Yang Guanghua

Yang Guanghua or Guang-Hwa Yang (Chinese: 杨光华; 1923–2006), was a Chinese chemist and chemical engineer. He was the President of China University of Petroleum, and a pioneer of China's oil industry.^[1]

Yang was born in Liuyang, Hunan, on 10 April 1923. In 1945, he graduated from the Department of Chemical Engineering of Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. He was a teaching assistant in the same department. In 1948, Yang went to study in the United States, and obtained his Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1951.^{[citation needed]}

Yang went back to China in May 1951. Yang was a professor at Peking University and Tsinghua University. In 1953, Yang joined to found the Beijing Petroleum College (北京石油学院; predecessor of current China University of Petroleum). In 1956, Yang was a visiting researcher at Moscow Petroleum Institute, USSR. In 1965, Yang was pointed Vice-president of Beijing Petroleum College. After 1969, Yang was Vice-president, later President of East China Petroleum College (华东石油学院). From 1988 to 1992, Yang was the President of China University of Petroleum (CUP), a national key university. Yang died in Beijing on 11 November 2006 at age 83. Yang donated his books and academic collections to the library of CUP.^[2]

In 1950s, Yang and Prof. Wu Chi (武迟) co-founded the first educational program of oil and natural gas engineering/refining in China.

Yang's son Yang Wei, a mechanical engineer, served as President of Zhejiang University.^[3]

Asteroid 10410 Yangguanghua, discovered by the Beijing Schmidt CCD Asteroid Program in 1997, is named in his memory.^[1] The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 26 October 2018 (M.P.C. 112427).^[4]

• Yang Guanghua's detailed biography from the China State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil
• Notable People from Liuyang - Yang Guanghua
• Pioneer of China's Oil Industry - Prof. YANG Guanghua