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Zhu Kezhen [Photo/sx.gov.cn]

Zhu Kezhen (1890-1974) was a Chinese patriotic educationist, meteorologist and geographer. Born in Dongguan town in Shaoxing (now Shaoxing's Shangyu district), Zhejiang province, Zhu went to the United States for his college education in 1910. He graduated from the College of Agriculture, University of Illinois in 1913. In 1918, he received his PhD in meteorology from Harvard University.

In 1927, he was invited by Cai Yuanpei to Nanjing to set up a meteorological research institute and served as its first director. He successively carried out high-altitude exploration, radio meteorological broadcasting and established the Nanjing Beijige meteorological observatory, laying a solid foundation for China's meteorological undertakings.

In 1936, Zhu Kezhen became president of Zhejiang University, advocating academic freedom and professorial governance. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Zhu set up the institute of geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (now the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS).