Remembering Professor Roger Tsien

2016年09月13日



On September 14, the Scientific Achievement Seminar and Memorial for Academician Roger Tsien, a Chinese American Scientist, Nobel Prize Laureate and Qian Xuesen’s nephew was held in Qian Xuesen Library & Museum.


The meeting was hosted by academician Qian Xuhong. In the beginning, all the participating guests stood silently to express their condolences to Roger Tsien. Professor Qian Yonggang read the mourning message by the China Aerospace Academy of Systems Science and Engineering. The mourning message mentioned that Professor Roger Tsien made significant contributions to the development of biochemistry and progress of bioscience as a Nobel Prize winner, and devoted his lifetime efforts to human scientific undertakings. His death is a great loss in the science field and his demeanor and achievement will last forever.


Professor Qian Yonggang expressed that though he didn’t meet Roger Tsien before, he heard from his mother about Roger Tsien’s sound family education . When Roger Tsien won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Qian Yonggang’s father Qian Xuesen was very excited and particularly asked him to send a congratulation message to his younger cousin as it was their honor for the Qian family. Today, Qian descendants and relatives gather here to jointly recall Roger Tsien and his scientific achievements, and remember that his achievement arises from his outstanding family.


Dr. Jin Gang reviewed Dr. Roger Tsien’s brilliant research in the staining technique of GFP green fluorescent protein and detecting calcium ion concentration, and his great contributions to human life sciences. He recalled his several face-to-face exchanges and cooperative research with Professor Roger Tsien, and highly praised his modest and approachable characters.

Academician Qian Xuhong summarized Professor Roger Tsien’s research results in calcium ion concentration dye molecules, green fluorescent protein and florescence operation dye as Roger’s three major contributions in his lifetime. He stated that Roger Tsien’s scientific achievements resembled what University of California, San Diego – described him “Lightening Science”. His unremitting exploration in science would be the example in the scientific field.


Roger Tsien (ancestry Hangzhou), 34th generation of Qian Liu, was born in New York in 1952. On August 24, Roger Tsien fell down while riding outside. When he was discovered, his heart had stopped beating. Roger Tsien was an academician of the United States National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and professor of the Medical School of the University of California, San Diego. His sudden death caused a great shake in the world’s scientific field.