Deep sorrow! Comrade Shen Zuyan, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the College of Civil Engineering, Tongji University, passed away at Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital at 21:06 on October 11, 2017, at the age of 82.
Biography
Shen Zuyan (June 5, 1935 – October 11, 2017) was a native of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and an expert in steel structures. He graduated from Tongji University with a bachelor's degree in 1955 and completed graduate studies in structural theory at Tongji University in 1966. He served as Vice President of Tongji University, Director of the Shanghai Institute of Disaster Prevention and Relief, Director of the National Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention, Director of the National Steering Committee for Civil Engineering Education and the Evaluation Committee, member of the American Structural Stability Research Council, and member of the Steel and Timber Structures Committee of the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. He was elected an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2005.

Career

August 1955 – December 1980: Tongji University, Teaching Assistant, Lecturer, Deputy Director of Division;
May 1980 – January 1982: Lehigh University, USA, Visiting Scholar;
December 1980 – January 1982: Department of Building Engineering, Tongji University, Associate Professor;
February 1982 – August 1984: Department of Structural Engineering, Tongji University, Associate Professor, Deputy Department Chair;
August 1984 – November 1994: Tongji University, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor, Vice President;
August 1988 – May 1996: National Key Laboratory of Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention, Director;
March 1989 – October 2017: Shanghai Institute of Disaster Prevention and Relief, Director;
November 1944 – October 2017: Tongji University, Professor, Doctoral Supervisor;
November 1994 – October 2017: Civil Engineering Disaster Prevention Research Center, Director.

Teaching Career
As a university teacher, Shen Zuyan believed that teaching is definitely the top priority. Because the function of a university is to cultivate advanced talents for the country, teachers bear great responsibility in teaching; they must impart necessary knowledge to students and adopt the most effective methods to cultivate them.
As the saying goes, "ten minutes on stage, ten years of practice off stage." Shen Zuyan deeply understood this: preparing for a class takes several times longer than the class itself. Over the years, he developed the habit of preparing lessons calmly the night before a class. "When I was young, I had less knowledge reserve. To prepare well, I would find dozens of relevant articles for each chapter to enrich peripheral knowledge and carefully select what could be used in class, so I felt confident." In his later teaching career, lesson preparation became an indispensable part of Shen Zuyan's life. He believed that teaching a course for decades with a single set of lecture notes could easily give students a sense of perfunctoriness and often fail to gain their recognition. Indeed, the content of the same course cannot remain unchanged; with the development of science, new content should be continuously enriched. Only by integrating this new knowledge into the course can students learn new things.

Preparing lessons with full effort is only the foundation for good teaching results. As for how to teach effectively, Shen Zuyan's method sounds simple but is not easy to implement. At the beginning of a course, he usually assessed students through quizzes or conversations; the key was to "fully understand the students' situation." Since students' receptiveness is not uniform, he needed to grasp the overall situation to determine the pace and difficulty of teaching. Considering students' different levels, Shen Zuyan adopted differentiated teaching: "Some students have strong receptiveness and may not be challenged enough, so they can learn more deeply; some are slower, so we need to wait for them. Overall, we mainly consider the middle group so that the majority can learn well."
Shen Zuyan's pursuit of excellence in teaching included many details. For example, he carefully considered how to write on the blackboard, how much to write, and the order of presentation. His blackboard experience: first, it must not be chaotic, otherwise students cannot understand; it should be orderly with emphasis, easy for students to grasp and copy. Second, do not fill the blackboard as soon as class starts, which can overwhelm students. Third, the writing should not be too little, or students may not remember the key points.
Shen Zuyan believed that the most important aspect of teaching is not simply imparting knowledge, not how much the teacher teaches and how much students learn, but how to inspire and guide students to become interested in what they learn after teaching basic knowledge, thereby achieving a transition from passive to active learning and independent thinking, finding joy in learning. "When students start thinking for themselves, they will surely achieve great things."

