BS Northwestern University, CHINA Sept 1956- Sept 1960
PhD Yale University, USA Sept 1991- May 1994
1939-1960
JiLong Rao was born in May 1939 in Hong Kong and raised in Beijing from 1940. At age eleven, he served as chairman of the International Children’s Day celebrations in Wuhan in 1950 and remained a principal organizer of youth activities in the city until age seventeen. Starting in his sophomore year, the CCP branded him as an anti-party, anti-socialist Rightist, leading to forced labor in coal mines and jungles for much of the period between 1957 and 1960, but his student status was retained.
Insights from the tumultuous years of youth: After seven years as an influential student leader, he was suddenly thrown into an abyss of hardship. His efforts, once devoted to national revitalization, became evidence of alleged crimes. Yet over the ensuing years, this ordeal, while profoundly painful, gradually liberated him from earlier confusion, grief, and indignation, launching a lifelong pursuit of observation and introspection into the cultural distortions that most gravely endanger human civilization.
1960-1980
In the fall of 1960, Rao, who was still labeled a “rightist”, was unexpectedly hired by the University of Science and Technology of China… In 1979, Science Press published his book Thermodynamics in Geochemistry (448,000 words) in Beijing that was written in secret during the Cultural Revolution. This publication caused a tremendous sensation in China.
An awakening of life sparked by negentropy: Upon entering USTC, he immediately began exploring developments in Western academia regarding the application of thermodynamic theory to the study of geological processes. During the bloody Cultural Revolution, he would often hide in laboratories or the basements of libraries late into the night to continue his research. Although his works were written in Chinese, the academic framework he constructed highlights the rigorous beauty of thermodynamics and integrates Western scholarly achievements, primarily through the advanced mathematics that has been fully understood and embraced by the Western scientific community. This accomplishment paved the way for his subsequent appointments at two top North American universities in 1984 and 1990. Drawing on this academic background and his study of the philosophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi, he embraced Erwin Schrödinger’s profound insight: that life relies on a mechanism of “self- education” to maintain negative entropy, thereby counteracting the disorder caused by the natural increase of entropy. This perspective formed the cornerstone of his lifelong attitude toward confronting adversity.
1980-1990
Academic positions included: Professor at USTC and its Beijing Graduate School (1980–1989); Chairman of the Department of Environmental Science at Qingdao University (1985–1988); Professor at the Beijing Graduate School and Beijing Institute of Management, Chinese Academy of Sciences (1985–1989); and visiting professor at the University of Toronto (1984–1985). He also served as chief scientist for the Chinese side in a France–China joint program on global environmental modeling (1985–1989).
Introspection after the mirage disappears: As a political pariah, he confronted tyranny armed with academic achievements earned through years of arduous effort under immense pressure and secured limited dignity and freedom. In Canada, studying the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights led him to where he could realize his dreams. Through a unique health lifestyle, he has avoided paralysis that might otherwise have resulted from a severe spinal injury sustained during forced labor in youth. The June 4th massacre of 1989 shattered his illusions about mainland China, making him seek an effective way toward true freedom.
1990-Present
From 1990 to 1997, Rao served as a research scientist at Yale University, supported by NSF and DOE grants. He subsequently worked as a senior developer and architect at IT firms in Boston and California (1997–2009). His research encompassed geochemical cycles, global environmental modeling, thermodynamic applications in earth and environmental sciences, error propagation in geochemical calculations, and elemental abundance in the Earth’s crust, et al.
An observation and historical reflection in mature life: While integrating himself into the realms of Western natural science and technology, he drew upon his lifelong experiences and applied that same rigorous professional spirit to examine the profound crisis of civilization……
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