Tectonophysics 627 (2014) 4–5
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Tectonophysics
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Obituary
Zhongjie Zhang (1964 – 2013)
Professor Zhongjie Zhang died suddenly on 6 September 2013 in
Beijing, China. He was only 49 years old and the international geophys-
ical community has lost a talented scientist. He was a pioneer in China
for his work on seismic anisotropy and was widely known internation-
ally for his contributions on deep seismic profiling to investigate the
crustal and upper-mantle deformation, structures and evolution, partic-
ularly related to the Xizang-Qinghai (Tibet) Plateau and surrounding
areas in western China.
Zhongjie was born on 4 April 1964 in a small village in Hengyang
County, Hunan Province in south China. He received his BSc (1985),
MSc (1988) and PhD (1991), all in Geophysics from the Changchun Geo-
logical College (later Changchun University of Sciences and Technology,
now part of Jilin University, Jilin Province). While in Changchun, he was
a long-distance runner who represented the university in provincial com-
petition. In 1991 he went to Beijing, to the Institute of Geophysics (now
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, IGG) of the Chinese Academy of Sci-
ences (CAS) as a postdoc under the supervision of Academician Professor
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2013.09.023
Jiwen Teng. He had short sabbaticals at Imperial College (Londong, UK),
British Geological Survey, United States Geological Survey, Stanford
University (USA) and University of Zaragoza (Spain), with his base at
the IGGCAS. He was promoted to associate professor (1993) and soon
after to full professor (1994), and was one of the youngest full professors
in China at that time. Eventually he became deputy director of the State
Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, located at IGGCAS.
Zhongjie made significant contributions to both applied geophysics
and global seismology. His work spanned a wide spectrum of topics
from seismic anisotropy, multicomponent seismology, nonlinear seis-
mic waves, poro-elasticity, seismic scattering and wave propagation in
complex and anisotropic media including numerical simulations to
global plate tectonics, and study of the structure and evolution of the
lithosphere. He published over 150 research papers (including over
100 in international SCI journals) and 4 books (selected publication
list in Supplementary Table 1). Zhongjie's work on applied geophysics
was summarized in 2 monographs: Wave Propagation in Transversely
Isotropic Media (with Qiaodeng He, 1996) and Multicomponent Seismic
Data Processing and Interpretation (2002). He was also one of the main
Chinese translators of Robert Sheriff's classic textbook “Applied Geophys-
ics”. His other 2 monographs are Physics of the Lithosphere (with Jiwen
Teng, 2004) and Crustal and Upper-Mantle Deformation and Evolution
of Tibet Regions (with Zengqian Hou, 2008).
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was among the first geophysi-
cists in China to promote the use of seismic anisotropy and shear-wave
splitting to characterize hydrocarbon reservoirs as well as to study
crustal and upper-mantle structures (his PhD thesis was on wave prop-
agation in anisotropic media including numerical modeling, under the
supervision of Professor Qiaodeng He in Changchun). Zhongjie together
with Professor Teng and their research group, carried out many wide-
angle seismic experiments. He also re-analyzed the data from older
wide-angle deep seismic experiments in Tibet, including the Sino-
French and the INDEPTH (International Deep Profiling of Tibet and the
Himalaya) transects. Zhongjie most recently was a task leader for the
ongoing SINOPROBE program, acquiring and analyzing both wide-
angle and dense passive broadband seismic transects.
