Abstract
Dr. Zhong Xiangchong was born in November, 1921 in Shantou, Guangdong province. He graduated at Hong Kong University with a bachelor's degree in 1941 and got his Ph. D. degree at Leeds University, England in 1949. He worked at the Ministry of Metallurgy as senior engineer in 1949-1970. He was the founder of Luoyang Institute of Refractories Research and was director of the institute from 1963 to 1984, after which he has been advisor. From 1984 to now, he has also been professor at University of Science and Technology Beijing, supervising Ph. D. students. In 2000, he moved to Zhengzhou University as professor.

He was elected Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991.

He was conferred the honor of Distinguished Life Member by the Unified International Technical Conference on Refractories in 1993.

He was elected Fellow of the American Ceramic Society in 1999.

He was awarded the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation Prize for Progress in Science and Technology in 2000.

Dr. Zhong Xiangchong has devoted nearly 60 years of his lifetime to the cause of refractories development and has made noticeable contributions to metallurgical and other high temperature industries. He has established modern refractories manufacturing practice in China; through the adoption of advanced technologies and equipment, China's refractories industry has changed from a very backward status to modernized status. His achievements in research and development of sophisticated new refractory products with Chinese characteristics based on our country's rich natural resources have been especially important. For example, magnesite alumina brick and high alumina brick developed in the fifties and sixties and bauxite-based low creep high alumina stove brick developed in the eighties and nineties are all innovations of international status; their high temperature properties and service performance have reached international advanced level at that time.

In the realm of basic science studies, he has carried out systematic investigations on phase composition, microstructure and high temperature properties of sintered bauxites, corundom-mullite-zirconia materials and oxide and nonoxide composites. The research results have contributed new contents and viewpoints to ceramics literature and have indicated trends and avenues for new refractories development.