{{Short description|Chinese geologist and meteorologist (1890–1974)}} {{family name hatnote|Chu|lang=Chinese}} {{More citations needed|date=July 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=July 2025}} {{Use American English|date=July 2025}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Coching Chu | native_name = 竺可楨 | image = Zhu Kezhen 01.jpg | birth_date = {{Birth date|1890|3|7}} | birth_place = Shangyu, Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China | death_date = {{Death date and age|1974|2|7|1890|3|7}} | death_place = Beijing, China | field = Meteorology<br>Geology | workplaces = National Southeast University<br>National Chekiang University<br>Academia Sinica<br>Chinese Academy of Sciences | alma_mater = Fudan University<br>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BS)<br>Harvard University (PhD) | doctoral_advisor = | thesis_title = A New Classification of Typhoons of the Far East | thesis_url = http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0493(1924)52%3C570%3AANCOTO%3E2.0.CO%3B2 | thesis_year = 1924 | doctoral_students = }}
[[File:Former Residence of Zhu Kezhen in Nanjing 01 2012-11.JPG|thumb|Former residence of Coching Chu in Nanjing.]]
'''Coching Chu''' ({{lang-zh|s=竺可桢|t=竺可楨|p=Zhú Kězhēn|w=Chu K'o-chen}}; March 7, 1890 – February 7, 1974), also romanized as '''Zhu Kezhen''', was a Chinese geologist and meteorologist. He is considered the founder of modern meteorology and geography in China.<ref>{{Cite book |title=New dictionary of scientific biography |date=2008 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons/Thomson Gale |isbn=978-0-684-31320-7 |editor-last=Koertge |editor-first=Noretta |location=Detroit}}</ref>
== Life and career == Born in Shangyu, Shaoxing, Zhejiang,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Wang |first=Zuoyue |date=2022-07-03 |title=Practicing Mr. Science: Chinese Scientists and the May Fourth Movement from Zhu Kezhen to Fang Lizhi |journal=East Asian Science, Technology and Society|language=en |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=327–348 |doi=10.1080/18752160.2022.2104997 |issn=1875-2160|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{Rp|page=329}} Chu received his secondary education at the Tangshan School of Rail and Mining in Shanghai.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Frank |first=Mark E. |date=2023-03-29 |title=National climate: Zhu Kezhen and the framing of the atmosphere in modern China |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00732753231157453 |journal=History of Science |language=en |pages=007327532311574 |doi=10.1177/00732753231157453 |pmid=36988139 |s2cid=257803502 |issn=0073-2753|url-access=subscription }}</ref>{{Rp|page=6}} Upon receiving the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship,<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=6}} Chu went to United States for his college education in 1910. He graduated from the College of Agriculture, University of Illinois in 1913. He then studied under Robert DeCourcy Ward at Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in meteorology in 1918.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=7}}
From 1920 to 1929, he was chairperson of Department of Meteorology, Nanjing University (formerly known as the Nanking Higher Normal School, National Southeastern University, and National Central University).
From 1929 to 1936 he served as director of the Chinese Institute of Meteorology of the Academia Sinica,<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=7}} which at the time was located in mainland China. Academia Sinica later became the predecessor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China on mainland China and the Academia Sinica of the Republic of China on Taiwan.
From 1936 to 1949, he served as the president of National Chekiang University (now known as Zhejiang University) and elevated the institution to one of the most prestigious universities in China.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=332}} During that time, he sent manuscripts relating to the history of Chinese science to Joseph Needham in England.
In 1949, he was assigned to the position of vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|page=334}}
In 1955, he was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
== Academic papers == *[https://www.jstor.org/stable/207310 ''Some Chinese Contributions to Meteorology''] Geographical Review: Vol. 5, No. 2. (Feb., 1918), pp. 136–139. *[https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/52/12/1520-0493_1924_52_570_ancoto_2_0_co_2.xml ''A New Classification of Typhoons of the Far East''] Monthly Weather Review: Vol. 52, No. 12. (Dec., 1924), pp. 570–579. *[https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/mwre/53/1/1520-0493_1925_53_1_tpooar_2_0_co_2.xml ''The Place of Origin and Recurvature of Typhoons''] Monthly Weather Review: Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1925), pp. 1–5. *''The Complete Works of Coching Chu'' Shanghai Scientific & Technological Education Publishing House
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * {{DSB |first=Wang |last=Zuoyue |title=Zhu Kezhen |volume=25 |pages = 402-405 }}
{{s-start}} {{s-aca}} {{succession box | before = Zheng Xiaocang | title = President of Zhejiang University | years = 1936 – 1949 | after = Ma Yinchu }} {{s-end}}
{{Founding members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chu, Coching}} Category:1890 births Category:1974 deaths Category:Boxer Indemnity Scholarship recipients Category:20th-century Chinese geologists Category:Chinese meteorologists Category:Educators from Shaoxing Category:Fudan University alumni Category:Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Category:Members of Academia Sinica Category:Members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Category:Academic staff of Nanjing University Category:Academic staff of the National Central University Category:People from Shangyu, Shaoxing Category:Presidents of Zhejiang University Category:Scientists from Shaoxing Category:University of Illinois College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences alumni Category:Academic staff of Wuhan University Category:Academic staff of Zhejiang University