title: Xie Yuyuan
text: # Xie Yuyuan
  
  Xie Yuyuan (Chinese: 谢毓元; April 19, 1924 – March 27, 2021) was a Chinese pharmaceutical chemist. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
  
  ## Biography
  
  Xie was born in Beijing, on April 19, 1924, while his ancestral home was in Suzhou, Jiangsu. In his early years, he studied in the Department of Chemical Engineering of Soochow University. In 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Army occupied the Shanghai concession [zh], his father ordered him to drop out of school and stay at home. After the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, he was admitted to the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. After graduating in 1949, he taught at the university. In 1951, he was dispatched to the Shanghai institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined the Communist Party of China in 1956. In 1957, he was sent abroad to study at Russian Academy of Sciences at the expense of the government. He returned to China in September 1993 and continued to work at the Shanghai institute of Organic Chemistry. On March 27, 2021, he died in Shanghai, aged 96.
  
  ## Honours and awards
  
  * 1982 State Natural Science Award (Second Class)
  * 1991 Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  