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Professor Enbo Wang was a distinguished inorganic chemist, educator, national ethics model soldier, winner of the medal to “celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China”, honorary professor and doctoral tutor at Northeast Normal University. He passed away at 20:50 on September 27, 2019 in Changchun at the age of 85, due to the illness.

Prof. Enbo Wang was born on June 28, 1934 in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province. From August 1953 to July 1957, he studied at the Department of Chemistry of Northeast Normal University. After the graduation in 1957, he stayed in the university to teach in the post of the director of the inorganic chemistry teaching and research office, and the member of the school administration committee of northeast normal university. From September 1958 to April 1961, he was selected for further study by the Jilin Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Second Institute of the Institute of Atomic Energy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In December 1978, he was appointed as a lecturer, in July 1983, he was promoted to associate professor, and in July 1985, he was promoted to be a professor. In 1989 and 1992, he went to lecture at the University of Tokyo in Japan. From December 1990 to October 1991, he went to the Department of Chemistry of Georgetown University for collaborative research in the United States. In 1992, he received a special allowance from the State council government. In 1993, he was approved as a doctoral tutor. He has served as a member of the Inorganic Chemistry Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society, and a member of the editorial board of China’s Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, International Coordination Chemistry and the Board of the Journal of Cluster Science. He was chosen as the young and middle-aged expert with outstanding contributions at the national level, an advanced scientific and technological worker of the national higher education institutions, and an outstanding Communist Party member of Changchun City.

Prof. Enbo Wang imparted knowledge and educated people for 62 years, and practiced the Party’s educational policy throughout his life. He always maintained his original goals and mission of educating talents for the Party and the country, and was a model for moral education in colleges and universities. He used practical actions to educate teachers and students to persevere, never give up, unite and cooperate, and dare to be the first. He paid attention to team building in his work, supported the younger generation, was willing to be a leader, and helped his colleagues in the field of inorganic chemistry in China sincerely and selflessly. He respected students, tolerated differences, gave his sincere love and care, and taught students to be learners and teachers. Prof. Enbo Wang has cultivated more than 150 Doctor and master graduate students who hold positions all over the world, and two of them won the national excellent doctoral thesis, many of them have been selected for the Chang Jiang Scholars Program; The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars and other talent projects.

Prof. Enbo Wang devoted all his life to research the Polyoxometalate chemistry in China. He was the initiator of China’s Polyoxometalate Chemistry Conference and the main initiator of the International Pan Pacific Chemistry Conference, had been long committed to the basic and applied research of Polyoxometalate chemistry, and had opened up multiple research directions of Polyoxometalate chemistry. He had published more than 1000 academic papers and was a “highly cited scientist” in the world. He had presided over more than 50 projects, including the National 1035 Engineering New Drug Project, National “Eighth-Five Plan” and “Ninth-Five Plan” Major Scientific and Technological Projects, National 863 Project, National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Ministry of Education Major Projects, National-level Torch Project and so on. Prof. Enbo Wang edited “Introduction of Polyoxometalate chemistry”, “Polyoxometalate chemistry”, “Conspectus of Polyoxometalate chemistry” and “Conspectus of Modern Inorganic Chemistry”, translated “Isopoly–Heteropoly polyoxometallate”, as well as participated in writing “Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry”, “High-Speed Development of Chinese Chemistry (1982–2012)”, “National Inorganic Chemistry Series, Volume 13: Inorganic Reaction Kinetics”, “Progress in Coordination Chemistry”, “Decade Progress of Chinese Solid State Chemistry” and a series of books. He had won the Second prize of National Natural Science, the Third prize for National Invention, the First prize of the Natural Science Award for the Scientific Research Outstanding Achievement Award of Ministry of Education institutions of Higher Learning, the Golden Dragon Award of the National Economic Committee, the First prize for the Science and Technology Progress of Jilin Province, National “Eighth-Five Plan” Major Research Award, the Third National Invention Exhibition Gold Award and many other awards.

Prof. Enbo Wang actively promoted the development of chemistry in our school. Under his leadership, in 1993, the major of inorganic chemistry was entitled to confer doctor’s degree. In 2003, chemistry discipline had been awarded first-level discipline doctoral degree. In 2006, inorganic chemistry was approved as the Key Laboratory of Polyoxometalate Science of Ministry of Education. In 2017, the chemistry of our school entered the national first-class construction discipline, which made our school one of the international Polyoxometalate chemistry research centers.

Prof. Enbo Wang devoted his heart to the Party and the country, regarded the honor of Northeast Normal University as a treasure, and was also concerned about discipline, construction and school development during his serious illness. His unfortunate death was a great loss for China’s educational and academic circles, but also a great loss for Northeast Normal University. We must turn our grief into strength, inherit his unfulfilled ambition, and make unremitting efforts to promote the innovation of Polyoxometalate chemistry and inorganic chemistry in China and the development of socialist education with Chinese characteristics in the new era!

We mourn the death of Professor Enbo Wang with great sorrow!

We shall forevermore cherish the memory of Professor Enbo Wang!

Weilin Chen

October 15, 2019