To be updated. 20091031-20091102

Hsue-shen Tsien (11 December 1911 - 31 October 2009)
Hsue-shen Tsien ( H. S. Tsien)
Xuesen QIAN (X. S. Qian)
Born: 11 December 1911, Hanzhou, Zhejiang province, China.
Died: 31 October 2009 (aged 98), Beijing, China.



1949 Flight from New York to Paris.

Date: circa 1949 or 1950.
Flight from New York to Paris.
Xuesen Qian (Hsue-shen Tsien) demonstrating the flight of a theoretical jet in class at Caltech, 1949 or 1950.

Photo: Hearst Newspaper Collection, Special Collections, University of Southern California Library.
Reproduction: 2009 Scidea View. www.ScideaNews.com


1944 Teachers and Students.

Date: April 1944.
Teachers and students.
Ludwig Prandtl (Left), Hsue-shen Tsien (Middle) and Theodore von Kármán (Right). Prandtl was doctoral advisor for von Kármán (1902 - 1908, University of Göttingen, Germany) ; and von Kármán was doctoral advisor for Tsien (1936 - 1937, California Institute of Technology, USA). 

Background of the interview: Leaving JPL in 1944, Theodore von Kármán established the Air Force's Scientific Advisory Board. Hsue-shen Tsien also served in the board and as the assistant of von Kármán. This time they were really happy to interview Ludwig Prandtl for Hap Arnold.

Photo: US Army. California Institute of Technology. JPL.
Reproduction: 2009 Scidea View. www.ScideaNews.com

Notes:

1.
Ludwig Prandtl (4 February 1875 - 15 August 1953).
Theodore von Kármán (11 May 1881 - 7 May 1963).
Hsue-shen Tsien (11 December 1911 - 31 October 2009).

Some concepts in physics after them:

Prandtl-von Kármán law (velocity in open channel flow).
Chaplygin-Kármán-Tsien approximation (potential flow).
von Kármán-Tsien compressibility correction.
Born-von Kármán lattice model (crystallography).
Theodore von KármánKarman line (aerodynamics/astronautics).
von Kármán vortex street (flow past cylinder).
von Kármán integral equation (boundary layers).
Kármán-Pohlhausen parameter (boundary layers).
Kármán-Treffz transformation (airfoil theory).
Kármán-Nikuradse correlation (viscous flow).
Falkowich-Kármán equation (transonic flow).
von Kármán ogive (supersonic aerodynamics).

2.
The doctoral dissertation of Hsue-shen Tsien:
Problems in motion of compressible fluids and reaction propulsion.
Date of Defense: 1 January 1937.
URN: etd-01122004-105646 | FullTXT from Caltech Library

3.
Hap Arnold (25 June 1886 - 15 January 1950).

1956 Deciding at the banquet.

Date: early 1956.
Deciding at the banquet.
Xuesen Qian (Hsue-shen Tsien) and Zedong MAO in 1956, Beijing.

Background of the interview: After a long hard negotiation from 1950 to 1955, US goverment finally agreed the Tsien's return. Hsue-shen Tsien arrived in Shanghai on 12 October 1955, and he was in Beijing from 28 October 1955. In early 1956, Mao gave a warm welcom to Tsien in the Mao's home. They talked a lot at this banquet. After then, Hsue-shen Tsien directed a group and gave a  list with 57 items to clarify what we should do as soon as possible in the coming decade (1956 - 1967)... To about 1970, this national top-project got a perfect fulfillment. These targets include A-bomb, H-bomb, rocket, missile, satellite, computer, semiconductors, wireless electronics, automatization, system control technology, etc. 

Photo: Hou Bo? To be checked. Xinhua News Agency.
Reproduction: 2009 Scidea View. www.ScideaNews.com


1956 Talking beyond the atom.

Date: 1956.
Talking beyond the atom.
Xuesen Qian (Hsue-shen Tsien) and Hélène Langevin-Joliot in 1956, Beijing.
Photo: Xinhua News Agency.
Reproduction: 2009 Scidea View. www.ScideaNews.com

Notes：

Hélène Langevin-Joliot (born 17 September 1927).
Her parents: Irène Joliot-Curie (12 September 1897 - 17 March 1956) and Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie (19 March 1900 - 14 August 1958);
Her grandparents: Marie Skłodowska Curie (7 November 1867 - 4 July 1934) and Pierre Curie (15 May 1859 - 19 April 1906).



This article：

Lin PU. Hsue-shen Tsien (11 December 1911 - 31 October 2009). Scidea View. sv20091031a1 (2009).

Also to be published in National History, nh200911:
Lin PU. Hsue-shen Tsien (11 December 1911 - 31 October 2009). National History, 2 (11), nh20091031a1 (2009). doi: 10.3128/nh20091031a1