obituary

Weixing Wan (万卫星) The space and planetary science community lost a great leader, Professor Weixing Wan, on 20 May 2020, aged 62. He was a world-leading space scientist and a pioneer in ’s planetary science programme.

eixing Wan was born in July universities and institutes and eventually 1958, several months after proposed a Venus exploration project. In Wthe launch of the world’s first January 2020, about four months before he satellite. His given name, Weixing, literally passed away, he was still actively organizing means ‘satellite’ in Chinese. He grew up in a workshop on this project. Many currently Tianmen, province; Tianmen means active planetary scientists in China were ‘a gate from Earth to Heaven’. Hubei gave originally encouraged by Professor Wan birth to China’s first great poet, Quyuan, during his later years to shift their research 2,300 years ago, whose masterpiece, Tianwen focuses from other fields. Wan also (Questions to Heaven), asked more than urged Chinese scientists to contribute to 150 important questions about nature and humankind’s planetary explorations. He was humanity, the first of which is how the the chief scientist of China’s first mission Universe originated. Quyuan also died at to Mars, Tianwen-1, to be launched in late the age of 62. China’s first Mars mission was July or early August 2020. To prepare for named Tianwen-1 in April, when Wan, the this Mars mission, he organized the first chief scientist of the mission, was already national-level team of planetary scientists, in hospital. and established the precedent for the Wan received his BS degree in 1982 from science and engineering communities to University and his PhD in space actively cooperate. He founded the largest physics from the Wuhan Institute of Physics Key Laboratory of the Chinese Academy and Mathematics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, that of Earth and Planetary of Sciences in 1989. From October 1990 Weixing Wan (1958–2020). Physics, as well as the Division of Planetary to July 1991, Wan visited the Center for Physics of the Chinese Geophysical Atmospheric Research at the University Society. With foresight of the frontiers of of Massachusetts Lowell in the United Qinghai–Tibet Plateau plays a critical role the discipline and national needs, Wan States, hosted by Professor Bodo Reinisch, in the formation of travelling ionospheric proposed a set of planetary exploration an expert in ionospheric detection using disturbances. In addition to his many other plans with the help of ground-based, digisonde. They investigated ionospheric scientific outputs, he also established a near-space, space station, moon-based and disturbance with digisonde electron density comprehensive observatory chain of various spacecraft detection methods. The planetary profiles and drift measurements. In 1994, instruments measuring the ionosphere, community in China will continue to benefit Wan became a professor of space physics upper atmosphere, and geomagnetic field from the path designed by Wan. and director of the Wuhan Ionospheric from high to low latitudes along the 120° E Wan was a strong supporter of the Observatory, which was the first ionospheric meridian, and he recently began building establishment of planetary science as an observatory in China, having been founded an incoherent scatter radar at in academic discipline in China. He presided in the 1940s. In 2004, the observatory was southern China, which will soon become over the organization of the curricula of led by Professor Wan to join the Institute of the first such instrument at low latitudes courses related to planetary physics at the Geology and Geophysics in . In 2012, to explore the energy coupling and particle College of Earth and Planetary Sciences, he reformed the observatory into the Key transport between the magnetosphere and University of the Chinese Academy of Laboratory of the Ionospheric Environment, ionosphere over the equatorial region. Sciences, which began the cultivation and then successfully promoted the Under Wan’s leadership, an enormous of talented students and researchers in laboratory to the Key Laboratory of Earth amount of scientific data has been produced, planetary physics in China. Wan supervised and Planetary Physics in 2014, expanding with much more to come in the near more than 60 PhD students in space physics, the scope of its research to include the field future. Moreover, he promoted a policy of and most of them have already become of planetary science. routinely releasing almost all the data to faculty or research scientists of space physics Wan published over 400 papers about the the international academic community, and in universities and institutes either in China ionosphere, earning a significant reputation greatly helped to advance understanding of or in other countries. He helped to create in a number of topics in space physics the behaviour of the ionosphere on Asian China’s first journal of planetary science, that included the theory of radio wave and global scales. For his outstanding Earth and Planetary Physics, and served as propagation, upper atmospheric physics, contributions to space sciences, Wan was its first editor-in-chief. and ionospheric instrument development. elected as an academician of the Chinese Besides conducting research or teaching, He proposed a mechanism and Academy of Sciences in 2011. Wan also enjoyed reading history books, corresponding model for the ionospheric At the age of 50, Wan developed a particularly during his very busy trips. He longitude structure driven by atmospheric strong interest in the planetary sciences, and one of his students compiled a book of tides, demonstrating key evidence of particularly in planetary ionospheres such as ancient Korean aurorae records from the atmosphere–ionosphere coupling. He that of Mars, and in early 2010 he attracted past 1,000 years that was formally published also revealed that the topography of the a group of Chinese scientists from several one day before his passing. Wan had a

Nature Astronomy | VOL 4 | July 2020 | 637–638 | www.nature.com/natureastronomy 637 obituary great enthusiasm for sports, and once won from his students as it seemed to not be well in the future. He will be greatly missed for a ping-pong championship when he was a supported by data. To watch some important his outstanding scientific achievements college student. He also liked volleyball and soccer matches of Wuhan and Beijing, he and his noble personality. ❐ was known for his obsession with soccer. would even fight for the TV remote with He often stayed up late to watch English his own son. Yong Wei ✉ Premier League or Italian Serie A matches, Wan was respected for making scientific Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese sometimes causing him trouble in getting breakthroughs while at the same time Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. to academic meetings the next morning. As leading a whole community, from the ✉e-mail: [email protected] a scientist, every statement of his had to be present generation to many generations supported by data, but his unyielding faith in to come. The planetary community will Published online: 15 June 2020 Chinese soccer was often the source of jokes continue to benefit from his legacy now and https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1140-1

638 Nature Astronomy | VOL 4 | July 2020 | 637–638 | www.nature.com/natureastronomy