Cao Tianqin

Cao was born in Beijing on 5 December 1920. He entered the affiliated high school of Yenching University in 1932, and was admitted to the Chemistry Department of Yenching University in 1935. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he left Japanese-occupied Beijing for inland "Free China" in 1941. When Yenching was reopened in Chengdu in 1943, he resumed his studies and graduated in 1944. For the next two years he worked at the Sino-British Cooperation Office in China's wartime capital Chongqing, where he helped Joseph Needham research the history of science in China. == Career ==

After the end of World War II, he received a British Council Scholarship in 1946 on Needham's recommendation and studied under biochemist Kenneth Bailey at the University of Cambridge. At Cambridge he discovered the myosin light chain, a subunit of the myosin protein molecule, and this is considered his most important contribution. This caused long-term damage to his health, and in the view of Zhang Youshang, led to his relatively early death. In 1973, Cao participated in the research of the ancient corpse from the Han dynasty tombs of Mawangdui. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Cao was politically rehabilitated and awarded a National Scientific Achievement Prize in 1978, and elected as a CAS academician in 1980. In the mid-1980s, he served as President of the CAS Shanghai Branch. == Death ==

Cao died on 8 January 1995 in Shanghai, at the age of 74. After his death, a series of Tianqin Cao Memorial Symposium on Protein Research were held in his memory. Its fourth edition was held in December 2010. ==References==