The Enigma of Qian Xuesen: US, China, and the Geopolitics of Science from the Cold War to the Age of AI

Zuoyue Wang, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Moderator: Victor Seow, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University

Abstract: The dramatic life experiences of the aerodynamicist Qian Xuesen (Hsue Shen Tsien) in the US and China both illustrated and helped reshape bilateral and global geopolitical history from the Cold War to the AI revolution in the 21st century. While he has attracted much public, political, and scholarly interests, especially at times of dramatic moments of US-China relations, there are still critical gaps in our reconstruction of his life choices and their broader contexts and significance. This talk aims to review the international and multi-domain attention on Qian, new revelations from recently available primary sources from both the US and China, and their meaning for our understanding of the shifting dynamics of transnational science and politics.

Co-sponsored by the Harvard Department of the History of Science and the Harvard University Asia Center’s Science and Technology in Asia seminar series.