Award; in 2001, he won the Outstanding Contribution Award of the American Phycological Society; in 2002, he won the highest science and technology award established for the first time in Shandong Province.

On January 20, 2005, Zeng Chengkui passed away at the age of 96. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Ocean Foundation sent a eulogy on February 1: "Professor Zeng Chengkui's contributions and influence as a member of the U.S.-China Marine Living Resources Framework Agreement will remain in everyone's memory... We recognize his insight and leadership in leading the development of large-scale seaweed cultivation in Asia, his role as an early professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one of the founders of the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his role in promoting a strong cooperative relationship between China and the United States in the field of marine biology."

On June 4, 1965, Ye Shengtao (1st from right), then Minister of Education, accompanied by Zeng Chengkui (1st from left), Deputy Director of the Institute of Oceanology, and Fang Zongxi (2nd from left), Director of the Department of Biology of Shandong Ocean University, observed the growth of kelp on a sampan near the coast of Qingdao.

Image source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account

Love the wise and the talented and teach them tirelessly

In August 1950, at the initiative of Tong Dizhou, Zeng Chengkui and others, the first institution specializing in marine science research in New China, the Qingdao Marine Biology Laboratory, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (the predecessor of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), was established in Qingdao. Zeng Chengkui served as deputy director and later as deputy director and director of the institute.

In the early days of its establishment, Zeng Chengkui recruited talents widely, not only mobilizing Lou Kanghou, Wu Shangqin, Zhang Junfu and other outstanding scientific and technological talents to join the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but also inviting Zhang Derui and others from Indonesia. He also did everything he could to invite Mao Hanli, a famous marine physicist who studied in the United States, to return to China to join the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, opening up a new situation for the research of marine physics in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and even in the whole country.

Under the training and guidance of him and other older generation scientists such as Tong Dizhou and Zhang Xi, batches of outstanding talents gathered at the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and successively became scientists with remarkable achievements at home and abroad. Among them, the fourth director of the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, marine geologist Qin Yunshan, and scientists such as Zhang Fusui, Yuan Yeli, Jin Xianglong, Zheng Shouyi, Hu Dunxin, and Hou Baorong were elected as academicians, leading the development of my country's marine science.

Zhang Junfu, Zhang Derui, Wu Chaoyuan and Ji Minghou were engaged in the research of seaweed classification, morphology, cultivation and seaweed chemistry, becoming academic leaders and internationally renowned scientists. Fei Xiuxian successfully developed a series of artificial seedling and cultivation production technology systems of laver with Chinese characteristics, and his research results won the National Science Conference Award in 1978 and the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2002.

Physical oceanographer He Chongben was one of the outstanding talents discovered and cultivated by Zeng Chengkui. He once said frankly: "Without Zeng Chengkui's help and enthusiasm, I, He Chongben, would not have anything."

Zeng Chengkui has been teaching more than 100 senior scientific and technological talents at home and abroad with his broad mind and knowledge. He has also trained many foreign students. Max Holmesson, an international algae scientist and senior professor at the University of North Carolina, USA, embarked on the path of algae research under the guidance of Zeng Chengkui and became a famous algae scientist.

Zeng Chengkui is well-known in the international academic community. He actively participates in and organizes international academic exchange activities, and has facilitated a number of cooperative research and academic exchanges between China and the United States, China and Canada, China and the United Kingdom, China and Japan, China and France, China and Germany and other countries. He has expanded the influence of my country's marine science community in the world and brought a large number of young and middle-aged scientific and technological personnel to the stage of the international academic community.

Lifelong dedication

Zeng Chengkui often said, "You only have one life, so why not live it to the fullest?" Indeed, in his 76-year scientific research and teaching career, he lived a life of great fanfare, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the country and the people, and to the cause of marine science.

In the 1930s, he risked his life to collect seaweed specimens in remote coastal areas; in the 1940s, he worked day and night in the United States, and regularly dived to a depth of ten meters to observe seaweed cultivation experiments; in the 1950s, in the early days of the establishment of the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he led everyone to carry out research on multiple topics, while actively participating in and leading my country's first large-scale national marine census; in the 1960s, when the country was in a period of economic difficulties, he led his assistants to promptly carry out scientific research projects to obtain protein from the ocean; in the 1970s, he led his assistants to the Xisha Islands to investigate and collect marine biological specimens; in 1984, at the age of seventy, he retired from his leadership position, but he is still active in the forefront of scientific research activities.

In 1975, shortly after my country recovered the Xisha Islands, Zeng Chengkui, who had just been "liberated", decisively organized a team to go to the Xisha Islands for marine biological scientific research. In 1976 and 1980, he led a team to the Xisha Islands for research twice. In his seventies, he walked across the scorching beach every day like the young scientific expedition team members, enduring the scorching sun and the high temperature of more than 40 degrees. The skin on his face was sunburned, but he was still full of energy to collect specimens in the sea and worked day and night.

In 1980, Zeng Chengkui introduced marine science knowledge to primary school students at the National Marine Science Summer Camp in his laboratory.

After years of traveling and working hard, Zeng Chengkui suffered from severe lumbar disc herniation, but he insisted on working during his bedridden treatment. At the end of 1994, when he was on his way to Chile to attend an international academic conference and passing through San Francisco, he was unable to stand due to a recurrence of lumbar disc herniation while studying seaweed specimens at the University of California Herbarium. He had no choice but to give his papers for the conference to his American colleagues to bring to the conference for exchange, and he never stopped working for a single day.

In 2002, Zeng Chengkui, 93 years old, was hospitalized for surgery. At that time, he had accepted an invitation to attend an international academic conference in Malaysia, so he prepared for the surgery while preparing for the academic conference report. In order not to disturb his bed-sitting partner, he quietly got up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom in the ward, sat on the toilet, and revised his academic report under the weak light of the bathroom.

One month before Zeng Chengkui passed away, he was awarded the "2004 National Love Donation Award" by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Zeng Chengkui, who had deep feelings for society and the people, lived a frugal life, but donated nearly 300,000 yuan from his salary, royalties and bonuses to needy students and social groups.

"Useful organs from my body will be donated to society, my ashes will be scattered into the sea, and all my books and materials will be donated to the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences." These were Zeng Chengkui's last words.

He came with a heart and left without taking a single blade of grass. Zeng Chengkui, with his broad mind, once again showed the world the selfless dedication of an outstanding Communist Party member at the last moment of his life.

Zeng Chengkui still worked on the front line in his later years

Image source: Ocean Archives WeChat Official Account

In order to commemorate the outstanding contributions made by Mr. Zeng Chengkui and promote his scientific spirit, on June 18, 2009, at the commemoration meeting for the centenary of Zeng Chengkui's birth, the Chinese Society of Oceanology and Limnology officially established the "Zeng Chengkui Marine Science and Technology Award", which is China's first scientific and technological award named after a marine scientist. The Science and Technology Award is reviewed every two years and aims to reward domestic and foreign scholars and experts who have made outstanding contributions to China's marine science.

"I am the son of the sea." Zeng Chengkui once expressed his true feelings like this.

The "Son of the Sea" has never gone away, and he is still brilliant - in 2009, he was named one of the top ten marine figures in the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China; in 2018, he was named one of the people who moved Shandong in the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up...