从中国私塾到美国发明家、企业家、院士的北京人---MIT退休教授李耀滋，2011年8月14日逝世享年97岁。

 

Yao Tzu Li, professor emeritus in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and co-founder of the MIT Man-Vehicle Laboratory, passed away Sunday, Aug. 14. He was 97.

 

An energetic innovator and educator, Li encouraged students to explore their entrepreneurial spirit. In 1973, Li established the MIT Innovation Center, a program designed to shepherd students through the process of innovation, from developing an idea to engineering a prototype to marketing a product.

"It is a common belief that inventors and intrepreneurs [sic] are self-made men, born with that talent. Edison, the Wright brothers — none attended college," Li told the Associated Press in 1973, shortly after launching the program. "But with limits on natural resources, environmental concern and the shrinking U.S. share of the world market, we simply cannot rely upon the self-breeding process of a few innovators to keep the rest of the educated engineers employed. What we need is an organized training ground for innovators and entrepreneurs."

Li was born in Peking on Feb. 1, 1914. After earning a bachelor's degree from Peking University and a master's degree from Central University in China, Li continued his studies in aeronautical engineering at MIT, where he received a master's degree in 1938 and a ScD in 1939.

Shortly after earning his doctorate, Li returned to China, where he joined the Chinese Air Force as a chief engineer. In this capacity, Li oversaw the construction and operation of an airplane-engine manufacturing plant in Guizhou Province that was then being built underground. From 1945 to 1946, Li worked with the Chinese government to further advance aircraft technology, heading up development of the country's first homegrown aircraft engine.

In 1947, Li made his way back to MIT, where he became a research associate in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. From 1953 to 1957, Li directed the MIT Cruise Control Project in the Aerophysics Laboratory, where he worked with Charles Stark Draper to develop an automatic optimization system for the B-52 bomber.

Li became a full professor at MIT in 1961, co-founding the Man-Vehicle Laboratory soon after, where he and his students examined the effects of air and space travel on human passengers.

Throughout his career, Li was a prolific inventor, with more than 60 patents to his name. In addition to patents for aircraft optimization systems and pressure indicators for rocket engines, Li patented designs for an archery bow and a tennis racket with flexibly anchored strings.

In 1972, shortly before launching the MIT Innovation Center, Li made national headlines with a particularly entrepreneurial idea: a scheme, as a Boston Globe article put it, to "tackle the tilt" of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The idea started as a joke — Li made light of the tower's tilt with his children, after hearing about the problem in the news. The joke turned into a project during a European tour, when Li dined with a professor then in charge of saving the tower.

Li came up with a blueprint to keep the tower from toppling, involving a ring of concrete pads surrounding the base of the tower, to redistribute pressure and support the tower's weight. The plan never gained traction, but Li, ever the entrepreneur, was unfazed. He simply moved on to his next project.

Family members are planning a memorial service at the MIT Memorial Chapel in September. Details will be announced at a later date.