"My destiny is linked to the destiny of the country." ——Lee Dongying What can be changed in 100 years? For Li Dongying, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, his 100th year has witnessed the birth of New China, accompanied by the creation of the rare metal industr

"My destiny is linked to the destiny of the country."

- Lee Dong-young

What can be changed in 100 years?

For Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Li Dongying, his 100 years have witnessed the birth of New China, accompanied by the creation of the new China's rare metal industry.

In the early days of the founding of New China, our country could only produce 8 kinds of non-ferrous metals . The problem of gaps in the field of various non-ferrous metals has seriously restricted the development of the national economy and the progress of national defense construction.

In July 1949, Li Dongying started research on xanthate. After working day and night, he developed the first batch of liquid xanthate in only two weeks. In order to solve the transportation and storage problems of xanthate, he developed a production process and equipment for solid xanthate. The basic production process is still in use today.

Scientific and technological workers must have a realistic spirit. The greatest happiness in life is to fulfill their own responsibilities. On May 11, 1998, taken at the National Engineering Research Center for Semiconductor Materials, Beijing Institute of Nonferrous Metals. Photographer: Hou Yibing

"Whoever uses rare earths will take advantage, not those who sell rare earths. Rare earths have excellent properties and can bring Very effective. "

Li Dongying combines personal choice with the needs of the country, and this combination lasts a lifetime.

Li Dongying advocated that the large-scale development of my country's rare earth resources must be based on exploring large-scale and wide-ranging application fields. As a result, Li Dongying came up with a bold idea - he was determined to break through the limitation that rare earth elements were only used in steel, petrochemicals, glass and ceramics at that time.

"What is most abundant is food. Therefore, we purposely explore how to make rare earths play a role in food."

In 1972, Li Dongying advocated scientific research on the agricultural use of rare earths. After comparative experiments, it was found that crops using rare earths increased production. Remarkable, and the anti-stress effect is very obvious. Li Dongying conducted high-purity analysis on the fruits of the crop and verified that there were no rare earth elements in the fruits. From this, supporting technology was born and basic theoretical research results were achieved.

"The use of rare earths in agriculture is our country's first initiative." Li Dongying said.

Rare earth agriculture involves many disciplines, and the task is more difficult than imagined. This requires overall planning, and a national management organization came into being. In the 1970s, the National Rare Earth Promotion and Application Leading Group was established, followed by the Rare Earth Agricultural Application Center and the State Council Rare Earth Leading Group. Li Dongying’s advocacy for the agricultural use of rare earths has pushed my country’s rare earth applications onto a national strategic path.

In the early 1990s, the application of rare earths in my country's planting industry spread across 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, with an average annual promotion area of ​​about 50 million acres, and an annual increase in economic benefits of more than 600 million yuan.

In 1988, 68-year-old Li Dongying led the organization and personally participated in the formulation of China's technology policy materials industry part and non-ferrous metal industry technology policy, as well as the preliminary research on the non-ferrous metal part of the national long-term science and technology plan, and organized the compilation of a large series of books "Non-ferrous Metal Progress" with a total of 13 roll. When formulating policies, he personally proposed the outline and overall concept and consulted a large amount of relevant literature. After the first draft came out, he reviewed and revised it word by word.

html For more than 0 years, Li Dongying has led the systematic development of my country's rare metal technology routes, organized and conquered the production technology of more than 30 rare metals that were still blank in my country at the time, and developed the " two bombs and one satellite " and "909 projects" ” and other new materials urgently needed for cutting-edge technologies such as military industry and large-scale integrated circuits. He is also one of the participants and organizers in the formulation of comprehensive resource utilization plans for the three counties and cities of Panzhihua, Baotou, and Jinchuan.

On September 22, 2020, Li Dongying passed away at the age of 100. Regarding his major contribution to refining "gold" for the country throughout his life, he once said simply "It's all in the past." In his heart, his destiny is closely linked to the destiny of the country. ( Guangming Daily reporter Cui Xingyi)

Academician Biography:

Li Dongying (1920-2020), an expert in rare metal metallurgy and materials, and one of the founders of my country's rare metal industry. In 1995, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.He has presided over the successful research on the production methods of more than 30 kinds of rare metals, ensuring the new materials urgently needed for military industries such as "two bombs and one satellite" and cutting-edge technologies such as large-scale integrated circuits; presided over the promotion of titanium applications, with significant economic benefits; has long been engaged in the research and development of rare earths in my country Development and application work; take the lead in proposing and organizing the implementation of scientific research and application promotion of rare earth trace elements for agricultural production, and achieve widespread production increase, high quality and stress resistance effects. Won the first prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 1987 and 1989. Chief editor of the large-scale book series "Progress in Nonferrous Metals" with 40 volumes. Joined the Communist Party of China in 1950.

Source: Guangming.com-Popular Science China