Xie Xide

Xie Xide (; 19 March 1921 – 4 March 2000), also known as Hsi-teh Hsieh and as Hilda Hsieh, was a Chinese physicist. She was president of Fudan University from 1983 to 1989, and remained as advisor to the university from 1989 until her death. She helped to set up the university's Centre for American Studies and founded its Modern Physics Institute in 1977.

Xie also served as a member in the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 1982 to 1992.

Biography Xie Xide was born March 19, 1921, in the port city of Quanzhou in Fujian, southeastern China. She was born into a family that valued education. Her father Xie Yuming had a Ph.D. from University of Chicago and taught at Yenching University in Beijing. Xie Yuming precisely measured the spectrum of hydrogen atom during his study in the US. The famous theoretical physicist, Yang Chen-Ning referred to Xie Yuming as the person that the Nobel Prize missed.

Xide spent part of her childhood in Beijing. She attended Yenching Elementary School and was a top student in school. She met Cao Tianqin when Cao transferred to Yenching. Cao constantly beat Xie in school performance and the two became good friends. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Xie when to Hunan University to study physics; but she had to withdraw from school due to illness of bone tuberculosis. Different hospitals diagnosed that her illness is not treatable so she returned home to fight the illness with her family's help. Cao started sending her numerous letters in the name of academic discussions, which helped Xie cheer up and continue her studies. In 1942, not only did Xie survive, through her self-study at home, she was also admitted to Xiamen University to study physics and mathematics. Xie graduated in 1946. She taught at University of Shanghai for a year, and then was able to get a scholarship to study for a master's degree in physics at Smith College in the United States, She continued her studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1951. From 1978 to 1983 she served as Director of the Institute of Modern Physics of Fudan University. She was appointed vice president of Fudan in 1978, and President in 1983, serving in that capacity until 1988. During her tenure, she founded Center for American Studies in Fudan to encourage students to learn about world leading research and international relations. She was the first woman president of a major comprehensive university in the PRC.

Xie Xide was appointed to the Communist Party's Central Committee in 1982 and served as one of 210 full members.

Xie Xide's husband, Cao Tianqin suffered a coma in 1987 when he was attending a global biology and ecology conference in Israel. He was since paralyzed in bed and suffered memory loss. Despite her own illness, Xide took care of Cao by planning his meal and helping him on physical therapy. She continued doing so for 8 years until Cao died in 1995. Xie continued her work in hospital as she fought with cancer. She died on March 4, 2000 and donated her whole body to China's medical research.

Published works Xie Xide published more than eighty papers and several books and monographs.

Some of Xie's published work include:

"Overview of Metal/Semiconductor Interfaces," The Structure of Surfaces. Springer Series in Surface Sciences 24. Berlin: Springer, 1991, p. 576.

Xie also published the following books: Semiconductor Physics. Science Press, 1958, with K. Huang. Group Theory and Its Applications. China: Science Publisher, 1986.

Honors Xie Xide had received honorary doctorates from twelve universities worldwide, including the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong and China. Xie Xide was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, an Academician of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), and a Distinguished Scholar of the Committee on Scholarly Communication with The People's Republic of China.