Xie Xide

Xie Xide (19 March 1921 – 4 March 2000), also known as Hsi-teh Hsieh and as Hilda Hsieh, was a Chinese physicist.

Xie Xide was born March 19, 1921, in the port city of Quanzhou in Fujian, southeastern China.

She was born into a family that valued education.

Her father Xie Yuming had a Ph.D. from University of Chicago and taught at Yenching University in Beijing.

Xie Yuming precisely measured the spectrum of hydrogen atom during his study in the US.

The famous theoretical physicist, Yang Chen-Ning referred to Xie Yuming as the person that the Nobel Prize missed.

Xide spent part of her childhood in Beijing.

She attended Yenching Elementary School and was a top student in school.

She met Cao Tianqin when Cao transferred to Yenching.

Cao constantly beat Xie in school performance and the two became good friends.

When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Xie when to Hunan University to study physics; but she had to withdraw from school due to illness of bone tuberculosis.

Different hospitals diagnosed that her illness is not treatable so she returned home to fight the illness with her family's help.

Cao started sending her numerous letters in the name of academic discussions, which helped Xie cheer up and continue her studies.

In 1942, not only did Xie survive, through her self-study at home, she was also admitted to Xiamen University to study physics and mathematics.

Xie graduated in 1946.

She taught at University of Shanghai for a year, and then was able to get a scholarship to study for a master's degree in physics at Smith College in the United States, graduating in 1949.

In 1950, many Chinese science scholars were detained in the United States as political hostage against China arising from the Korean War, including the famous Chinese aerodynamicist, cyberneticist and politician Qian Xuesen.

Xie was detained in the US despite her strong willingness to return to her motherland.

She continued her studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1951.

From 1951 to 1952 she worked on the research staff at MIT.

In 1952, Cao Tianqin, who was studying in United Kingdom at that time, obtained a "special certificate" to pledge for her release in order to have their wedding in UK.

Xide was released.

She served in this position from 1952 to 1956.

Cao Tianqin (Tien-chin Tsao) and Xie Xide were married in UK; their son, Cao Weizheng, was born in 1956.

After marriage, Xie returned to China and became a lecturer in the Department of Physics at Fudan University in Shanghai, one of China's top universities.

She became an associate professor at Fudan and served in that capacity from 1956 to 1962.

From 1958 to 1966 she served as adjunct director, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In 1958, she passed out in her lab due to overworking and was diagnosed with late-stage kidney stone and heart disease when she was sent to hospital.

She resumed teaching after several big surgeries.

In 1962 she was appointed Professor of Physics, Fudan University and continued in that capacity.

Xie Xide was an outstanding educational leader, and also a key figure in the development of China's educational relations with the international community.

She was a joint-author of one of the most widely used physics textbooks in China, "Semiconductor Physics".

In 1966, as numerous Cultural Revolution victims among China's educated scholars, Xide was sent to do hard labor choirs despite her illness; she was later diagnosed with breast cancer.

She did not give up and still dedicated herself fully to education.

She helped to set up the university's Centre for American Studies and founded its Modern Physics Institute in 1977.

In 1978, National Science Conference in Beijing was held and Xide resumed her occupation.

From 1978 to 1983 she served as Director of the Institute of Modern Physics of Fudan University.

She was appointed vice president of Fudan in 1978, and President in 1983, serving in that capacity until 1988.

Xie also served as a member in the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from 1982 to 1992.

She was president of Fudan University from 1983 to 1989, and remained as advisor to the university from 1989 until her death.