Nan Rendong, chief scientist and chief engineer of "China Sky Eye" and researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, died on the night of September 15 at the age of 72 due to lung cancer and deteriorating condition.

The National Astronomical Observatories recently issued an obituary saying that in accordance with his wishes, the funeral will be simple and no memorial service will be held.

Leading the "China Sky Eye"

"We're going to build one too"

In 1968, after graduating with honors from the Department of Radio of Tsinghua University, he returned to work in Tonghua Radio Factory in Jilin Province.

Ten years later, in 1978, he entered the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to study for a master's degree. After graduating, he stayed at the Beijing Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences). In 1992, he was promoted to researcher at the Beijing Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and served as a doctoral supervisor.

In the eyes of Nan Rendong's students and colleagues, he has only done one thing in more than 20 years, and that is to build the 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope (FAST), known as the "eye of China's sky".

In 1993, the International Union of Radio Science (IUG) Congress was held in Tokyo, and scientists proposed to build a new generation of radio telescopes to receive more information from outer space before the global radio environment continued to deteriorate. Nan Rendong proposed to his colleagues: "We also want to build one." ”

At that time, Nan Rendong returned to China for three years. Previously, he was a visiting professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, ((One day's salary is equivalent to one year in Japan.) ））

Site selection from more than 300 candidate depressions

The site selection requirements for FAST were particularly strict, and it was necessary to find a natural pit that could accommodate the oversized reflective surface, and to meet many of the requirements of FAST construction. The site for the radio telescope needed to have a valley hundreds of meters in size surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the mountains needed to block the electromagnetic waves outside.

In order to find a location that can meet the construction conditions, since 1994, experts from the National Astronomical Observatory have used remote sensing and other technologies to select suitable areas across the country, and have visited the southwest and other regions for many times. With more than 300 satellite remote sensing maps, Nan Rendong has traveled almost all the depressions in the southwest mountainous areas, and some barren mountains and mountains do not even have a path.

In the end, Nan Rendong chose the karst scavenger in Dawotai, Jinke Village, Pingtang County, Guizhou Province. This depression is just large enough to hold the FAST giant reflector about the size of 30 football fields. There is no township within a radius of 5 kilometers in this vicinity, which is about 85 kilometers away from Pingtang County and about 45 kilometers away from Luodian County, which is suitable for the radio environment required by FAST.

Nan Rendong once told the people who visited the FAST construction base that it was selected from more than 300 candidate depressions, and the topography, engineering geology, hydrogeology and other aspects of the depression were considered. In his opinion, this is the only site on the planet and the most suitable for the construction of FAST.

He was selected as a candidate for academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences because of his FAST achievements

"FAST is the last struggle of his life"

Chen Xuelei, a researcher, said that one year when the National Astronomical Observatories held a plenary meeting, he happened to sit next to Nan Rendong. The leaders of Taiwan announced the awards of the year above. Nan Rendong suddenly told Chen Xuelei that he had never won an award, not even an advanced worker. At that time, Nam In-dong was past retirement age.

Chen Xuelei believes: "I think he must have a lot of emotion in his heart, and he may not value the so-called rewards and honors." It's just that the life reward he pursued has not yet been realized, and FAST is the last struggle of his life. ”

Hard work pays off. In 2001, the FAST pre-research project was approved as one of the first batch of "major innovative engineering projects" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In July 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) approved the FAST National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure Project Proposal. The FAST project has entered the feasibility study stage.

In October 2008, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the feasibility study report of the FAST national major science and technology infrastructure project, and the FAST project entered the preliminary design stage.

In March 2011, the construction of the FAST project officially started, and it took five years to complete and put into use on September 25, 2016.

The oldest academician candidate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

FAST, known as "China's Sky Eye", is the world's largest single-aperture and most sensitive radio telescope with China's independent intellectual property rights. Using the world's largest single-aperture spherical radio telescope, it is expected that mankind will observe information about the formation of the universe, such as pulsars, neutral hydrogen, and black holes, and explore the origin of the universe.

Because of his contribution to the construction of FAST, Nan Rendong entered the preliminary list of candidates for the 2017 Chinese Academy of Sciences academician co-optation. On August 1, 2017, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced a preliminary list of 157 candidates for the co-optation of academicians, and the oldest was 72-year-old Nan Rendong.

According to the "Implementation Rules for the Co-optation of Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences", each academician recommends a maximum of 3 candidates for each co-optation, and the recommended candidates are generally not more than 65 years old. Candidates under the age of 65 must be recommended by 3 or more academicians, and at least 2 academicians belong to the same faculty as the candidate is recommended to be valid.

For academician candidates over the age of 65, 6 or more academicians are required, and at least 4 academicians belong to the same department as the candidate is recommended to be valid. As a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, chief engineer and chief scientist of the FAST project, Nan Rendong entered the list of candidates for academician co-optation at the age of 72. This is also a great recognition of his scientific research work in the field of astrophysics.

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This is the deeds of Mr. Nam Rendong, and I also discovered it by accident and felt it.

In the past few days, there has been a tearing comparison of Xue Zhiqian every day on the Internet, but no one knows the death of this old man who has dedicated his life to the country.

What's the use of a drama caring so much?

Today I posted this for everyone to see that I don't mean anything else, I just want more people to know that there is this old man.

No way, I'm too upright to read the author.