Chen Jiayong

Chen Jiayong (; also romanized as Chia-yung Chen; 17 February 1922 – 26 August 2019) was a Chinese metallurgist and chemical engineer. He was a research professor and Vice President of the Institute of Process Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). A pioneer in the development of hydrometallurgy in China, he was elected an academician of the CAS in 1980. He was awarded the State Science and Technology Prizes five times and the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress in 1996.

Early life and education Chen was born on 17 February 1922 in Jintang County, Sichuan.

In 1939, he was admitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering of National Central University, then exiled in Chongqing during the Second Sino-Japanese War. He studied under some of the then top chemists of the country, including , , and . After graduating in 1943, he was hired by the university as a faculty member. Under the guidance of Gao Jiyu, he was the first in China to successfully synthesize the pesticide DDT. In 1954, he became a research engineer at the Yerkes Research Laboratory of the chemical company DuPont.

In 2017, the CAS named China's first satellite for chemical engineering experiment after Chen. The CHEN Jiayong-1 was launched into space from India in February 2017. It was the first satellite named after a Chinese scientist.

Chen was a member of the Chinese Communist Party. He served five consecutive terms as a member of the 4th to the 8th National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Death On 26 August 2019, he died in Beijing at the age of 97. He was buried at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery.

Personal life In 1948, Chen married his university classmate Liu Rong in the United States. The couple had two daughters.