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About nine years ago, I went to Beijing Science and
Although my foundation of mechanics was quite weak at first, I worked hard to compensate the relative knowledge. One of the most important books to me is the “Elastic Mechanics”, written by Chien Wei-zang and Ye Kai-yuan. More and more, to learn more knowledge of mechanics, I read some other literatures, including some important papers and books about plates and shells authored by Prof. Ye. Today, I also become a teacher of mechanics in China University of Petroleum, and this teaching position partly attributes to Prof. Ye and Shang.
One day in 2007, when I was a PHD candidate in Department of Engineering Mechanics in
1. A scholar with rich knowledge
No doubt, Prof. Ye was a great scientist with rich knowledge. However, as we all know, he was born in a period when
Based upon the abundant knowledge, Prof. Ye can easily make great progress in
large deflections and buckling of plates and shells, heterogeneous elasto-plastic
mechanics, structural optimization, etc. At first, he was a student majoring in engineering, but finally he made contributions to theoretical and rational mechanics. This process realized the subject of “engineering science” and “applied mathematics” proposed by Tsien Hsue-shen and Lin Chia-chiao, respectively. Like Prof. Ye, some other great scientists also succeeded for crossing different disciplinaries, such as Tsien Hsue-shen, Chien Wei-zang and Feng kang. With the development of information, MEMS, biology and nano-science, the edge-crossed subject is also a good opportunity for mechanics.
2. An educator
Further more, Prof. Ye is also a great educator. In 1953, he became a teacher in
Department of Mathematics and Mechanics, and then founded the teaching-research division of solid mechanics with Wang ren, another great scholar of mechanics. Six years later, he founded Department of Mechanics in
Prof. Ye culminated a lot of famous students, the following is an incomplete list: (1) Liu Ren-huai, a member of
3. A man fighting adversity
Everyman may be in adversity, but only a few can succeed for persisting and
striving. Prof. Ye was such a man fighting adversity. In Great Cultural Revolution, he was sent to jail for political reason. In these seven years, he didn’t yield to the persecution. He began to do some research in plates and shells in the jail regardless of the disorderly world. Until 1978, he was rehabilitated and went back to the platform.
He is so diligent, and he always believed that “ One is never too old to learn ”, and this invaluable spirit will stimulate all the younger students. Here, the last words of Laplace P S must be cited: What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense.
4. A true man
Prof. Ye was upright and never stooping to flattery. In Great Cultural Revolution and some other political campaigns, he didn’t sell his soul and always told truth. When Prof. Chien Wei-zang was criticized incorrectly, he kept silent and never hat a person when he was down. For this reason, he was implicated and sent to jail.
In reality, those who tells truth are not welcome by the leaders, so being a true man is not an easily thing. This is the most important reason for I admire and respect Prof. Ye.
Prof. Ye has been away from us for two years, but his influence still exists. He was not only a scholar with rich knowledge, an educator, a man fighting adversity, but also a true man, a man who tells truth.
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