Zhou Peiyuan

Zhou Peiyuan with his wife in 1932

Bronze bust of professor Zhou Peiyuan at Department of Physics, Peking U

Zhou Peiyuan (Chinese: 周培源; August 28, 1902—November 24, 1993) was a renowned theoretical physicist of China. He was a former president of Peking University, and an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Born in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, Zhou graduated from Tsinghua University in 1924. Then he went to the United States and obtained a bachelor's degree from University of Chicago in Spring of 1926, and a master's degree at the end of the same year. In 1928, he obtained his doctorate degree from California Institute of Technology. In 1936, he studied general relativity under Albert Einstein in Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He did his post-doc researches in quantum mechanics at University of Leipzig in Germany and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. He was a professor of physics at Peking University, and later served as the president of the University. He was elected as a founding member of CAS in 1955.

In 2003, a bronze statue of Zhou was founded on the campus of Peking University.