> *****************

> http://uanews.org/node/46157

> University of Arizona News

> UA Statement Regarding the Death of Fang Lizhi
> By Johnny Cruz

> The passing of Fang Lizhi is a profound loss for the University of
> Arizona community. Fang Lizhi was a man of extraordinary courage and
> conviction, and a scholar of the highest caliber. We are thankful that
> he elected to join our faculty two decades ago, and his contributions
> will be remembered for decades to come.

> *****************

> Fang Lizhi, a major voice for human rights and democracy and a
> pioneering scientist in his native China, continued to advance the
> field of astrophysics at the UA for more than 20 years before he died
> last week.

> http://uanews.org/node/46176

> University of Arizona News

> Astrophysicist Fang Lizhi Spent Two Decades at UA
> By Daniel Stolte

> Human rights activist Fang Lizhi, who died last week at age 76, had
> been a professor in the University of Arizona department of physics
> and an adjunct professor with the UA's Steward Observatory for more
> than 20 years, where he made highly regarded contributions to
> astrophysics.

> Fang was world renowned for his outspoken and active role in promoting
> human rights in his native China.

> Considered an "undesirable element" by the Chinese government, Fang
> was dismissed from the Chinese nuclear program and reassigned in 1958
> to the University of Science and Technology of China, or USTC, which
> is regarded as China's equivalent of the Massachusetts Institute of
> Technology.

> During the Cultural Revolution, he was sent to hard labor in the
> country. In 1978, upon returning to USTC, Fang became full professor
> and in 1984, vice president. His books on physics and cosmology and
> his articles and books on openness and democracy were widely admired.

> Owing to his outspoken encouragement and support of the 1986 student
> movement demanding a more democratic government, he again was
> dismissed and sent to the Beijing Astronomical Observatory, where he
> led a theoretical astrophysics group in 1987. Fang remained an
> outspoken advocate of democratic reforms.

> In the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, the Chinese
> government accused him and his wife as the leaders of the movement and
> issued a warrant for their arrest. Fang and his wife sought refuge at
> the U.S. embassy in Beijing, where they remained for 13 months, until
> the Chinese authorities finally allowed them to leave the country.

> During his confinement, Fang continued his scientific research,
> submitting three papers for publication in international journals.

> Less known to the public are Fang's professional contributions to
> research and teaching. He was one of the founders of modern
> astrophysics and cosmology in China. While mainly a theoretical
> physicist, Fang had been instrumental in helping the Chinese
> astronomical community develop observational astronomy, even after
> moving to the U.S.

> He was one of the main collaborators on the successful Beijing-Arizona-
> Taipei-Connecticut survey project, one of the longest-running and most
> influential optical observational astronomical projects using a
> Chinese-based facility, said Xiaohui Fan, a UA professor of astronomy
> who collaborated with Fang.

> "He was an inspiration for so many people in so many ways," Fan said,
> adding that in the late 1990s, Fang and his collaborators published a
> series of papers using clusters of galaxies, the most massive objects
> in the universe, as tools to study the fate and evolution of the
> universe, and to measure parameters such as the mass density of the
> universe.

> In recent years, Fang also moved into the newly developed field of
> cosmic reionization, studies of the epoch of the universe when the
> very first generation of stars and galaxies formed.

> "He and his students were developing new models and new predictions to
> the direct observations of cosmic reionization," Fan said. "In that
> sense, he was active to the very frontier of astrophysics and
> cosmology until the very last day."

> "Professor Fang had been my dear and valuable mentor," said Zheng Cai,
> one of Fang's graduate students in the UA's physics department. "Since
> I first came to the UA, he gave me a lot of valuable suggestions on
> life as well as on academic study. His passing away is tragic, and I'm
> having a terribly hard time accepting it, but I believe professor Fang
> rests peacefully among the brightest stars in the universe."

> Fang's exile began in 1990, first as a guest professor of the Royal
> Society at Cambridge, and the following year as Director's Visitor at
> Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. In 1992, Fang joined the UA
> as professor of physics. While in exile, he raised a generation of
> leaders of astrophysics in China through training of postdocs and
> graduate students.

