[Heroes and Martyrs Spectrum] Ma Zuguang: Scientific Research to Reserve the Country and "Chasing Light" in His Life"

Ma Zuguang, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of the School of Astronautics of Harbin Institute of Technology, has long been engaged in laser medium spectroscopy, new tunable lasers, nonlinear optics and applied research. His life "chasing light" and scientific research for the country are the portrayal of his life.

Ma Zuguang was born in Beijing in 1928 and studied at Shandong University. In 1950, he responded to the call of the motherland, to the Harbin Institute of Technology graduate class to study, while serving as a physics teacher.

In the early 1980 s, while working as a visiting scholar abroad, Ma Zuguang successfully discovered a new spectrum of "the first triplet transition of sodium diatomic molecules. This is the first international observation of fluorescence radiation in this spectral region.

However, foreign experts at the time believed that Ma Zuguang's results were obtained using foreign experimental equipment, and Ma Zuguang's name was written in the third place in the paper. Ma Zuguang fought hard, and in the end, the discovery was determined to belong to him alone.

"What I fight for is the reputation of the country and the dignity of the people. This is made by the Chinese, and the honor should belong to China." Ma Zuguang said.

In this experiment, Ma Zuguang ate 150kg of noodles in two years. When others use experimental equipment during the day, he will check their rest time and do experiments from 6 pm to 9 am the next day. When he returned home, in Ma Zuguang's suitcase, apart from clothes and shoes, there were only a lot of notebooks and small instruments purchased for the laboratory. He also handed over all the foreign exchange saved to the state. "The opportunity and money to go abroad are given by the state. I can't use it to buy my own things." He said.

Ma Zuguang's scientific research and scholarship are extremely rigorous. When he was entrusted to edit a laser-based textbook, he carefully deliberated every page, every line, and even every punctuation mark in the face of a 250000-word manuscript, and changed the manuscript several times. When everyone thought it could be printed, he suggested checking it again: "Rigor is the minimum attitude for learning!"

After decades of teaching, according to the needs of national development, Ma Zuguang has constantly adjusted his research direction. He has successively put forward a number of innovative world cutting-edge scientific research directions, such as laser medium spectroscopy, new tunable laser, X-ray laser, nonlinear optical technology, infrared laser technology and laser spatial information technology.

In the world, it first realized 10 laser oscillations, discovered 17 new fluorescence spectral regions, first observed 7 kinds of nonlinear optical processes, and first observed 13 new spectral regions ...... Ma Zuguang has undertaken a number of major issues that need to be solved urgently in laser engineering applications, and has achieved a number of pioneering scientific research achievements at the international frontier level or at home, and has won many National Natural Science Awards, national patents and provincial and ministerial awards for scientific and technological progress.

In 1999, the school recommend him to participate in the evaluation of academicians, but he asked to return the application materials. In 2003, just one month before his death, he was also invited to give a lecture entitled "Being a Person and Doing Things" to students......

"A Communist Party member's love for the Party and the motherland is very specific, specifically in how to behave, do things and treat work every day" "No matter how good the conditions of others are, it is better to build their own country" ...... This is Ma Zuguang's simple words before his death, is the spiritual wealth he left to the world.

Source: Xinhua News Agency