Agricultural Engineering Experts Wu Xianggan

WU Xianggan was born in1915, died in2005, is China’s first agricultural engineering experts. His life engaged in agricultural mechanization and energy aspects of rural-based agricultural engineering career.Agricultural mechanization in China started late. Actually, the concept has been introduced into China just before1949. As one of the pioneer in this field, Wu Xianggan shed light on the progress of agricultural mechanization in China.In1933,18-year-old Mr. Wu entered Jingling University majored in Agronomy when he was18years old and graduated in1937and became an assistant teacher in the university. Due to the outbreak of Sino-Japanese War, the university once transferred westward and located in Sichuan. His teaching career had been suspended, even though he didn’t stop his research. After the university moved back to Nanjing, Wu resumed teaching. Under the help of Mr. Zou Bingwen, he gained the scholarship of "education plan" sponsored by America. Along with19others, he went to America to study America agricultural engineering. Despite the superior living and working environment abroad, he returned home and devoted himself to domestic agricultural engineering after the end of their studies.At the time of china’s new and old political transition, economic construction and political movements paralleled. Having returned to the motherland, Wu Xianggan, one among20agricultural engineering experts, once enjoyed enormous fame and devoted himself into agricultural mechanization. During this period, he had published three relevant books, which had become the main teaching material for agricultural colleges and universities at present. In1958, Mr. Wu was wrongly labeled as a " rightist" by CLD organizations and thus has been removed from many positions. Worked as a labor in the countryside and put off his research, he didn’t regain his fame until1979.In1980s, Wu placed importance on the research of new rural energy, published "Rural Energy" as college textbooks, which made him the first rural energy expert. He also set up the "Rural Energy Laboratory" to study the use of Energy in rural area and participated in international energy conference. Wu Xianggan engaged in teaching agricultural engineering in the University of Nanking, Nanjing Agricultural University, and Zhenjiang Agricultural College (now Jiangsu University) in succession during his whole life. Numerous elite in agricultural machinery and rural energy have been turned out. As the first head of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Wu established this youngest department in the University of Nanking. The paper suggests that as a patriotic agricultural engineering specialist, he contributed to agricultural engineering education and scientific research a lot.