Hsi-teh Hsieh or Hilda Hsieh or Hsi-teh Hsieh TsaoXie, Xide, 1921-2000.
woman physicist
President Emeritus of Fudan University, Shanghai
PhD, MIT, 1951
Xide Xi (Hsi-teh Hsieh ) being awarded an honorary degree from Smith College in 1981.
pictures with Robert Temple
Professor Cao Tianqin, then President of the Shanghai Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; he became seriously ill not long afterwards and was nursed for seven years by his devoted wife, my friend the late Xie Xide, former President of Fudan University. I always visited Xie Xide when I went to Shanghai, though in later years I did so in her hospital room as she slowly died from cancer.
http://www.aps.org/apsnews/0500/050005.html
The death of Professor Xie Xide, on March 4, 2000, brought to mind her many contributions, and in particular, her key role in the "China Scholars Program" during the 1980s. This program, more formally known as the APS-China Cooperative Program in Atomic, Molecular, Laser and Condensed Matter Physics, had the goal of helping China to reestablish its physics community after the Cultural Revolution ended. Forty-eight bright young physicists spent approximately two years each in the US conducting research in university and industrial labs. As the lead person from China, Professor Xie committed herself to selecting only the most scientifically qualified physicists to participate in the Program. Now many of those who received advanced training in this Program hold distinguished positions in Chinese universities. Professor Xie was a tireless proponent of cooperation and collaboration between Chinese and American physicists, and throughout her life, she lost no opportunity to bring them together to their mutual benefit.
The Tiananmen crackdown of June 1989, which resulted in the APS canceling a meeting to celebrate a successful decade of cooperation, was a sad finale to the Program. The American Physical Society still feels a strong sense of accomplishment in helping to forge lasting links between Chinese and American physics, and helping China to develop its physics community. In this achievement Professor Xie, rightly deserves to be remembered as one of the most influential figures in forwarding the cause of international science.- Benjamin Bederson
Editor's Note: Benjamin Bederson, formerly provost of NYU and editor-in-chief of the APS, was chair of the American Coordinating Committee for the APS-China Program, 1987-1991
from UCLA Contributions of 20th century women to physics
Physicist. female. Born in Quanzhou,Fujian Province. Graduated from Xiamen University in 1946. Received Ph.D. from MIT,USA in 1951. Professor, Fudan University. Fellow of the Third World Academy of sciences, and foreign honorary member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Xie is mainly engaged in the education and research in semiconductor physics and surface physics and has made many important achievements. She also acts as one of the major initiators and organizers in these fields. In the 1990s, she has concentrated her interests in the studies of electronic and phonon staties of surface and interfice of interfice and short period superlattices and has made some significant progresses.
She was elected as a member Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980.
Biographical Information:
Professor Xie Xide, who died in 2000, was one of the most decorated scientists and educators in China. She served as president of Fudan University in Shanghai from 1983-88 where she was also professor of physics. Professor Xie was also a former member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and a vice president of the People's Consultative Conference. She was a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Physical Society and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her achievements in science, humanities and education were recognized by honorary degrees from prestigious institutions around the world including Smith College, the University of Leeds, Tokyo University and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Prof. Xie Xide passed away Saturday (Mar. 4, 2000) evening after a long battle
with cancer. She was the president of Fudan when we were studying physics
at the university, and we all more or less tie our successes with her
efforts in leading the university and opening up to the world, especially
to the US.I was last visiting her at her home in Aug. 1999, when she was undergoing
chemotherapy after another operation in 1998. She remembered many of us in
the 1977 classes.The following is an announcement to the US-Chinese Physics Community.
