At the age of 100, Dai Lixin, the first winner of the Chinese Chemical Society Lifetime Achievement Award, passed away

Dai Lixin, a member of the Communist Party of China, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a famous organic chemist in my country, and a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, died in Shanghai on May 13, 2024 due to ineffective treatment. He was 100 years old.

Dai Lixin, who has passed through his prime years, can be called a legend.

He returned to the front line of scientific research at the age of 60, and was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the age of 69. When he became the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Chinese Chemical Society at the age of 94, he still went to work in the institute three times a week.

He is the "longest Chinese friend" of Barry Sharpless, a two-time Nobel Prize winner. At the age of 97, he starred as the "Librarian" in the popular science micro-film "Chirality Everywhere".

On May 15, a reporter from Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News saw in the memorial hall of Mr. Dai Lixin that someone left a message: To be a man, you must be contented, to do things you must not know enough, and to be knowledgeable, you must not be content. I deeply cherish the memory of Mr. Dai.

Leave a message at the memorial hall of Mr. Dai Lixin. Photo by Huang Haihua

Dai Lixin was born in Beijing on November 13, 1924. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he fled with his parents to his grandfather's house in Shanghai. In September 1942, Dai Lixin was admitted to the Chemistry Department of Shanghai Hujiang University. However, within a year, the Japanese army entered the concession. After half a year of arduous journey, he traveled to Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangxi and other places, and finally moved westward. He went to Zhejiang University in Guizhou to study.

At that time, Dai Lixin and some classmates from Shanghai rented a private house and sat together at night to review their homework until late at night. Li Zhengdao also lived in a private house together. When he was in his second year of college, he finished all the exercises in the textbook of the Physics Department of Zhejiang University, and later went to Southwest Associated University. In such an atmosphere, Dai Lixin did not dare to slack off. At that time, Teacher Wang Baoren’s organic chemistry class had a quiz almost once a month. If you scored above 80 in each quiz, you would be exempted from the final exam. In the end, only Dai Lixin in the class did it.

After graduating from college, Dai Lixin worked as a substitute teacher and a steel plant analyst. In June 1953, he obeyed the national assignment and came to work at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry.

In the second half of 1953, the institute carried out research on chlortetracycline. At that time, antibiotics had just emerged in China, and both chlortetracycline and streptomycin had to be imported. Dai Lixin found that chlortetracycline was easily destroyed into isochlortetracycline in alkali solution, so he suggested using weak base sodium bicarbonate to extract chlortetracycline. Shanghai No. 3 Pharmaceutical Factory adopted this suggestion and received good reviews. Effect. But just when it was just one step away from the total synthesis of chlortetracycline, the international situation faced by China changed, and the focus of scientific research shifted to national defense tasks.

It was from this time that Dai Lixin began to engage in technology management. During his tenure as director of the Scientific Research Department, he made important contributions in adjusting scientific research directions, winning projects, and building computer libraries and information. Dai Lixin is recognized by his colleagues as the "lubricating oil" in the institute, and it is not an ordinary "lubricating oil" but a "fluorinated lubricating oil". No matter what conflicts others have, he will always appear in time. In the 1980s, an old comrade commented that Dai Lixin's scientific research and management capabilities were like a "386" computer, which was the most powerful computer in the country at that time. Dai Lixin is known as the "diplomat of the chemical community" and has taken the lead in organizing many international academic exchange activities. As early as before Barry Sharpless won the first Nobel Prize, he invited him to come to Shanghai to give a lecture. .

Dai Lixin discussed scientific issues with Nobel Prize winners Sharpless and Yu Jinquan.

In February 1984, 60-year-old Dai Lixin resigned from his administrative position and returned to the front line of scientific research. Dai Lixin once lamented that in the past, the price of mint in the world market was determined by the Chinese. After the asymmetric method was used to synthesize menthol abroad, the price was not completely determined by us. This shows the huge impact of innovative research on society. To this end, Dai Lixin expanded a new research direction: chiral synthesis.

"The transition from management to scientific research is almost impossible for ordinary people. Mr. Dai's scientific life is a legend." Ding Kuiling, president of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and former director of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, admired this Incessantly. As a mainland scholar, Dai Lixin was the first to publish papers on the total synthesis and chiral synthesis of natural products. He also often encourages students to be world champions in scientific research. Dai Lixin has won the second prize of the National Natural Science Award and the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award.

Dai Lixin is also a strategic scientist who leads the development of the discipline. He has long been concerned about the overall development of organic chemistry. He proposed "green chemistry" very early and organized the translation of classic textbooks on organic chemistry when he was still in his old age.

Leave a message at the memorial hall of Mr. Dai Lixin. Photo by Huang Haihua

Dai Lixin once said: "The attribute of time is irreversibility. If you can comfort yourself a little, you will not be too lazy in this life."

Sir, he never loses time and will always remain in time.