Source from IRTCES (July 20,2005):
The meeting for the establishment of the Third Chien Ning Memorial Foundation for Erosion and Sedimentation was held with a pageant at the IRTCES building in Beijing on July 20,2005. The advisor of the foundation, Academician of Chinese Academy of Science, Dr. Lin Bingnan, and Director of the Foundation, Mr. Dai Dingzhong, the Vice Director of the Foundation, Mr. Jiao Juren and 20 members of the Foundation attended the meeting. The Vice Director, Secretary General of IRTCES, Dr. Hu Chunhong presided over the meeting. The wife of Chien Ning, Mrs. Gong Weiyao, Director of IRTCES, Dr. Kuang Shangfu, and Dr. Lin Bingnan, Mr.Dai Dingzhong and Mr. Yuan Jing gave their addresses, respectively at the meeting. Dr. Hu Chunhong declared the establishment of the Third foundation and read out the name list of the members of the foundation.
IRTCES has been the Manager of Ning Chien Memorial Prize for Erosion and Sedimentation and has awarded for six times the prize to outstanding scientists and engineers.
Meeting Hall
Dr. Lin Bingnan delivering a speech
Mrs. Gong Weiyao (Wife of Chien Ning) giving a speech
Mr. Dai Dingzhong delivering a speech
Dr. Kuang Shangfu delivering a speech
Dr. Hu Chunhong presiding over the meeting
Mr. Yuan Jing, Division Chief of Ministry of Science and Technology delivering a speech
Members of the Foundation reviewing the statute
Dr. Ning Chien was a renowend authority in river sedimentation. He made important contribution to the regulation of the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in China, and was one of the outstanding organizers of studies on river sedimentation problems in China. He also played a key role in setting up training programs to upgrade the staff members working with sediment in many research institutes in China and in the promotion of international cooperation between Chinese and overseas scientists in the field of river sedimentation.
He was born on December 4, 1922, in Hangzhou, China. In 1943, he was graduated with a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the Central University of China. In 1947, he went to the U.S.A. to pursue graduate studies, receiving his M.S. degree from the University of Iowa in 1948, and his Ph.D. Degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1951. Upon his return to China in 1955, he became a research fellow in the Institute of Hydrotechnical Research, Academia Sinica, and later was appointed Deputy Head of the Sedimentation Engineering Department, Institute of Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Power Research (IWHR). From 1973 to 1986, he was professor of Hydraulic Engineering of Tsinghua University and the head of its Sedimentation Laboratory. He was an executive Member of the Board of Directors of the CHES and the Vice-Chiairman of its Sedimentation Committee and was Chief Editor of the Journal of Sediment Research (in Chinese ) and of the International Journal of Sediment Research (in English). He was also a member of the Standing Committee of the Seventh Poeple's Congress of Beijing Municipality.
Dr. Chien Ning, a former student of Professor H. A. Einstein in the field of sediment, has a keen mind to seek out new areas of study. He initiated the study on the hyperconcentrated flow of sediment in the Yellow River and was a pioneer of the modern shcool viewing fluvial processes as an interdiscipliniary endeavor of river mechanics and geography. And recently, with great determination, between intermittent hospitalizations, he managed to complete his voluminous treatises entitled " The Mechanics of Sediment Transport" and "Fluvial Processes", which are regarded by many as landmarks in these fields.
Since the early fifties, Dr. Chien Ning attached great importance to the application of theories to the solution of practical problems of river sedimentation. Sedimentation problems arising in engineering projects always received his foremost attention. He was one of the specialists best acquainted with the Yellow River, having made numerous field trips to that river, including the regions of serious soil erosion along its main tributaries. In his now classic monograph, "Fluvial Processes of the Lower Yellow River ", the governing laws of fluvial processes of the Lower Yellow River were systematically summarized and expounded. The identification of a relatively small region along the middle course of the Yellow River as the source area of the coarse sediment deposited in the lower course of the River enabled one to limit thesoil conservation work to a much smaller extent. This finding was the result of a study under Dr. Chien's direction, and has been recognized as a break-through in the training of the Yellow River. For this study he was given a national award for scientific progress. He also made many valuable contributions to the preparation of plans for the training of the Yellow River, and to the solution of the sedimentation problems of Qiantang Estuary and the Gezhouba Project on the Yangtze River.
Dr. Chien is also credited with playing a key role in building up the sedimetn research staff at the Institute of Hydrotechnical Research, Academia Sinica, the Sedimentation Engineering Department of IWHR, and the Sedimentation Laboratory of Tsinghua University. Many a time he organzied and supervised studies that led to the successful solution of key sediemtation problems, thus winning himself great pretige among the hydrualic engineers in China.
He regularly devoted much of his attention to the discovery and training of talented young engineers. From the early sixties on, he organized and offered to them various training courses on river sedimentation. The trainees in those courses have now become key staff members in many design, research, and educational institutions in China.
Dr. Chien inititated the first International Symposium on River Sedimentation held in China. His initiative also led eventually to the establishment of the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) in 1984, and to the publication of the International Journal of Sediment Research in English.
Dr. Chien Ning was highly respected and beloved by his colleagues and his students. He was always kind and considerate. A man of integrity, he was true to his principles and loyal to his friends.
