关于李四光教授往事的回忆

MY REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE PROFESSOR LI SIGUANG (J.S.LEE)

李四光先生是我国老一辈地质学家之一,对地质学的许多分支学科作出了重要贡献。他建立了地质力学,并以发现中国第四纪冰川而闻名于世。我对1933年11月他在中国地质学会第十届年会上关于庐山第四纪冰川的理事长演说至今记忆犹新。作为一个科学家,他强调一个地质工作者首先要做好野外工作,一切地质假说和理论必须以事实为依据。作为新中国的第一任地质部部长,他鼓励地质工作者要为祖国的社会主义建设作出贡献。

Professor Li Siguang was a veteran geologist in China of the present century who made important contributions in the field of many branches of the geological sciences. He was especially well known as the founder of the science of geomechanics and the scientist who discovered Quaternary glaciation in China. My memory is still very vivid how he delivered his presidental address entitled 'Quaternary Glaciation at Lushan, Kiangsi Province, and Its Probable Extension in Central and North China' with convincing geological evidences during the 10th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of China on Sunday 12th Nov., 1933 in Beijing. As a scientist he held that a well-qualified, outstanding geologist competent to accomplish difficult tasks should be a good field geologist in the first place and that hypotheses and theories were based on geological facts. That was just what he inspired his students and me the most back in the 1930's. As a Minister of the Ministry of Geology of the People's Republic of China since 1952 he encouraged geologists to serve the country for the purpose of socialistic reconstruction of the motherland.