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Yuanding Zhu (aka Yuanting T. Chu, Chinese: 朱元鼎, Oct. 2nd, 1896 --- Dec 17th, 1986)   was a prominent Chinese ichthyologist and educator. He was China's leading authority on ichthyology and fishery science and was the main founder of Chinese fish taxonomy. He played a pivotal role in pioneering the fields of the systematic evolution and phylogeny of fish, and made outstanding contributions to the field of Ichthyology.[[File:Ydzhu.jpg|alt=field: ichthology|thumb|Yuanding Zhu, about 1930s

Scientific Career

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Early life and Education
He was born in a merchant family in Jixian County, Zhejiang Province (now Yinzhou District, Ningbo City). In 1916 he graduated from high school and was admitted to Soochow University. In his junior year, he was elected as the chairman of the student association. In 1920 he graduated from the Department of Biology of Soochow University with a bachelor's degree. Academically influenced by N.Gist Gee, a professor of Natural Sciences at Soochow University, he decided to pursue his career as a biologist. After graduation, he landed job as a lecturer of the Department of Biological Science at St. John's University in Shanghai. He received his Master's from Cornell University in 1926 and his PhD from University of Michigan in 1934.

Academic Positions
1920 - 1925 Lecturer, Department of Biological Science, St. John's University, Shanghai

1926 - 1933 Associate professor, Department of Biological Science, St. John's University, Shanghai

1934 - 1952 Professor, Department of Biological Science, St. John's University, Shanghai

1952 - 1986 Professor, Shanghai Fisheries University (name was changed to Shanghai Ocean University in 2008)

Administrative Positions
1934 - 1939 Chair of Department of Biological Science, St John's university Shanghai

1943 - 1948 Dean of School of Arts and Sciences, Acting Provost of St. John's University Shanghai

Research Highlights
Zhu engaged researches in fish classification, morphology and comparative anatomy. He discovered 48 new species, 10 new genera, and 4 new subfamilies of fish.

In 1931, he published "Index Piscium Sinensium" (中国鱼类索引). It was China's first systematic fish taxonomy book. The book was designed to bring together the widely scattered data on the fishes of China to serve as a working foundation for further investigation. The index included 1533 species of fishes. This vast research project was done with some information provided by some world leading ichthyologists such as Dr. David Starr Jordan of Standford University, Professor Shigeho Tanaka of Tokyo Imperial University, Professor P. Schmidt of Zoological Museum, St. Petersburg, Dr. Cora D. Reeves (received PhD from University of Michigan, the founder and first Chair of the Biology Department at Ginling College in China ), etc.