WHERE DID THE EARLIEST FACULTY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AT TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY COME FROM

We examine the careers and contributions of the faculty members at the founding of the Department of Physics at Tsinghua University. At its establishment, Mei Yiqi (Mei I-ch’i) was already a teacher of the former Tsing Hua College, while all the other founding faculty members, including the department chair Ye Qisun (C. S. Yeh), as well as Zhao Zhongyao (C. Y. Chao), Zheng Yanfen (Cheng Yen-fen), and Shi Ruwei (Shih Ju-wei), came from the Department of Physics of National Southeast University (the predecessor of the Department of Physics of Nanjing University). Among the early faculty members recruited subsequently, Wu Youxun (Y. H. Woo) and Huo Bingquan (Huo Ping-ch’üan) were also alumni of National Southeast University, while Sa Bendong (Sa Pen-tung), Zhou Peiyuan (P. Y. Chou), and Ren Zhigong (C. K. Jen), like Ye Qisun, were graduates of Tsing Hua College.