> During his tenure at the UA, Fang continued to do highly visible
> research on cosmology and published widely with his students and other
> colleagues, including in 2011, when he was unwell and in and out of
> the hospital on several occasions.

> In 2010, he was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in
> recognition of his scientific contributions as well as protecting the
> freedom of scientists around the world. He led cooperative projects on
> astrophysics with colleagues in China with his name usually redacted.

> Being on the forefront of nuclear physics, laser physics, theoretical
> astrophysics and cosmology, Fang cared deeply about making scientific
> knowledge accessible not only to the academic community but society at
> large. He published more than 340 research papers and numerous popular
> articles and books, including a broadly read Chinese book on
> cosmology.

> He was a member of the Chinese Academy of Science before being forced
> into exile. He was a fellow of the American Association for the
> Advancement of Science and a Founding Fellow of the Arizona Arts,
> Sciences and Technology Academy.

> Among his awards are the Chinese National Award of Science and
> Technology in 1978, the First Award of the Gravity Research Foundation
> (1985), the 1989 Human Rights Award named for Robert F Kennedy, the
> 1991 Freedom Award of the International Rescue Committee and the 1996
> Nicholson Medal of the American Physical Society.

> In addition to numerous invited talks, Fang served on many scientific
> committees, including the council of the International Center for
> Theoretical Physics at Trieste, Chair of Commission C19 of the
> International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and chair of the
> steering committee of the International Center for Relativistic
> Astrophysics Network.

> Fang has been a leader in many human rights groups, including the
> International League for Human Rights, Committee of Concerned
> Scientists, and chair of the APS Committee on International Freedom of
> Scientists.

> Most recently, in spite of his illness, Fang was among the
> international organizers of the upcoming Thirteenth Marcel Grossmann
> Meeting on Recent Developments in Theoretical and Experimental General
> Relativity, Astrophysics and Relativistic Field Theories.
> "Professor Fang was one of our most dedicated teachers," said Sumit
> Mazumdar, head of the UA's department of physics. "On the occasions
> that I visited him in the hospital, he was most concerned about his
> course, his students, and whether I was able to find a substitute
> teacher for his course. His courage came with a great deal of
> compassion, and we in the physics department will remember him for
> that as well as for his scholarship."

> "Professor Fang was a wonderful person and an astrophysicist with
> international recognition," said David Arnett, a Regents' Professor at
> the UA's Steward Observatory. "Few of us can lay claim to as much as
> he can. He will be missed."

> A memorial service for department and family members will be held on
> April 14. A larger memorial service for the greater community is
> planned for May. For information, please contact the UA physics
> department at 520-621-6820.

> **************

> On Aug 21, 8:40 am, Satish <sk.c...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > *****************

> >http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2012/0410/Rememb...

> > Remembering Fang Lizhi: 'hero of the people,' hated by China's regime

> > Professor Fang Lizhi, the Chinese astrophysicist whom many regarded as
> > “China’s Sakharov,” died suddenly at his home in Arizona last week.

> > For this great Chinese patriot to die in the American desert 22 years
> > after he was forced into exile symbolizes the harsh truth about the
> > ruling Communist regime which Mr. Fang often warned the world about.

> > For those of us whose memories have not been erased by the censorship
> > of getting rich gloriously, Fang was a hero. In the years and months
> > leading up to the Tiananmen demonstrations in 1989, he dared to tell
> > the historical facts – about Mao, the Party, the Great Leap Forward,
> > and the Cultural Revolution – to a new generation.

> > ****************

> >http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/dissident-drama-reca...

> > Washington Post
> > April 12, 2012

> > After the high drama of a 400-mile dash to freedom across northern
> > China, Chen Guangcheng, a blind legal activist now reportedly under
> > the protection of U.S. diplomats in Beijing, confronts more mundane
> > challenges: filling in forms, listening to warnings about potential
> > peril ahead, and waiting while U.S. and Chinese officials haggle over
> > his fate.

> > That, at least, is what happened back in the summer of 1989 when Fang
> > Lizhi, a dissident Chinese astrophysicist, entered the U.S. mission in
> > Beijing a day after the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre and asked
> > diplomats there for protection.

> > The diplomats “were mildly discouraging but didn’t rule out helping,”
> > recalled Perry Link, a Princeton

> ...

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