Rare metal metallurgist and materials technologist
Professor-Engineer of the National Bureau of Nonferrous Metals Industry
Dong-ying Li was born in Beijing in December, 1920. In 1948, he graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University of Peking with a Bachelor of Science degree and began his career in scientific research, and technological development, and engineering management.
Professor Li, one of the founders of the rare metal industry of China, achieved great success in the field of rare metals. As an engineer for the National Bureau of Nonferrous Metals Industry, he chaired the development of specific methods of production for over 30 rare metals, which guaranteed the production of enough new materials urgently needed in the various fields of construction of China.
Professor Li has long been engaged in the rare material industry. He worked as the director of Shenyang Mineral Dressing Agent Factory from 1949 to 1951, and chaired the development of the techniques and equipments for the production of solid Xanthate (ore collector), which are still in use today. He had two tours, each of three years, 1951‒1953 and 1956‒1958, to the Soviet Union for further studies in non-ferrous metal ore dressing and rare metals metallurgy. He served as the vice chairman, the vice chief engineer, and the chief engineer of Beijing Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals ( the original Comprehensive Research Institute of Nonferrous Metals) from 1956 to 1979. He worked for long as a leader of research and development programs of rare metals, establishing himself as one of the top rare metal metallurgists of China.
He spent years on development and application research of titanium, and promoted a quick development in China’s titanium industry, which made China a powerful manufacturer of titanium, with a complete titanium production system, paralleling with the United States, Russia and Japan.
Professor Li and his team members completed a series of rare metals and materials research and development projects. Attracted by the great benefits out of rare metals and materials exploitation, he made up his mind in his early years to engage himself in the rare metals and materials industry. He contributed much to the great progress of economy in China by promoting application of titanium and other rare metals.
Professor Li participated in and contributed much to the making of the policies and plans for the development of tungsten, tin, aluminum and other important non-ferrous metals. He was employed as the special consultant on economy and technology to the Provincial Governments of Jiangxi and Gansu in 1986.
Professor Li did much to promote development and application of rare earth. In 1981, the National Rare Earth Development and Application Leading Group was established, he was elected as a member of the Group. He invited and organized a variety of specialists in the broad field of rare earth to make investigations, and organized the writing of The Specialist Group Investigation Report on Rare Earth, a report in five volumes. The report offered a detailed and diagnostic examination of rare earth reserves and developmental potentialities, and provided important references for scientific decision-making. He was appointed as the chairman of the Expert Consultation Group on Rare Earth Development, an institution first under the State Council and then under the National Planning Committee, and as the consultant to Rare Earth Information, the organ journal of the National Planning Committee. And he was one of the first people who proposed and organized the scientific research, technological development and experimental application of rare earth and trace elements in agricultural production.
As an outstanding expert, he places great importance on rare metals and materials exploitation. His extensive knowledge, profound experience and fruitful endeavor in scientific research, technological development and engineering management won him many provincial and national awards. With “A Study of the Technological Policies in 12 Important Sectors in China” and “The Preliminary Study of the National Long-term Planning of Science and Technology for 1986 to 2000”, he was awarded the First Award of the National Science and Technology Progress Awards, respectively in 1987 and 1989. He published more than 10 monographs and more than 10 research papers; and he, as the chief editor, produced The Non-ferrous Metals Progress, a large series of 40 volumes or books.
Professor Li was elected a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) in 1995.
Professor Li retired in 1990 from his post, but never from his study and work. He often says, “as long as I’m useful to country, I won’t run away from work”.
Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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