International Eurasian Academy of Sciences, IEAS

Academician

Guitian ZHANG

Profile:

Elected Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences in 2003, Professor Guitian Zhang is a distinguished Chinese rocket propulsion engineer whose research and professional work have focused on the design and development of liquid rocket engines for strategic missiles and launch vehicles. Born in December 1931 in Gaocheng, Hebei Province, he studied at the preparatory division for students bound for the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1955 and received his bachelor’s degree in liquid rocket engine technology from the Moscow Aviation Institute in 1961. Returning to China that year, he joined the Fifth Academy of the Ministry of National Defence and subsequently held a series of technical and managerial positions in rocket-engine research and development, including Director and Chief Engineer of the 067 Base of the Ministry of Aerospace Industry. From 1993 to 2002, he served in senior scientific and technical positions within China’s aerospace industry and has subsequently continued to advise on aerospace propulsion technology. He was elected a Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1995 and a Member of the International Academy of Astronautics in 2002. He has also served in leadership roles in the Chinese Society of Astronautics and the Xi’an Association for Science and Technology, and held professorships at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Beihang University, and the National University of Defence Technology. His honours include the National May 1 Labour Medal, the title of National Outstanding Scientific and Technological Worker, the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress, and the Guanghua Engineering Science and Technology Prize. His career has combined liquid-propulsion research with long-term engineering leadership and the training of propulsion specialists.

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Professor Zhang’s research has centred on combustion stability, high-altitude engine technology, and high-performance liquid propulsion. In the early 1960s, he developed a method combining regenerative cooling with liquid-phase compartmentalisation to address high-frequency combustion instability in advanced liquid rocket engines, providing a technical basis for subsequent strategic-missile and launch-vehicle engine development. He subsequently participated in the development of China’s early high-altitude engines, contributing to advances in high-altitude ignition, restart, and thrust-vector control technologies used in launch vehicles. In 1988, he led propulsion development for the Long March 2E launch vehicle, completing its booster and second-stage engines and contributing to a substantial increase in China’s low-Earth-orbit launch capability. In the 1990s, he advocated the development of liquid oxygen–kerosene propulsion and led research into high-pressure staged-combustion engines. The resulting 120-tonne-class engines have powered the Long March 5, 6, and 7 launch vehicles and provided propulsion technologies for China’s manned spaceflight and lunar exploration programmes. His monograph High-Pressure Staged-Combustion Liquid Oxygen–Kerosene Engines (2005) systematised research in this field. His work has received numerous national and ministerial-level awards, including a First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2017. Through sustained research, engineering development, and technical leadership, Professor Zhang has contributed to the development of China’s liquid rocket propulsion technology and to the advancement of its launch-vehicle and space programmes.