Leading Chinese hypersonic aviation scientist Yan Hong dies at 56

Yan Hong’s research focused on fields considered critical to the development of next-generation aerospace propulsion systems.

Photo: Handout Yan Hong, one of China’s leading researchers in hypersonic and high-speed propulsion technologies, has died at the age of 56, according to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Yan, a professor and doctoral supervisor at NPU’s school of power and energy, died on Tuesday at Jiangsu Provincial People’s Hospital in Nanjing following an illness.

The university in the northwestern city of Xian has been placed on US sanctions lists for its alleged ties to military-related research.

Her research focused on supersonic and hypersonic flow control, plasma-based flow control and computational fluid dynamics – fields considered critical to the development of next-generation aerospace propulsion systems.

Yan led several major national research initiatives, including projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Numerical Wind Tunnel project and the National Key Research and Development Programme. “Yan Hong made outstanding contributions to technological breakthroughs and the development of disciplines in China’s aero engine sector,” the university said in a statement announcing her death on Thursday. “Her life was devoted to education and scientific research, and she dedicated herself wholeheartedly to China’s aerospace endeavours.” Born in September 1969, Yan enrolled at Northwestern Polytechnical University in 1988, where she earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees.

She later conducted postdoctoral research in engineering mechanics at Tsinghua University.

She spent more than a decade in the United States, serving as an assistant research professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Rutgers University from 1999 to 2005, and later as a research professor in the department of mechanical and materials engineering at Wright State University from 2005 to 2010.

She returned to China in late 2010 to join her alma mater.

She also held a number of academic and public service roles.

She was a member of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, director of the Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Internal Aerodynamics in Aero-engine and vice-dean of NPU’s school of power and energy.

Within the academic community, she served on the editorial boards of publications such as Physics of Gases and the Journal of Propulsion

原文链接: 南华早报