【Pioneer of Haichuan Chemical Industry】Zhuang Changgong: Pioneer of steroid chemistry in China and founder of organic trace analysis

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Zhuang Changgong (December 25, 1894 – February 15, 1962), male, styled Pike, was an organic chemist and educator; a pioneer in steroid chemistry in China and a founder of organic microanalysis. He graduated from the University of Chicago in the United States in 1921 and received a doctorate from the same institution in 1924. Elected an academician of the Academia Sinica in 1948. In 1955, he was elected as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (an academician). Died on February 15, 1962. He made outstanding contributions to organic synthesis, particularly the synthesis of steroid compounds and the structural study of natural organic compounds. The structure of ergostane was confirmed, the structure of ergosterol was inferred, and a synthetic method involving corner methyl bis-dia–alpha isomers was devised, known as the \"Chuang method\". He studied the oxidative cleavage of steroidal side chains; he was one of the few renowned chemists in the world at that time engaged in research on the total synthesis of steroids, and his work was included in textbooks. Tetrandrine and tetranorine were isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine Stephania, and their structures were elucidated. He placed emphasis on and participated in the development of Chinese names for organic chemicals; the current names for heterocyclic compounds such as indole and pyrrole were all his initiatives. In his research work, he emphasized the spirit of innovation and advocated the academic philosophy that one must know what not to do in order to know what to do. He promoted the establishment of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry and the Beijing Institute of Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1956, he was appointed as a member of the State Council’s Science Planning Committee, where he participated in the formulation of documents such as the \"Outline for the Scientific and Technological Development Plan 1956–1967\". He once served as the head of the Department of Chemistry at Northeastern University, the dean of the Faculty of Science at National Central University, the director of the Institute of Chemistry at the Academia Sinica, the president of National Taiwan University, and the director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Chinese Academy of Sciences