Ye Zhupei

Ye Zhupei or Yap Chu-Phay (; 1902 – 24 November 1971) was a Chinese physical chemist, chemical engineer, and metallurgist. Born into an overseas Chinese family in the Philippines and educated in the United States, he moved to China in the 1930s and served in both the Kuomintang and the Communist governments. Considered the founder of chemical metallurgy in China, he was elected a founding member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1955 and established the Institute of Chemical Metallurgy (now Institute of Process Engineering) of the CAS in 1958. He was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and died in prison after five years of incarceration.

Early life and career in the United States Ye Zhupei (or Yap Chu-Phay in Hokkien) was born in 1902 in Manila, American Philippines, into an overseas Chinese family that originated from Xiamen, Fujian. His father, Ye Duxing , was a businessman and follower of the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen. and developed the use of thermodynamics in the study of iron-carbon alloys, which attracted much attention from metallurgists.

Republic of China In 1933, Ye moved to the Republic of China to serve in the National Defense Design Council of the Kuomintang government in Nanjing. He was appointed director of the laboratory for metallurgy, which was established at his suggestion. After the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Ye relocated with the Kuomintang government to the wartime capital of Chongqing, where he led the production of strategic materials, such as electrolytic copper and special steel, which were urgently needed for the war effort. He was elected a founding member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1955. In 1958, he established the Institute of Chemical Metallurgy (now Institute of Process Engineering) of the CAS and served as the founding director.

After examining the shortcomings of China's steel industry, Ye suggested the application of the "three high method": high pressure, temperature, and humidity, and Shijingshan Steel built a test furnace according to his specification. who was previously married to poet Ralph Cheyney. She took on the name Weda Yap. They divorced in the 1940s.

While a visiting scientist in New York City, Ye Zhupei met his second wife Marcelia Vance Yeh, an Irish-American from Ohio, through their friends Toshi and Pete Seeger.