Draft:Qiu Aici

Qiu Aici (Chinese: 邱爱慈; November 22, 1941 - present) is a scientist in the field of high-current pulsed particle beam accelerators and high-power pulse technology in China. She is an Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, a researcher, doctoral supervisor, and chief engineer at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, and the dean of the School of Electrical Engineering at Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Qiu Aici participated in the development and improvement of China’s first high-impedance electron beam accelerator. She was also responsible for the development of China’s low-impedance pulsed electron beam accelerator “Flash No. 2” with the strongest beam current of 1MA. Moreover, she presided over many other scientific research projects including “Qiangguang No. 1”, “Fast Z-Pinch Physics and Its Pulse Power Driving Source Technology” and “High-Power Ion Beam Generation and Application.”

Early Life
Qiu Aici was born on November 22, 1941 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. Qiu Aici’s father was an employee of the Shaoxing County Taxation Bureau and her mother was a housewife. Before Qiu Aici was born, her father was dead. Her mother raised her and her two sisters. In 1953, Qiu Aici was admitted to Zhejiang Provincial Hangzhou Girls’ Middle School. With the help of national scholarships and her sisters, she finished junior high school and was recommended to high school; then, she was admitted to Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1960.

Career
After graduating from college in 1964, Qiu Aici was assigned to work at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology. Then, in 1971, she was appointed as the technical leader of the high-impedance pulsed electron beam accelerator project of the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology; in 1978, she was the youngest Deputy Director in the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology. From 1993 to 1998, Qiu Aici served as deputy chief engineer at the institute, in charge of pre-research, equipment, and laboratory construction. Due to her contribution to national defense, Qiu Aici was awarded the rank of major general in 1997. In 1999, she was elected as an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; in 2005, she became the Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

Beginning in 1982, with support from Academicians Cheng Kaijia and Lu Min, Qiu Aici took on the task of developing “two 0.9 (0.9MV, 0.9MA) high-current pulsed relativistic electron beam equipment”; it is a scientific and engineering project. During this time, she was hospitalized for 107 days due to overwork; the development plan report was completed from the hospital. This equipment is later named as the “Flash II” accelerator. The “Flash II” accelerator positions China as the fourth country to have this high technology after the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom.

In 2022, Qiu Aici received the Shaanxi Provincial Highest Science and Technology Award. That same year, she also received the second prize in the National Teaching Achievement Award for Higher Education (Graduate Students).