Lu Gwei-djen
Lu Gwei-djen | |
---|---|
魯桂珍 | |
Born | Nanjing, Qing China | July 22, 1904
Died | November 28, 1991 | (aged 87)
Occupation | Academic, Biochemist,[1] Historian of science and technology in China |
Spouse(s) | Joseph Needham (m. 1989)[2] |
Lu Gwei-djen (Chinese: 魯桂珍; pinyin: Lǔ Guìzhēn; Wade–Giles: Lu Kui-chen; July 22, 1904 – November 28, 1991) was a Chinese biochemist and historian. She was an expert on the history of science and technology in China and a researcher of nutriology. She was an important researcher and co-author of the project Science and Civilisation in China led by Joseph Needham.
Career[]
Lu began her distinguished career teaching biochemistry at the Women's Medical College in Shanghai between 1928-30, then moved to teach at the Medical School at between 1930-33. She then took up a post as Research Assistant at the Henry Lester Institute for Medical Research, Shanghai from 1933-37.[3]
In 1938, she came to the UK for a year's postgraduate study at the University of Cambridge under Dorothy M. Needham, as a research student at Newnham College.[3]
In 1939, during World War II, she took up a post as Research Fellow at the Institute of Experimental Biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley, and at the Harriman Research Lab, San Francisco, from 1939-41. She moved to the Hillman Hospital, Birmingham, Alabama from 1941-42, and then to the International Cancer Research Foundation, Philadelphia, from 1942-45.[3]
In 1945, she joined the Needhams in Chongqing as a consultant for nutrition at the Co-operation office and in 1948, moved to Paris to work at UNESCO at the secretariat for natural sciences.[4]
From 1947 onwards, she was a Research Fellow of the Wellcome Medical Foundation, working with Dr Joseph Needham in Cambridge on the 'Science & Civilisation in China' project.[3]
She was a Foundation Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.[3]
Works[]
Among the work on which she is credited as co-author are:
- Lu Gwei-djen & Needham, Joseph (1980). Celestial Lancets: A History and Rationale of Acupuncture and Moxa. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Needham, Joseph; Wang Ling & Lu Gwei-djen (1971). Civil Engineering and Nautics. Science and Civilisation in China. IV.3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07060-0.
- Needham, Joseph & Lu Gwei-djen (1983). Spagyrical discovery and invention : Physiological alchemy. Science and Civilisation in China. V.5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521085748.
- Needham, Joseph; Lu Gwei-djen; Combridge, John H. & Major, John S. (1986). The Hall of Heavenly Records: Korean Astronomical Instruments and Clocks, 1380-1780. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521616980.
- Lu Gwei-Djen & Needham, Joseph (1951). "A contribution to the history of Chinese dietetics". Isis. 42 (1): 13–20. doi:10.1086/349229. JSTOR 226660. PMID 14831972. S2CID 10054102.
Legacy[]
The Lu Gwei-Djen Prize for the History of Science awarded by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge is named in her honour[5] as is the Lu Gwei Djen Research Fellowship awarded by Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge - a position previously held by biophysicist Dr Eileen Nugent.[6]
Personal life[]
The daughter of a pharmacist,[4] she was well known as Needham's long-time collaborator, co-author, Chinese language teacher and his second wife.[7]
References[]
- ^ Yiu, Y.N. (January 2010). "The Man Who Loved China by Simon Winchester". Book Talk. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03.
- ^ Xinhua (24 September 2008). "Biography tells secrets of Joseph Needham's China love". China Daily. Xinhua.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Newnham College Register. vol II. p. 170.
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has extra text (help) - ^ Jump up to: a b "Joseph Needham (1900-1995): A more detailed biography of Joseph Needham". Rise of the West.
- ^ "Gonville and Caius College: elections and awards". Cambridge Reporter. 21 July 1999.
- ^ "Dr Eileen Nugent". Lucy Cavendish College. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
- ^ Winchester, Simon (2008). The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-088459-8. Also published as Gun, Book and Compass.
Additional sources[]
- Winchester, Simon (2008). The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-088459-8. Also published as Gun, Book and Compass.
- Wang Guozhong (1999). 魯桂珍與李約瑟 [Lu Guizhen yu Li Yuese (Lu Guizhen and Joseph Needham)]. Guiyang: Guizhou People's Press. pp. 1–29, 231–236. ISBN 7-221-04546-1.
- 1904 births
- 1991 deaths
- Joseph Needham
- Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge
- Alumni of the University of Cambridge
- Chinese biochemists
- Chinese emigrants to England
- Fellows of Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge
- Chinese sinologists
- Writers from Nanjing
- Chinese science writers
- Chemists from Jiangsu
- Historians from Jiangsu
- 20th-century Chinese historians
- Scientists from Nanjing
- Republic of China people born during Qing
- Biologists from Jiangsu