Lo Tsung-lo

Lo Tsung-lo (Traditional Chinese: 羅宗洛; Simplified Chinese: 罗宗洛; aka Luo Zongluo; 1898–1978), was a Chinese botanist and plant physiologist. Lo was a main founder of modern plant physiology in China. He was the first President of the National Taiwan University (after the World War II).

Biography

Luo was born in Huangyan, Zhejiang Province on 2 Aug 1898. Lo's father was a merchant. Lo entered Hangzhou Anding Middle School in 1911. In 1912, Lo transfeered to Shanghai Nanyang Middle School and graduated in 1917. In 1930, Lo obtained PhD from Hokkaido University in Japan.

Lo went back to China and in Feb 1930 became professor and the head of the department of biology at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. In 1932, Lo went to Shanghai and became a professor at Jinan University. In 1933, Lo turned to the National Central University (renamed Nanjing University in mainland China and reinstated in Taiwan) and was a professor at its department of biology. From 1940 to 1944, Lo was a professor at Zhejiang University. In the summer of 1944, Lo became the director of the Botany Research Institute of Academia Sinica in Chongqing, where was the war-time capital of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After the Chinese victory in Oct 1945, Lo was sent to Taiwan by the central government, to take-over the Taihoku Imperial University (also changed its name into current National Taiwan University). In 1946, Lo became the acting president of the National Taiwan University. Thus Lo is regarded as the first president of the National Taiwan University. In Oct 1946, the Botany Research Institute of Academia Sinica was moved from Chongqing to Shanghai, and Luo was still assigned as its president.

After 1949, the new People's Republic of China was founded, and Lo became the first president of the Research Institute of Plant Physiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Lo was one of the main founders of the Chinese Society for Plant Physilogy, and was its first and second president.

On 26 Oct 1978, Lo died in Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital.

Luo was a member of Academia Sinica (1948 election), and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1955 election).

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