Fang Lizhi
Fang Lizhi | |||||||||
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| 方励之 | |||||||||
Fang Lizhi in 2010 | |||||||||
| Born | February 12, 1936 Beijing, China | ||||||||
| Died | April 6, 2012 (aged 76) Tucson, Arizona, U.S. | ||||||||
| Alma mater | |||||||||
| Occupation | Astrophysicist | ||||||||
| Known for | 1986 Student Demonstrations | ||||||||
| Spouse |
Li Shuxian (m. 1961) | ||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 方勵之 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 方励之 | ||||||||
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| Movements in contemporary |
| Chinese political thought |
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Fang Lizhi (Chinese: 方励之; pinyin: Fāng Lìzhī; February 12, 1936 – April 6, 2012) was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Fang was considered as one of the leaders of the New Enlightenment in the 1980s. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the Chinese Communist Party in January 1987. For his work, Fang was a recipient of the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in 1989, given each year. He was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980, but his position was revoked after 1989.