Xia Peisu, b. 1923 in Chongqing, Sichuan Province, came from a literary family. She is a specialist in computer science and technology.
Xia Peisu started attending primary school at the age of four and a half and studied at home under a private tutor for six years, from the age of eight. Her excellent academic results gained her admission to senior high school in 1937, and she graduated three years later, in 1940, taking first place. That year, Xia Peisu enrolled in the Department of Electrical Engineering of Central(Zhongyang )University, graduating in 1944. The following year she became a graduate student at the Telecommunications Research Institute of Jiaotong University in Shanghai.
In 1947, Xia Peisu went to Britain to further her studies in the Electrical Engineering Department of Edinburgh University, undertaking doctoral research. She was awarded a Ph. D. in 1950; Xia Peisu remained at Edinburgh University to undertake postdoctoral research and that year married fellow student Yang Liming, a postdoctoral researcher in mathematical physics. The couple had two sons who both followed in their parents’ footsteps: Yang Yuenian became a computer expert, and Yang Yuemin a physicist.
Motivated by patriotism, Xia Peisu, and her husband returned to China in 1951, two years after the PRC’s founding. She embarked on telecommunications network research at Tsinghua University and was promoted a year later. The head of the Institute of Mathematics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hua Luogen, planned to introduce computer technology research, and Xia Peisu was transferred there in 1953. She thus became one of the three founding members of China’s first Computer Science Research Unit. When the other two members discontinued work with the research facility several years later, Xia Peisu continued alone. Working under extremely adverse conditions, she designed the arithmetic logic unit and controller of the first digital computer in general use in China. Xia Peisu also compiled at this time the first batch of lecture notes on the principles behind computers.
Xia Peisu was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991. She is one of the founders of computer science technology in China and has left her mark on every Chinese computer technology stage since its inception. She believes strongly in the country’s determination and ability to achieve a world-class rank in the field, a goal for which she strove even when facing adversities during the Cultural Revolution. Xia Peisu is great integrity, simple and without affectation, rigorous in her studies, and generous to future scholars.
References:
Josephine Nettey, msn news, “The computer pioneer who built modern China“, 2020, online resource:
Leila McNeill, BBC, “The computer pioneer who built modern China“, 2020, online resource:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200219-xia-peisu-the-computer-pioneer-who-built-modern-china
The University of Edinburgh, 2019, online academic resource:
