From a secondary school teacher to the “father of optical fiber”, how did Zhao Zisen, a top Chinese telecommunications boss, achieve a counterattack in his life

On February 4, 1932, near the Spring Festival, a baby boy was born in an ordinary family in Luwan District, Shanghai.

The baby boy, the fourth child in the family, was born prematurely and looked very thin and frail.

His parents should never have imagined that this unlucky baby in their arms would become an important figure in the history of Chinese communications when he grew up. His inventions and contributions will change the work and lifestyle of countless people, and help China, a huge country, to achieve a leap in communication technology.

That’s right, this baby boy is Zhao Zi(zǐ)sen, a great scientist and inventor later known as the “Father of Chinese Optical Fiber”, the founder of China’s optical communication industry, and an academician of the Academy of Engineering.

▲ Zhao Zisen

█ An ignorant teenager with a scientific dream

Zhao Zisen’s ancestral home is Zhongshan, Guangdong. His father, Zhao Zejun (yún), was a clothing clerk at Xianshi Company, a famous department store in Shanghai at that time. His mother, Xie Xiuqun, was an ordinary housewife.

Before Zhao Zisen was born, thanks to his father Zhao Zejun’s good work income, the family (the couple plus three daughters) lived a fairly prosperous life.

Later, with the birth of Zhao Zisen and his fifth and sixth younger brothers, the family economic pressure of Zhao family began to appear. In order to maintain a living, the couple decided to open a small family workshop specializing in the production of children’s clothing to subsidize the household.

At that time, Zhao Zejun continued to work in Xianshi Company, while Xie Xiuqun took care of housework and children while running workshops and shops. The family lived a very hard life.

Despite this, Xie Xiuqun still did not give up their children’s studies.

When Xie Xiuqun was young, because of the poverty of his family, he was sold to a doctor’s house as a maid. This doctor’s family has excellent living conditions and worry-free food and clothing, which brought great shock to Xie Xiuqun.

Therefore, she secretly determined that her future children must study hard and use knowledge to change their destiny.

In fact, she did so afterward. In such a difficult and turbulent era, she sent all eight children of the Zhao family to university, six of which were famous universities, which was a miracle.

▲ Zhao Zisen (first from left) and his younger siblings

We continue to come back to Zhao Zisen.

When he was young, Zhao Zisen attended Shanghai Feihong Primary School. He likes science, especially mathematics, and is often praised by teachers for his good thinking.

In terms of hobbies, Zhao Zisen also performed well. His hands-on ability is also very strong, and he likes to paint and make model aircraft. In that year, he participated in the model aircraft competition in Shanghai and won the second prize, which was awarded by Wu Guozhen, the mayor of Shanghai at that time.

▲ Zhao Zisen who is making a model

In August 1937, the “Battle of Songhu” broke out. Soon after, the Japanese army occupied Shanghai, and Zhao Zisen’s house was destroyed in the war. The family was forced to flee into the British Concession.

At that time, they were financially difficult and could only afford to rent an attic. During the day, the family’s old snacks are mixed with salt and oil instead of grains. At night, they slept together on the floor and struggled to get by.

Later, Zhao Zisen’s mother opened a small shop and sold some daily necessities to subsidize the family, and the situation at home was relieved.

▲ Group photo of Zhao Zisen’s family

The war-torn life left a deep impression on Zhao Zisen’s young mind, and also allowed him to develop a tenacious will and the ability to adapt to difficult environments.

After graduating from primary school, Zhao Zisen entered Qianye Middle School to study in junior high school. His partiality is serious, he is excellent in mathematics, physics and chemistry, but his liberal arts are very poor. In the end, he only got into a poor local high school.

During this period, under the guidance of his elder sister, Zhao Zisen cultivated a hobby of playing the violin and maintained it for life.

▲ Zhao Zisen (first from right) and his sister

▲ Zhao Zisen playing the violin

█ Dropped out of school twice and entered the communication major as desired

After entering high school, Zhao Zisen began to realize and catch up in the liberal arts. Later, in 1949, he was admitted to the National Zhejiang University College of Agriculture with honors.

According to Zhao Zisen’s own recollection, the reason why he had to take the National Zhejiang University was because the cost of the national university was cheaper than that of the private university. The three sisters in the family are all private universities, and I don’t want to increase the burden on the family.

The reason why he was admitted to the Agricultural College was because he believed that the government would attach importance to agriculture and have greater development.

Unfortunately, after Zhao Zisen entered school, he found that he had no interest in agriculture. Many agricultural courses are memorized, and I am not good at memorizing, so it is definitely difficult to achieve success.

So, he gave up decisively and dropped out to retake the college entrance examination. This time, he was admitted to Fudan University.

Unexpectedly, Fudan University arranged him into the Department of Biology, which disappointed him again.

In desperation, he could only do another drop out. Because the national university enrollment has passed, he can only participate in the college entrance examination held by the private Datong University in the same year, and was finally accepted by the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Fate makes people, no one expected that in 1952, in the adjustment of national departments, the engineering department of Datong University was merged into Shanghai Jiaotong University. In this way, Zhao Zisen has changed from a private university student to a national university student, and is still a famous university. It made him very happy.

▲ Zhao Zisen when he was young

In 1953, due to the urgent shortage of talents in the country, the undergraduate system was changed from four years to three years, plus one year of unit internship. Zhao Zisen also graduated early.

After graduation, he was assigned as the team leader and led the students to go to Nanjing Telecom Bureau and Shenyang Telecom Bureau for internship. During the internship, their main job is to maintain communication equipment.

Because of the compression of the school system, Zhao Zisen found that he did not learn a lot of knowledge, or learned very little. Therefore, he began to diligently study by himself to make up for the lack of knowledge reserves. He never gave up on this self-taught habit.

█ Coincidence, contact with laser communication

In September 1954, Zhao Zisen finished his internship and was assigned to Wuhan Telecom School (a secondary school) as a teacher.

In 1958, Wuhan Telecommunications School was upgraded to Wuhan Telecommunications College, and undergraduate enrollment began. Zhao Zisen also changed from a secondary school teacher to a real university teacher.

Zhao Zisen’s teaching level was very high, and he also participated in the compilation of textbooks for the National Posts and Telecommunications School at that time.

In addition to teaching students, he also serves as a teacher in a mathematics teacher training class, teaching teachers. The teachers he trained later entered Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications and many other colleges and universities, and were recognized by their units.

In terms of scientific research, Zhao Zisen also showed strong strength. In the “National Achievement Exhibition” in 1959, Zhao Zisen made a computer that could solve 3rd order differential equations and won the special prize.

In the mid-1960s, Wuhan Institute of Posts and Telecommunications assigned Zhao Zisen to the Chinese Academy of Sciences for further study. However, the tutors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences did not take Zhao Zisen seriously. After two months, no work was arranged.

Bored, Zhao Zisen received a letter from his younger brother Zhao Ziguang, asking for help in the derivation of the “Signal Flow Graph Mason Formula”. At that time, Zhao Ziguang was a teaching assistant at Fudan University.

Zhao Zisen was very interested in this mathematical problem, not only completed the derivation, but also creatively proposed a simpler method.

Afterwards, he specially wrote an article called “Solving the Network Using the 0-∞ Method”, which was sent to the “Journal of Electronics” and was published, which caused a lot of shock. At that time, the chief engineer of the Ministry of Space specially sent a letter to Zhao Zisen, thinking that his article “reached the world level”.

After the chaotic era, Zhao Zisen and Wuhan University of Posts and Telecommunications were not spared either. At that time, Zhao Zisen suffered a lot of blows and humiliations, causing a lot of physical and mental harm.

Fortunately, Zhao Zisen was named by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications soon after, and was transferred to Meishan, Sichuan to participate in the key subordinate project of “1800 Road Middle Coaxial Cable”, and he narrowly escaped the following campaign.

In 1970, when Zhao Zisen returned to Wuhan again, Wuhan Institute of Posts and Telecommunications had transformed into Factory 528 of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, specializing in the R&D and production of postal and telecommunications equipment.

The factory leaders recognized Zhao Zisen’s ability very much, and arranged for him to work in the department of the 960-channel microwave carrier machine for research work.

In 1971, the General Administration of Telecommunications transferred the atmospheric laser communication project previously established at the Beijing Academy of Posts and Telecommunications to Plant 528. The leaders arranged Zhao Zisen as the leader of the project team to take over the project in an all-round way.

In this way, Zhao Zisen’s fate began to intersect with optical communications.

With his strong technical strength and the spirit of assiduous research, Zhao Zisen quickly made breakthroughs. He calibrated the optical antenna, added optical amplifiers, adjusted the laser, developed pulsed phase-shift communication, and successfully realized short-distance laser communication in the laboratory.

Then, in order to verify the long-distance communication effect of the system, he moved the experiment outdoors.

At the time, he and his team climbed the tallest building in Wuhan, the Hankou Water Tower, to send a signal to the School of Water Transportation Engineering, 10 kilometers away.

As expected, the experiment was a complete success again, and Zhao Zisen was also praised by the factory leaders.

█ Unique vision, pushing optical fiber research

Although the experiment was successful, Zhao Zisen was not satisfied. He believes that atmospheric laser communication is greatly affected by the external environment. Once it encounters rain and snow, it cannot communicate, so its practical value is limited.

He thought to himself: Is it possible to achieve long-distance laser communication through wired media?

Zhao Zisen did not expect that the next three things would completely change his destiny.

The first thing was that he saw in the library the 1966 paper on the creation of optical fiber communication by Dr. Kao Kun, a British-Chinese expert. The paper mentions that if the loss of glass fiber is low enough, it can be used for communication.

▲ Kao Kun

“Father of Optical Fiber: The Kao Story”

The second thing is that he learned that at that time, the Fuzhou Institute of the Structure of Matter of the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched a national key scientific research project called “723” aircraft. The goal of this project is to develop optical fibers.

The third thing is that he saw from some foreign materials that Corning in the United States is likely to have “secretly” developed optical fibers for communication.

These things pointed out the direction for Zhao Zisen. Based on his keen technical sense of smell, he believes that optical fibers are likely to become an important technological development direction in the future.

In order to find out the truth, Zhao Zisen made a special trip to Fuzhou to learn about the research progress of the Institute of Physics and Technology. He also went to Beijing, went to Tsinghua University to find Professor Qian Weichang who just returned from a visit to the United States, and asked about the latest research results of optical fibers.

▲ Qian Weichang

Qian Weichang told him that his classmates in the United States did reveal some information, saying that the United States was engaged in optical fiber communication, but no public information has been published yet.

Shortly after Zhao Zisen got hold of these situations, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was officially restored, and was organizing meetings of various subordinate units to formulate scientific research plans for the next ten years.

Therefore, Zhao Zisen decisively suggested to the leaders of Factory 528 to incorporate optical fiber research into the scientific research plan of the factory.

According to Zhao Zisen, when discussing this proposal, a leader in Beijing accused him of “nonsense” in front of hundreds of people. The leader said: “How can glass fiber communicate? It will cost tens of millions of RMB. If it can’t be done, can you take the responsibility?”

Fortunately, there are also leaders who support Zhao Zisen’s views. In the end, Zhao Zisen’s suggestion was approved, “actively creating conditions to carry out research work on optical fibers”, which became the scientific research plan item of the 528 factory.

After the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was officially restored, postal and telecommunications enterprises and institutions across the country made a series of adjustments. On February 23, 1974, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued a document to establish Wuhan Institute of Posts and Telecommunications on the basis of the original 528 Factory.

In August 1974, Zhao Zisen specially wrote the “Report on the Development of Optical Fiber Research”, and made detailed reports to the Science and Technology Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Science and Technology Office of the State Council.

In the report, Zhao Zisen first proposed the technical scheme of “quartz fiber as the transmission medium, semiconductor laser as the light source, and pulse code modulation as the communication standard”.

In the “back-to-back debate” organized by the Science and Technology Office of the State Council, this plan defeated the plans of the Institute of Physics and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, and Chengdu Institute of Telecommunications Engineering, and won the support of relevant state departments.

Soon after, the Science and Technology Office of the State Council agreed to list the optical fiber development project as a key catching-up scientific research project in the national “Five Five-Year Plan”. The Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has also included the project in the Ten-Year Scientific Research Plan of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and allocated funds to support it.

In this way, Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences officially embarked on the research road of optical fiber communication, and Zhao Zisen also started his “optical fiber dream” as he wished.

█ After untold hardships, the first optical fiber in China was pulled out

After Zhao Zisen officially started the research on optical fibers, he found that the situation was not as optimistic as he thought.

At that time, in addition to Zhao Zisen’s optical communication project, Wuhan Institute of Posts and Technology also had a millimeter-wave project in charge of the chief engineer of the institute.

Due to limited resources, Wuhan Academy of Posts and Technology has listed the millimeter wave project as the highest priority and given key support. And Zhao Zisen’s optical communication project can only “stand aside”.

Zhao Zisen’s laboratory is a chemical cleaning room next to the toilet. His research team, consisting of only ten people, were all physics and chemistry teachers who had nowhere to go after the school was restructured.

They know very little about quartz, only some basic chemical formulas.

