Lin Lanying (Chinese: 林兰英; February 7, 1918 – March 4, 2003) was a Chinese electrical engineer, materials scientist, physicist, and politician. She is called the "mother of aerospace materials" and the "mother of semiconductor materials" in China. In 1957, she returned to China and became a researcher at the Institute of Physics CAS. She then moved to the Institute of Semiconductor CAS and spent her research life there. Among her many contributions include manufacturing China's first monocrystalline silicon, and the first mono-crystal furnace used to extract silicon in China. She laid the foundation of development in microelectronics and optoelectronics. She was responsible for developing extensive materials in a high-purified vapor phase and liquid phase and led China to become the world leader. She was honored as Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and became the vice president of China Association for Science and Technology. She received the National S&T Progress Award twice, and the first prize in CAS S&T Progress Award four times. In 1998, she was given the Henry Fok Achievement Award. In the political field, she was selected as a deputy to the National People's Congress and as a member of its Standing Committee.
Early life Lin was born in Putian City, Fujian Province, in southern China. Lin Lanying was the first child born into a large and prestigious family, which could be traced back to the Ming dynasty 600 years before. Her sisters became child brides or were killed. Before she was six years old, Lanying was required to wash clothes and cook for the whole family. Her ancestor Lin Run was an imperial censor during the Ming Dynasty. This was an official position that controlled and supervised other government officials. During his career he faced two influential persons who challenged state authority. By helping the emperor deal with these two challengers, the emperor gave him money to build a house in Putian, which is now called the Old House of Lin Run. Lin were all born and raised in this house.
Education At age six, she wanted to go to school rather than housework and chatting with other women all day. The only escape was via education. Her mother was deeply influenced by Chinese social gender norms and forbid her to get an education. Lin locked herself in her room and swore that she would not eat unless she was allowed to go to school. Her mother was moved by her insistence, and finally allowed her to attend Liqing primary school. Lin often got the best grades in her class, while she was required to do all the washing and cooking. Then came studying that often kept her up to 12 AM. She got up to cook and then went to school. Her habit of sleeping six hours continued throughout her life. She fought a similar battle to continue to Liqing middle school. Her mother said that as a female, literacy did not matter. She convinced her mother that if she did not need money to study, she could go. This middle school provided scholarships for students who got the three best grades each semester. Lin earned her scholarship every semester. After finishing middle school, she enrolled in Putian high school. Her mother finally accepted her studies because of her success in middle school. However, Lin stayed in this school for only one year. Japan went to war with China and killed many Chinese people. A lot of the students became angry and held many parades to boycott Japan. Many Japanese soldiers and agents were in China, so the parades were suppressed and some students were killed. Lin transferred to a women's school called Hami Lton School. One of her teachers came from the United States and could not speak Chinese very well, so many of her classmates could not understand his courses. Lin helped the teacher as an assistant. When the teacher taught something in English, Lanying Lin would translate. Because of this, she was called ‘little teacher’. She continued her study at Fukien Christian University, a top university at that time in China. She graduated at age 22 with a bachelor's degree in Physics as one of the best in her class. She worked at the university for 8 years, four years as an assistant to teach some fundamental courses such as mechanics. Her first book was Course for Experiments in Optics and earned certification as a professor.
Education in the United States Fukien Christian University had exchange programs with New York University at that time and many teachers who worked more than 2 years could study abroad. However, because she was not a Christian, she was excluded. So she applied to attend Dickinson College and earned a full scholarship and another bachelor's degree in mathematics with the help of her workmate Lairong Li in 1931. She then studied solid state physics at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1955, she received a doctorate degree there in solid-state physics and became the first Chinese national in a hundred years to earn a doctorate degree there. She thought that compared with math, physics was more applicable and more useful for China.
Career
United States Lanying wanted to return to China after graduation. However, the Chinese political situation was not good. At that time, the United States had many opportunities for scientists and including international students. Many Chinese students were not allowed to repatriate. Through the recommendation of her professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she decided to work as a senior engineer at the Sylvania Company which mainly manufactured semiconductors. At that time, the company had failed several times in making mono-crystalline silicon. Lanying discovered the problems and helped the company successfully engineer the silicon technology.
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