Xu Zhilun

Xu Zhilun (20 June 1911 – 26 August 1999) was a Chinese mechanics and educator who was a professor and doctoral supervisor at Hohai University. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He was a delegate to the 3rd National People's Congress. He was a member of the 5th, 6th, 7th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Biography Xu was born into a highly educated family in the town of , in Jiangdu County, Jiangsu, on 20 June 1911. He was fascinated by Chinese literature since childhood. In 1919, his family moved to Yangzhou and one year later moved again to Nanjing, where he finished primary school in a missionary school. His family settled in Beijing in 1923. He elementary studied at Beijing Private Zhicheng Middle School and secondary studied at the High School Affiliated to Beijing Normal University and Beijing Huiwen High School . In 1930, he was admitted to the Department of Civil Engineering, Tsinghua University. In 1935, he pursued advanced studies in the United States on government scholarships, first earning master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1936 and then master's degree from Harvard University in 1937.

On 7 July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident broke out, which marked the full invasion of the Republic of China by the Empire of Japan.