Cultivating Talents
Shen Zuyan said that teaching is an art; the content and methods of teaching can be combined in many ways, and the podium is actually a stage for display. He often said that in teaching and educating, interest can serve as a touchstone; only with wholehearted dedication can one feel the joy. He mentioned that no matter what one does, without interest, it is impossible to reach a high level. Such joy was everywhere in Shen Zuyan's teaching career. For example, studying students also brought much joy. From pre-Cultural Revolution students to those in the 1980s and 1990s, students changed greatly. At that time, if one did not thoroughly understand students and still used lecture notes from 30 years ago, it clearly would not work.
As a mentor and friend to his students, Shen Zuyan was superbly qualified. After completing scheduled teaching tasks and objectives, some of his actions seemed to go beyond the scope of teaching, but such "extra" gestures won students' respect and welcome. After class, he would talk with students about life and study, chatting like friends. For him, such chats not only subtly influenced students' pursuit of knowledge and scholarship but also had the deeper meaning of observing students' characteristics and selecting good prospects for the discipline.
In Shen Zuyan's eyes, watching his students grow from entering university to becoming pillars of the nation was undoubtedly a great joy. For students, he often encouraged them to break free from their own "frameworks," walk their own paths, and hoped they would develop stronger than their teacher. Therefore, he not only taught students but also planned for their development. Often, for students' development, he would yield some paths within his professional field. For example, in the steel structure field, when his students began to take charge independently, their topics might conflict with his own research. At such times, Shen Zuyan would proactively step aside and let students take the lead. In addition, at national and international conferences, he recommended them to participate as much as possible, allowing these young talents to emerge and quickly carve out their own space in the professional field.
In this pursuit of the joy of educating, Shen Zuyan harvested batch after batch of national pillars. Facing the title of Famous Teacher bestowed by the state, he felt sincerely gratified because "this is recognition of my teaching." Now, in his seventies, he was still busy in the steel structure field, giving lectures, compiling textbooks, leading major projects, and guiding young teachers. For him, teaching and research had long been integrated with life, and the infinite joy of educating surged joyfully in his blood.

Research Achievements
For over 60 years, Shen Zuyan had been engaged in research and teaching in the steel structure field, making significant contributions to the development of China's steel structure discipline and engineering construction. At the renowned Tongji University, he found space and a platform to apply his talents, achieving fruitful career results and a brilliant life.
In high-rise building steel structures, he established a steel constitutive relationship considering damage, damage accumulation, and crack effects; restoring force models for various components and beam-column joints; and geometric nonlinear elastic-plastic stiffness matrices for beam and column elements. On this basis, he proposed a unified calculation method for static and dynamic nonlinear analysis of high-rise steel structures. This research achievement is innovative internationally; it not only enables more realistic analysis of the bearing capacity, elastic-plastic overall stability, and elastic-plastic seismic performance of high-rise steel structures but also calculates the degree of damage to structures and components after earthquakes, the occurrence and development of cracks, and the response, damage, and further crack development of damaged structures in subsequent earthquakes. The Shanghai standard "Interim Provisions for the Design of High-Rise Building Steel Structures," edited by Professor Shen Zuyan, was promulgated in 1992. It was China's first design standard for high-rise building steel structures, providing a basis for the design of such projects and making an indelible contribution to the history of high-rise steel structure engineering in China. Since the promulgation of the Shanghai standard "Design Specification for Light Steel Structures" edited by Professor Shen Zuyan and the national standardization association standard "Technical Specification for Steel Structures of Portal Frame Lightweight Buildings" co-edited by him, China's light steel structures have also developed rapidly, playing a significant role in saving steel, shortening construction periods, and reducing costs.
In large-span spatial structures, Shen Zuyan derived a large-displacement elastic-plastic stability analysis method for large spatial structures considering various initial imperfections, correctly obtaining the performance of spatial structures after various types of instability, and proposed criteria and analysis methods for dynamic instability of large-span spatial structures under earthquake action. These research results actively promoted the application of large steel reticulated shell structures in China and were widely used in key projects such as the Shanghai Stadium and the National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Professor Shen Zuyan's research achievements not only have domestic influence but also attracted attention from the international academic community. He was invited multiple times to give special reports at international conferences and to lecture abroad, winning a good reputation and respect internationally.
Over the years, he published more than 300 papers in domestic and international academic journals, nearly 20 books, and edited or co-edited 13 codes and specifications related to steel structure design and construction; led over 40 national and provincial/ministerial research projects and over 20 major engineering projects, receiving 25 national and provincial/ministerial science and technology progress awards; and supervised 46 doctoral students and 69 master's students, many of whom have become academic leaders and technical authorities—truly fruitful and nurturing many talents.