Huang Wanli


Huang Wanli was a Chinese hydrologist. Huang was a professor at Tsinghua University from 1953 till 2001.

Biography

Huang was born in Chuansha County, Jiangsu on 20 August 1911, the third of six sons of Huang Yanpei and Wang Jiusi. In 1924, he enrolled in Wuxi Industrial School. He entered Tangshan Jiaotong University in 1927 and graduated in 1932. After college, he worked as an apprentice engineer in Huangzhou-Zhejiang Railway. In 1934, Huang went to the United States. He received a master's degree from Cornell University in hydrology in 1935 and a doctor of engineering degree from University of Illinois in 1937.
In 1945, Huang became an engineer in China's Ministry of Water Resources. He was the chief engineer and head of the Gansu Water Conservancy Bureau from 1947 till April 1949. He was an adviser of Northeast China Water Conservancy Administration in September 1949. He taught at Tangshan Jiaotong University in June 1950, and he was transferred to Tsinghua University in 1953.
In 1957, Huang was labeled a "Rightist" and persecuted by Mao Zedong for his criticism of the Sanmenxia Dam on the Yellow River. Then he was sent to the Poyang Lake, Jiangxi to work, and was transferred back to Tsinghua University in 1974, at that time, the students of Tsinghua University paraded him through the streets and beat him in public. Huang was rehabilitated by the Tsinghua University Party Committee on February 26, 1980.
On August 27, 2001, Huang died in Qinghua Garden of Tsinghua University.

Personal life

Huang was married to Ding Yujuan, daughter of Ding Weifen, a founding father of Kuomintang. They had six children: