Family is at the back, far left. He Zehui was born in
Suzhou in 1914 Her family is famous for producing three renowned women scientists. In addition to He Zehui, her older sister
He Yizhen was an authority in
spectroscopy and
material science, and her younger sister He Zeying () was a distinguished botanist. She was the cousin of
Wang Ming-Chen. They are both sometimes credited as "The Chinese Madame Curie".
Education He Zehui graduated with a degree in physics from the
Tsinghua University in Beijing at the top of her class (which included her future husband
Qian Sanqiang) in 1936. At Tsinghua, she enjoyed the protection of
Zhou Peiyuan, a close acquaintance of her cousin Wang Shoujing, who is said to have treated her as his sister. With help from her father, who secured a generous scholarship from the
Shanxi governor, the warlord
Yan Xishan, she went on to study experimental
ballistics at the
Technische Hochschule zu Berlin. While completing her degree, she stayed in Berlin with
Friedrich Paschen, the retired teacher of her supervisor, and was welcomed into his family. She maintained a low profile during the
Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She subsequently turned her attention to cosmic rays and high energy astrophysics. In 1978, she visited Germany and the
CERN, then the US and other countries, working to foster international collaboration. ==Awards and honors==