Qing-rui Xu
Professor & Doctoral Supervisor
Zhejiang University
Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering
Professor Qing-rui Xu was born in Changzhou City of Jiangsu Province in January 1930. He graduated from Jiao Tong University (the predecessor of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Xi’an Jiaotong University) in 1951, and from the Graduate School of Renmin University of China in 1955. He started teaching in Zhejiang University in 1961, and as a visiting scholar, he stayed in the MIT and Stanford University for two years, furthering his study in management of research, development and technical innovation. He has been working as a professor and doctoral supervisor at Zhejiang University, engaged in technological innovation and management engineering for many years.
Professor Xu opened up new areas of technical innovation and technical management in China, and put forward the theory of “secondary innovation, combined innovation, and comprehensive innovation.” And, as one of the pioneering theorists of technological innovation and technological management, Xu was the first in China to put forward the point of view that “the enterprise is the major force of technological innovation,” the first in China to work out the combined mode of technological innovation, and one of the first scholars to suggest strategic planning method based on the core competences of innovation, entrepreneurial system of technological innovation, and accumulation of technical abilities. Xu’s theory of three innovations was well approved by international experts of innovation and applied by international enterprises. He advocated and participated in various national technological innovation projects and entrepreneurial innovation programs, bringing profits to such enterprises as Haier and Hangyang.
Professor Xu, as one of the founding members, established the Department of Management at Zhejiang University in 1978, and worked as the chairman of the faculty from 1978 to 1988, and is still working as a professor and doctorial supervisor at the School of Management, the chairman of the Innovation and Development Research Center, of Zhejiang University, and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Management Engineering, an important journal published by Zhejiang University and the National Guiding Committee for Instruction in the Management Engineering Discipline.
He set up the first doctoral program in management engineering in China in Zhejiang University, published the first works on technological innovation in China, including Management of Technological Innovation (1990) and Management of Research and Development (1986), and established the first journal in management engineering in China, Journal of Management Engineering. He published more 200 papers in the areas of technological innovation and management engineering, with over 70 in English and over 30 in EI, SCI and ISTP journals or proceedings. He presided over and completed more than 20 international, national and provincial research projects.
Xu is an educator of influence. He well combines theory of education and practice of instruction, building a fruitful system of education in innovative management and cultivation of innovative professionals. He has prepared a large number of talented professionals of management engineering, supervising more than 30 doctoral candidates, among whom, 10 are already employed as professors, 9 are doctoral supervisors and faculty leaders of the management disciplines, and some are influential practitioners in the entrepreneurial world. His rigorous, unique method of preparation of management professionals is referred to as the “miracle” in the history of management education in China.
He has served at many academic posts, as, for instance, a member of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council and a member Management Group of the Natural Science Foundation. He also worked as senior management consultant for many well-known enterprises.
Professor Xu has been devoting himself to the promotion of technological innovation and technological management for many years. His contributions over the past years have been unprecedented, making him a member to the Chinese Academy for Engineering (in 2007). He was the winner of many national and ministerial (or provincial) prizes or awards, including a first class of the Scientific and Technological Progress Prizes of Chinese HEIs, a second class of the National Excellent Textbook Prizes, a second class of the National Excellent Educational Science Achievement Prizes, the sixth China Management Conference Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2005 Zhejiang University Zhu Kezhen Prize.
As an expert of technological innovation engineering and technological management engineering, Xu is admired by his colleagues for his profound knowledge, active thinking, broad vision, and unique creativity. He enjoyed high reputation in the academic communities of China and of the world. He is a master, erudite, kind, gentle and wise, to the younger generations of engineers, technologists and scientists.
The Author(s) 2016. This article is published with open access at engineering.cae.cn
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