Giants in History: Yichun Hao

Palaeontologist Yichun Hao (1920 – 2001) co-authored the first Chinese textbooks on palaeontology and micropalaeontology. Her research on Foraminifera – amoeba-like organisms with shells – was vital for the exploration and utilisation of marine energy resources. Hao also made significant contributions to the fields of stratigraphy and palaeontology, petroleum exploration and palaeoceanography. Together with her research team, she mapped the rock layers in the northeast and southwest regions of China. Hao’s academic positions included serving as vice-president of the Palaeontological Society of China, as president of the Micropalaeontological Society of China, and as a member of the International Science Union. In 1980, she became an academician in the Academic Division of Earth Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.