Li Ssu-Kuang

(Li Chung-k’uei), born 1889, in Huangkang, Hupeh Province; died Apr. 29, 1971, in Peking. Chinese geologist. Vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the People’s Republic of China (PRC; from 1949). Member of the Communist Party of China from 1958.

In 1917, Li Ssu-kuang graduated from the geology department of the University of Birmingham, and in 1926 he became a doctor of sciences. He served as a professor at Peking University (from 1920), director of the Institute of Geology of the Academy of Sciences of the PRC (from 1921), minister of geology of the PRC (from 1952), vice-president of the World Federation of Scientific Workers (from 1945), and head of the division on scientific, cultural, and educational affairs of the state council of the PRC (from 1969). His principal works dealt with the stratigraphy, tectonics, and tectonic regionalization of China. He was a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1958), and in 1958 the Academy of Sciences of the USSR awarded Li Ssu-kuang the A. P. Karpinskii gold medal.