Fang Lizhi

Fang Lizhi (February 12, 1936 – April 6, 2012) was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Communist Party of China in January 1987. For his work, Lizhi was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year to an individual whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy.

Early life

Fang Lizhi was born on 12 February 1936 in Peking. His father worked on the railway. In 1948, one year before the PLA took over the city, as a student of the Beijing No.4 High School, he joined an underground youth organization that was associated to CCP. One of his extracurricular activities was assembling radio receivers from used parts.

In 1952, he enrolled in the Physics Department at Peking University. There he met and fell in love with his future wife, Li Shuxian (李淑娴/嫻). Both Fang and Li were among the top students in their class. He joined CCP upon graduation, worked the Institute of Modern Physics and became involved in the secret atomic bomb program of China, while Li stayed at Peking University as a junior faculty.