Based on archival materials discovered in America,Britain,and China,this paper carefully examines the history of the short-lived and completely overlooked Department of Physics in the Premedical School of Peking Union...Based on archival materials discovered in America,Britain,and China,this paper carefully examines the history of the short-lived and completely overlooked Department of Physics in the Premedical School of Peking Union Medical College(PUMC),and uncovers this department’s extensive interconnections with its counterpart at Yenching University.This project also looks into the Master of Science(MS)program in the Department of Physics at Yenching University,which,founded in 1927,was the first graduate program in physics in China.It was this MS program that transformed the Yenching Department from a largely premedical training center serving the PUMC into a prominent cradle of Chinese physics research.This Yenching Department,despite its small faculty and brief existence,nurtured many eminent Chinese physicists,such as Chao-Ying Meng孟昭英,Wen-Yu Chang张文裕,Ming-Chen Wang王明贞,Chia-Liu Luke Yuan袁家骝,Cheng-Shu Wang(Chang)王承书,Ho-Fu Lu卢鹤绂,Ting-Sui Ke葛庭燧,Kun Huang黄昆,and Chia-Lin Hsieh谢家麟.It would have been impossible to achieve these outstanding accomplishments without the effective leadership and pioneering work of C.H.Corbett,P.A.Anderson,Y.M.Hsieh,and W.Band—the first four Department Chairs—in combination with relatively abundant private funding,mostly from America,and extensive educational connections with Western institutions.This paper not only introduces in detail these four department heads and their contributions,but also discloses the unique role played by the Rockefeller Foundation via the China Medical Board and the PUMC in the development of the Yenching Department of Physics.展开更多
文摘Based on archival materials discovered in America,Britain,and China,this paper carefully examines the history of the short-lived and completely overlooked Department of Physics in the Premedical School of Peking Union Medical College(PUMC),and uncovers this department’s extensive interconnections with its counterpart at Yenching University.This project also looks into the Master of Science(MS)program in the Department of Physics at Yenching University,which,founded in 1927,was the first graduate program in physics in China.It was this MS program that transformed the Yenching Department from a largely premedical training center serving the PUMC into a prominent cradle of Chinese physics research.This Yenching Department,despite its small faculty and brief existence,nurtured many eminent Chinese physicists,such as Chao-Ying Meng孟昭英,Wen-Yu Chang张文裕,Ming-Chen Wang王明贞,Chia-Liu Luke Yuan袁家骝,Cheng-Shu Wang(Chang)王承书,Ho-Fu Lu卢鹤绂,Ting-Sui Ke葛庭燧,Kun Huang黄昆,and Chia-Lin Hsieh谢家麟.It would have been impossible to achieve these outstanding accomplishments without the effective leadership and pioneering work of C.H.Corbett,P.A.Anderson,Y.M.Hsieh,and W.Band—the first four Department Chairs—in combination with relatively abundant private funding,mostly from America,and extensive educational connections with Western institutions.This paper not only introduces in detail these four department heads and their contributions,but also discloses the unique role played by the Rockefeller Foundation via the China Medical Board and the PUMC in the development of the Yenching Department of Physics.
