Chen-Lu Tsou

Zou Chenglu (; 17 May 1923 – 23 November 2006), better known as Chen-Lu Tsou, was a Chinese biochemist. He was a professor of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and later a professor and deputy director of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He made important contributions to the synthesis of insulin, and was elected an academician of the CAS and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He won the TWAS Prize in Biology in 1992 for his pioneering study of enzyme inhibition kinetics, and was a six-time laureate of the State Natural Science Award (three times each for First Class and Second Class). His wife, physicist Li Lin, was also an academician of the CAS.

Tsou was a strong advocate against academic fraud and pseudoscience, and led a public campaign against what he called "unhealthy practices" such as administrators' interference in scientific research.

Early life and education

Tsou was born on 17 May 1923 in Qingdao, Shandong province, with his ancestral home in Wuxi, Jiangsu. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he sought refuge in Kunming in China's interior and studied chemistry at the National Southwestern Associated University. After graduation in 1945, he briefly served in the army during World War II.

After the war, Tsou was awarded a government scholarship to study in England, initially bound for the University of Birmingham. On the recommendation of Wang Yinglai, he was accepted by the University of Cambridge to study under David Keilin at the Molteno Institute for Research in Parasitology. His method for estimating the number of essential amino acid residues in an enzyme by chemical modification, in which the remaining activity is plotted against the number of residues modified is known as the Tsou plot. In 1981, he was awarded the State Natural Science Award, First Class, for this achievement. Despite losing an entire decade of his prime, he published at least 118 papers, mostly in international journals. At the Institute of Biophysics, Tsou raised objections to Director Bei Shizhang's display of his achievement in cell formation. The criticism poisoned his relationship with Bei, making Tsou feel "uneasy" at the institute. Scientist Rao Yi later raised the same objections and praised Tsou's probity.

Personal life

In 1948, Tsou married Li Lin (Anna Tsou), a fellow Chinese student at the Department of Metallurgy of Cambridge. Their daughter, geologist Zou Zongping , was born in the 1950s in China.