-- Lin Min Yue
Chinese Physics Community lost another Great Pioneering Physicist & Educator
Prof. Xide Xie passed away on March 4, 2000
--------------------------------------------Madame Xie, Xide (also known as Hsieh, Hsi-ten or Hilda Hsien), one
of China's foremost educators, passed away quietly in Shanghai on Saturday
March 4, 2000 after a long struggle with cancer. A former president of
Fudan University, she founded the University's "Center for American Studies"
in 1985 to promote mutual understanding between the peoples of China and the
United States. The current tensions in U.S.-China relations only serve to
underscore the need for such a Center. To many of her American friends, she
was known as "Hilda".Born March 19, 1921 in Fujian Province, she spent many early years
in Beijing where her father, a University of Chicago-trained physicist,
taught at Yenching University. Despite ill health and World War II, she
graduated in 1946 from Amoy (Xiamen) University, located in one of the few
coastal regions unoccupied by the Japanese. One of the earliest postwar
Chinese students to study in the U.S., she earned a Master's degree from
Smith College after two years and subsequently, a Ph.D. in Physics from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology after only two more years. She was
then able to join her fianc'e, the newly credentialed Ph.D. recipient from
Cambridge University, Cao, Tianqin. They were married in England by the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Her husband studied with Joseph Needham, the
distinguished biochemist later to become the most famous Western scholar
writing on the history of Chinese science. The newlyweds then returned to
China determined to place their knowledge at the service of their
motherland.Madame Xie's principal scientific contributions were in the field of
solid-state surface physics, a topic of fundamental importance for
semiconductor electronics, a booming industry in China today. She taught
and advised several generations of Chinese physicists and engineers, many of
whom went on to become important links in developing scientific cooperation
with other countries. For over two decades, she helped determine science
policy as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Like many scholars with Western connections, Madame Xie suffered
greatly during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) but reemerged afterwards
as a force in national affairs by becoming a member of the Central Committee
of the Chinese Communist Party. When China opened up to the west in the
seventies, she was at the forefront of Chinese-US educational and cultural
exchanges, active with or coordinating many joint projects of the American
Physical Society, the World Bank, and the United Nations.Her clarity of thought, purity of character and pleasing personality
made her influence felt far beyond that conferred by formal positions and
titles. Ten honorary degrees from schools all over the world testify to her
international stature, so incongruous with her diminutive physical frame.
She has charmed many important leaders in the U.S., including several
Presidents. She remained very well respected and influential in China even
during her battle with cancer over the past year, with visits to her
hospital bedside by many political and academic leaders including Premier
Zhu, Rongji. President Jiang, Zemin had personally expressed concern for
her health.On the world stage, Madame Xie has set an extraordinary example for
modern women. While excelling in an academic career and exercising creative
leadership, she has also been a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She
is survived by three half-brothers: Xie, Xiwen in Beijing, Xie, Xiren in
Nanjing, and Xie, Xizhe in Xinjiang and well as by a son, Dr. Cao, Weizheng,
a daughter-in-law, Dr. Yu, Ker, and a granddaughter, Karen Hilda Cao, all
living in New Jersey.U.S. tax-deductible contributions in Madame Xie's memory can be made
to another of her creations: The Fudan Foundation, 3248 Prospect Street
N.W., Washington, DC 20007
Stern Teacher, Kind Mother, and Close Friend
a tribute to Xie Xide, by Li Dongde
SURFACE PHYSICS AND RELATED TOPICS
Festschrift for Xie Xide
edited by F-J Yang, G-J Ni, X Wang, K-M Zhang & D Lu (Fudan Univ.)
1991This book is to mark the seventieth birthday of Prof Xie Xide (Hsieh Hsi-Teh), a woman scientist well-known in Surface Science in China. This Festschrift contains contributions from well-known experts who review the progress in surface physics, as well as delve into the latest developments in the frontiers of surface physics research.
Publications:
1. Semiconductor Physics
co-author with K. Huang, Science Publisher (1958).2 Group Theory and Its Applications
Xie Xide, Jiang Ping and Lu Feng, Science Publisher, China(1986).3 Resonant Cavity Study of Semiconductors
Hsieh Hsi-teh, J. M. Goldey, S. C. Brown, J. Appl. Phys. 23 (3), 303
(1954).4 Electronic Properties of Metals Chemisrobed on Semiconductor Surfaces and
Metal/Semiconductor Interfaces (Invited Review )
Xie Xide and Zhang Kaiming, Progress Surface Science, Vol.28 (2), 71
(1988).6 Pinning of Photoluminescence Peak Positions for Light-emitting Porous
Silicon:An Evidence of Quantum Size Effect
Xun Wang, D. M. Huang, L. Ye, M. Yang, P. H. Hao, H. X. Fu, X. Y. Hou and
X. D. Xie,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 71, 1265(1993).7 Recent Developments in Some Metal/Semiconductors and Superlattice
Interfaces (Invited Review)
Xide Xie and Kaiming Zhang, Materials Chemistry and Physics 38, 1(1994).