At first, they used alcohol lamps to heat, but the temperature was not enough, and the raw materials did not respond. Later, they designed a graphite electric furnace, which can generate a high temperature of 1200 ° C, but still no reaction.

So they increased the number of graphite electric furnaces to 12 and finally got some white powder. As a result, after chemical analysis, it was found that the white powder was silica gel, not quartz, and the whole team was heartbroken.

In desperation, Zhao Zisen asked team member Huang Dingguo to go to Shanghai and Shashi Quartz Factory to find experts for advice, only to know that smelting quartz requires a high temperature of 1400℃~2000℃, and a hydrogen-oxygen flame is required.

Zhao Zisen quickly led the team to design the melting lathe, so that the experiment could be put on the right track.

Later, they devised the MCVD method (modified in-tube chemical deposition method), which was finally able to produce ultra-high-purity quartz. They also made hundreds of drawings, using old lathes and old mechanical parts, to build a fiber-drawing prototype.

In an experiment, silicon tetrachloride overflowed from the pipe, generating chlorine and hydrochloric acid, which rushed into Zhao Zisen’s eyes and mouth. Due to the high concentration of chlorine released, he suffered severe eye pain and collapsed to the ground. Colleagues rushed him to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital, the doctors were stunned. I had never seen such a situation before, so I couldn’t cure it at all. Zhao Zisen said to the doctor, “Rinse the eyes with distilled water, and then take a sling needle to reduce inflammation, that’s all.”

As soon as his eyes were swollen and not healed, Zhao Zisen returned to the laboratory.

At the beginning of 1977, after unremitting efforts, Zhao Zisen finally led the team to pull out the first quartz optical fiber in China, making history.

At the time, the fiber was a short-wavelength, step-type fiber with a length of 17 meters and a loss of 300dB/km.

▲ In 1977, Zhao Zisen (third from left) discussed quartz glass melting with colleagues

After Zhao Zisen pulled out the first optical fiber, it did not attract the attention of relevant departments. Even the Wuhan Academy of Posts and Technology did not take optical fiber too seriously.

As mentioned earlier, as a scientific research institution directly under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the main research direction of Wuhan Academy of Posts is not optical fiber communication, but millimeter wave communication, coaxial cable, microwave, carrier wave, fax and telegraph.

Soon after, Zhao Zisen ushered in an opportunity.

At that time, the whole country was promoting “Learn from Dazhai in agriculture, and learn from Daqing in industry”, and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications organized an exhibition of “Learn from Daqing”.

At the exhibition, Zhao Zisen exhibited his own optical fiber communication project. He built a small television communication system to transmit black and white television signals using optical fibers.

This project attracted the attention of many visitors, including the then Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Zhong Fuxiang.

▲ Zhong Fuxiang

Zhong Fuxiang was dubious about Zhao Zisen’s “glass filament” communication. He decided to remove the glass filament to see if communications would be interrupted, and then put it back in to see if it would resume.

Zhao Zisen replied, “It’s definitely gone if you take it off, but it’s inaccurate to put it on. I don’t have precise fine-tuning equipment. Now I use rubber and screws to adjust it. It takes an hour to align it.”

Zhao Zisen asked Zhong Fuxiang to come back in a week and he would improve the system calibration. Sure enough, a week later, Zhong Fuxiang came again. This time, he verified Zhao Zisen’s statement and also verified that “glass filament” communication is indeed feasible.

Soon, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications listed optical fiber communication as a key project under the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, that is, a national key project. Then, the research direction of the entire Wuhan Academy of Posts has turned to optical communication as a whole.

The millimeter-wave project of the chief engineer of the Academy of Posts and the telegraph project of the president’s wife all gave way to Zhao Zisen’s optical fiber project. Zhao Zisen himself also became the deputy chief engineer of the hospital.

Zhao Zisen and his “glass filament” have thus changed the fate of Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences and opened the prelude to the era of optical fiber communication in China.

█ Step by step, keep up with the international pace

After pulling out the first quartz fiber, Zhao Zisen did not stop moving forward. He led the entire Wuhan Academy of Posts and began to improve the optical fiber and production process. At the same time, they also started the research and development of a series of optical communication supporting products such as communication machines, lasers and test instruments.

In 1979, with the efforts of Zhao Zisen’s team, Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences pulled out the first domestically produced low-loss optical fiber that meets international standards and has practical value.

▲ Zhao Zisen explained the optical fiber development process (1980)

In 1980, Kao Kun, the inventor of optical fiber communication, a British Chinese, visited Wuhan Academy of Posts. After seeing the optical fiber communication technology in the hospital, Kao Kun expressed his surprise and gave him high recognition.

In the 1980s, the MCVD and PCVD preform smelting systems of Wuhan Institute of Posts, as well as skeleton optical cables, etc., passed the ministerial appraisal and acceptance successively. These scientific research achievements have broken the technical barriers of foreign countries and laid the foundation for China’s optical fiber communication from theory to practice.

On December 28, 1981, Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences successfully opened China’s first optical communication local telephone system with optical fiber transmission (referred to as “82 Project”) from Wuchang to Hankou.

▲ The construction site of “Project 82”

At that time, the total length of this system was 13.3 kilometers. It used multi-mode optical fiber and LED light source, and could accommodate 120 circuits. The transmission speed was only 8.448Mbps, which was slower than the mainstream electrical transmission. Nevertheless, during the project appraisal, 5 ministers and deputy ministers from the state ministries and commissions were present at the same time, which shows its importance.

After the “82 Project” was completed, Zhao Zisen proposed to develop single-mode fiber with a faster speed.

The core diameter of single-mode fiber is about 8 μm, which is thinner than the core of multi-mode fiber (50 μm), and it is more difficult to produce. At the seminar hosted by the State Science and Technology Commission, the vast majority of experts, including academicians, opposed the study of single-mode fiber, believing that single-mode fiber could not be made. Therefore, Zhao Zisen’s proposal was not approved.

Unexpectedly, one year later, Zhao Zisen and Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences successfully made a single-mode fiber. As a result, the State Science and Technology Commission immediately changed the plan and agreed to establish a project to develop single-mode optical fibers.

Later facts proved that single-mode fiber is indeed the development trend of the global optical communication industry.

In 1983, Zhao Zisen was appointed chief engineer of Wuhan Academy of Posts. In 1985, he was appointed as the vice president of the hospital.

Busy management affairs did not dampen his enthusiasm for optical fiber technology research. Under his leadership, Wuhan Academy of Posts has made breakthroughs in the field of optical communications.

▲ Wuhan Post Academy

From 1985 to 1988, Zhao Zisen led the team of the Academy of Postal Sciences to complete the first 34Mb/s urban optical cable communication system project in my country for local calls. This is the national “Seventh Five-Year” key research project, and it is the first time in China that long-wavelength optical fiber is used for transmission.

After that, he presided over the completion of my country’s first 34Mb/s long-distance overhead optical cable communication project, namely the “Hankou-Jingzhou” project. This project has made a demonstration for the transformation of 180,000 kilometers of open lines into overhead optical cable lines in my country, which is of great significance.

In 1991, Zhao Zisen led the scientific and technical personnel to complete the 140Mb/s optical cable communication project, in which the single-mode optical fiber was used for the first time in China.

Soon after, he led the team to complete the national “Eighth Five-Year Plan” key project – “Hefei-Wuhu” optical cable communication project. This is the first direct-buried optical cable project for first-class trunk lines in my country, and has won the first prize for scientific and technological progress of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

In 1993, Zhao Zisen and his colleagues completed the longest aerial optical cable project in the world at that time – “Jinghanguang Project”, with a length of 3000 kilometers.

In this way, under the leadership of Zhao Zisen and Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences, China has fully mastered the complete set of technology of PDH optical fiber communication system in less than ten years, and has formed a certain production scale.

▲ Zhao Zisen

In addition to PDH technology, Zhao Zisen also led the Wuhan Academy of Posts to carry out the layout of SDH (Synchronous Digital Series) technology early. This technology is the mainstream trend of global optical fiber technology development in the 1990s, and is used to replace PDH.

In 1995, Zhao Zisen was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. This year, the SDH technology of Wuhan Academy of Posts and Technology officially entered the practical stage.

▲ In 1995, Kao presented a souvenir to Zhao Zisen, the father of optical fiber in the world and the father of optical fiber in China

From 1995 to 1999, Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences successively launched the first domestically produced 155M, the first 622M and the first 2.5G SDH optical fiber communication system. Later, they also introduced an 8×2.5Gbps wavelength division multiplexing system.

It is precisely because of the efforts of Zhao Zisen and Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences that the technical level of my country’s optical fiber communication products has always been close to foreign countries, and the gap has not been widened.

█ years old and rare, continue to exert residual heat

In 2000, 68-year-old Zhao Zisen stepped down from his leadership position. However, he did not really stop, but continued to undertake research and academic work, serving as the chief consultant of Wuhan Post Academy, as well as a professor and doctoral tutor of Huazhong University of Science and Technology and other schools.

In 2001, he directed the team to create China’s first ITU standard in the field of Internet.

He led the team to take the lead in proposing the integration method of statistical multiplexing and time-division multiplexing transmission in the world, and completed the development of the first multi-service ring equipment based on packet network, which was approved by ITU as ITU-T X.85 X.86 X.87 China has achieved zero breakthroughs in formulating and mastering telecommunications technology standards in the past 160 years.

In 2006, he used independent innovation technology to develop 80×40Gb/s STM-256 frame structure SDH equipment, which was installed in the “Shanghai-Hangzhou” national trunk line project. The long-distance transmission of 560 kilometers on 655 fibers is the first 3.2Tb/s DWDM transmission system in China.

The breakthrough of this technology has made our country stand at the forefront of the international optical communication technology and application field.

In 2014, he proposed a super-capacity design scheme, which achieved another breakthrough in capacity in my country’s optical transmission experiments. He and his team realized the first time in China that ordinary single-mode fiber can transmit 80 kilometers with ultra-high-capacity ultra-dense wavelength division multiplexing, with a total transmission capacity of 100.23Tb/s.

In addition to technical research, Zhao Zisen also contributed to the development of the optical communication industry. The most representative, of course, is to promote the establishment of Wuhan China Optics Valley.

▲ China Optics Valley

In the late 1990s, Professor Huang Dexiu of Huazhong University of Science and Technology made suggestions to the government to promote the construction of “China Optics Valley”. This suggestion has attracted the attention of the industry and also received support from Zhao Zisen.

In 2000, the Hubei Provincial Association for Science and Technology hosted the “China Optics Valley Construction Wuhan Regional Academicians and Experts Symposium”, Zhao Zisen and other 26 academicians and experts signed, calling for Optics Valley to settle in Wuhan.

A year later, next to Hongshan District, Wuhan China Optics Valley was officially born. The Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences, where Zhao Zisen is located, has also become one of the most important sources of innovation in Optics Valley.

Today, Wuhan China Optics Valley has become the world’s largest optical fiber and cable R&D base, the country’s largest optical device R&D and production base, and the largest domestic laser industry base. The total revenue of related enterprises in the valley is in the trillions, and it has become a city business card, a national brand, and a national pride.

In terms of academic and talent training, Zhao Zisen’s achievements are beyond doubt.

He is not only an academician of the Academy of Engineering, but also served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Science and Technology Committee of the Ministry of Information Industry, the vice chairman of the Hubei Association for Science and Technology, a member of the China Communications Society, a senior member of IEEE, and the chief scientist of Optics Valley.

In his research career for nearly half a century, he has published more than 20 monographs on communication technology and more than 60 papers. The “Principles of Digital Optical Fiber Communication System” and “Principles of Single-mode Optical Fiber Communication” edited by him were rated as excellent scientific and technological books in my country and exhibited abroad.

Over the years, he has trained dozens of master and doctoral students for the country, as well as a large number of high-level people represented by experts from ministries and commissions, the chief engineer of the group, and the National Thousand Talents Program. Wuhan Academy of Postal Sciences, also known as the “Huangpu Military Academy” for Chinese optical communication talents.

█ Conclusion

Academician Zhao Zisen is still alive and is just 90 years old this year.

He is a well-deserved founder and pioneer of my country’s optical fiber communication technology, and has made outstanding contributions to my country’s optical fiber communication industry. It is precisely because of him that our country’s optical communication technology can always bite its opponents in the 1980s and 1990s, and successfully overtake it in this century, becoming a world leader. He is known as the “Father of China’s Optical Fiber”, which is well deserved.

▲ Zhao Zisen (2019)

Throughout Zhao Zisen’s life, it is the most representative epitome of scientific research workers in that era.

His life experience tells us that even in a difficult environment and a very low starting point, as long as you work hard and persevere, you can achieve a counterattack. Although there are many elements of destiny in life, there will be opportunities only if you work hard. If you don’t work hard, you have no chance at all.

Well, that’s all for today’s article. Thank you for your patience, see you next time!

references:

1. “Flashing Footprints: Remembering Zhao Zisen, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering”, Li Mulin, Fan Xing;

2. “Traveling through the Green Mountains Before You Get Old”, Xiang Yaohan, etc.;

3. “Zhao Zisen: The Father of Chinese Optical Fiber”, Zhou Peng;

4. “A Psychobiographical Study of Academician Zhao Zisen’s Arrogant Emotional Traits”, Ying Siyuan.