Globally celebrated scientist who grew up in a poor rural area, now returns to his hometown as dean of Hohai University.
Xie was born in a poor rural area of Changzhou, Jiangsu province in eastern China, in 1963.
“When I was a child, I was a shepherd,” he recalled in an interview in 2016. “My parents were rural teachers, and one of my father’s students was a carpenter. I thought at the time that the best thing that could happen to me in my entire life was to become his apprentice and become a carpenter myself in the future.”
He never imagined that he would leave his hometown for university, pursue studies overseas and eventually return to Changzhou.
