Ding Ying

Ding Ying (1888 to 1964) was a Chinese agronomist who served as the first president of South China Agricultural College and the first president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Born in Gaozhou County, Guangdong, the son of a farmer, he studied in Japan three times and in 1921 entered the department of agriculture of Tokyo Imperial University, where he was the first Chinese student of rice cultivation, graduating in 1924. Back in China he became a professor of agriculture at Guangdong University, and in 1927 donated part of his savings to found the first rice research institute in China and helped build experimental campuses to select superior seed and improve cultivation, which aided rice production in south China. After 1949 he was dean of agriculture at Sun Yat-sen University, in 1952 first president of South China Agricultural College and in 1957 inaugural president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He became a founding academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955, and a Guangdong science and technology prize carries his name.