His work helped elucidate the deformation of thinned lithosphere in
northern China and provided new understanding of how Mesozoic dis-
ruption of the North China Craton occurred through underplating-
triggered lower-crustal flow of the Archean lithosphere. His significant
scientific contributions also shed light on the evolution of the South
China plate, crustal rheology and structure of the Tethyan Himalaya in
southern Tibet, the geodynamic model of the transition zone between
East Tibet and the Sichuan Basin, and the accommodation mechanisms
of the transition zone between southeastern Tibet, South China and
the Indochina block. Zhongjie and his group used seismic anisotropy
to study geodynamics of the Dabie Shan orogenic belt. The article titled
“Crustal-upper mantle seismic velocity structure across Southeastern
China”, published in 2005 in Tectonophysics, was the “Most Cited
 E. Liu et al. / Tectonophysics 627 (2014) 4–5 5

Article 2005-2010”. Recently, he investigated crustal anisotropy, rheolo- in various places abroad (in recent years he was guest lecturer in a PhD
gy and geodynamics of the eastern margin of Tibet and surrounding re- program at the University of Granada in Spain). Zhongjie was an inspir-
gions by measuring Moho-converted Ps-wave splitting which resulted ing and generous colleague who will be warmly remembered by his stu-
in his key paper on the conspicuous clockwise rotation around the dents, postdocs, collaborators and colleagues. Throughout his career he
eastern Himalayan syntaxis published this year published in Gondwana received (always with humility) many professional honors and presti-
Research. Much of this work is summarized in Zhongjie's 2 excellent re- gious national awards for his leadership and for his significant scientific
view papers published in 2011 in Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (“An contributions. Shortly before his unexpected death, Zhongjie successful-
overview of the crustal structures of the Tibetan plateau after 35 years of ly passed the second round of the race to become an Academician of the
deep seismic soundings”) and in Earth Science Reviews (“An overview of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
the earth crust under China”). More recently, Zhongjie and his students Family and friends, colleagues and collaborators all around the
developed topography-dependent eikonal equation for wavefield simu- world will all miss Zhongjie's warm-hearted smile and the convivial
lation in elastic media with an irregular surface (an excellent paper pub- hospitality he offered in Beijing. His death was received with great
lished this year in Geophysical Journal International), which can be used shock by his friends and colleagues worldwide, and China has lost an
as a powerful tool for accurate seismic exploration and computational outstanding scientist with a global perspective.
seismic modeling on crustal scale.
Zhongjie directed or coordinated 9 major national research programs Appendix A. Supplementary data
since 1997, which involve researchers from many organizations all
over China. He was instrumental in ensuring the success of those ex- Supplementary data to this article can be found online at http://dx.
tremely difficult, and often very challenging projects in remote parts of doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2013.09.023.
west China on the Tibet Plateau. He was also a very active member in
professional societies. He organized several international workshops
Enru Liu
and symposia, notably the 12th International Workshop on Seismic
ExxonMobil Upstream Research, Houston, TX, USA
Anisotropy (2006), and the 15th International Symposium on Deep Seis-
Corresponding author.
mic Profiling of the Continents and their Margins (Seismix 2012). He was
E-mail address: eliu0103@hotmail.com
the vice-chair of the Crustal Investigation Section of the Chinese Seismo-
logical Society; vice-chair of the Continental Geodynamics Section of
Yun Chen
the Chinese Geophysical Society, and served on the editorial boards of
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China
Science China – Earth Sciences; Chinese Science Bulletin; Chinese Journal
E-mail address: yunchen@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
of Geophysics; Journal of Geophysics and Engineering (UK), and Journal
of Seismic Exploration (France). Zhongjie was the editor or co-editor of
Dinghui Yang
several special issues in international journals, including Journal of
Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China
Seismology, Tectonophysics and Journal of Seismic Exploration.
Zhongjie and his group collaborated enthusiastically and unselfishly
Jose Badal
with multiple research groups in China, Europe and USA. Among
University of Zaragoza, Spain
Zhongjie's over 150 published papers and 4 monographs, he was the
sole author of only one. Zhongjie was proud to comment on more
Simon Klemperer
than 1 occasion that he promoted teamwork, and liked to collaborate
Stanford University, CA, USA
with different people. This unselfish character also exemplifies
Zhongjie's ability as an educator. He was the supervisor/advisor of
over 50 MSc and PhD students and post-docs. He developed his teaching