LI ZHANG

Professor/Director, Department of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, Peking University; Deputy Dean of the CAST-PKU (Joint) Institute for Science Culture; Vice President of the Chinese Society for the History of Science and Technology

Education

Ph.D., Science and Society Research Center, Peking University, 2003

M.Sc., History of Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1989

B.Sc., Chemistry, National University of Defense Technology, 1986

Research

History of science in China in the 20th century, history of modern chemistry, oral history of science and technology (with emphasis on topics such as the PRC scientific research system), science/technology and diplomacy

Courses

History of science and technology in modern China

Oral history of science and technology: theory and practice

Major issues in the study of the history of science and technology in the People’s Republic of China

Selected Publications

“Technical Assistance versus Cultural Export: George Cressey and the U.S. Cultural Relations Program in Wartime China, 1942–1946,” Centaurus, 2021, Vol. 63, No.1, pp. 32–50.

“The Science Division and scientific leadership in Early New China in 1951-1956,” 2015, The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and Technology, 2015, No. 4, pp. 385–397.

“Soviet Experts in Chinese Academy of Sciences: Historical Review on Cooperation and eExchange between Chinese and Soviet Academy of Sciences in the 1950s,” Sociology of Science and Technology, 2014, No. 1, pp. 24–30.

“The Conflict between External Demands and its own Development: A Historical Examination of the Branch Institution of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1956–1966. Science and Culture Review, 2009, No. 6, pp. 45–68.

“The Economic Life and Social Prestige of Scientists: The Case of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1949–1966),” Studies in Contemporary Chinese History, 2009, No.1, pp. 106–142.

“From the Soviet Union to the U.S.: International Exchange in China’s Polymer Science,” Historia Scientiarum, 2007, pp. 294–309.