Zhou Weishan: I am not the father of contraceptives in China

Originally published in 2008

"Scientists tend not to get senile dementia, because they are thinking about problems day and night all their lives."

-Zhou Weishan

Editor's Note: Zhou Weishan is a biochemist born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, in July 1923. He graduated from the department of pharmacy at Shanghai Medical College. In 1991, he was elected a member of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is now a researcher and doctoral advisor at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Zhou has long been engaged in research into steroid, terpene and organic synthesis. He was the first Chinese scientist to engage in the chemical research of insect pheromones. He presided over the structural determination of artemisinin, and succeeded in synthesizing it. He organized and led the synthesis and industrial production of the oral contraceptive Norgestrel.

Zhou has been called the father of contraceptives in China but he denied that he deserved such an honor. "I participated in the research into semi-synthetic, short-term effective oral steroid contraceptives No 1 and No 2, and the research into Norgestrel. These achievements were the result of group efforts," he said.

Before 1958, when China established its steroids industry, all steroid medicine was important. Now, domestically manufactured medicine has taken half of the pharmaceutical market, and about 2 million people in China have benefited from Norgestrel.

"Scientific research is a collective undertaking. We can never say that any scientific achievement is the sole contribution of one individual. I have taught many doctoral candidates and postgraduate students. They are grateful to me, but I am more grateful to them. Without them, some of my ideas could not have been put into practice. I might have ended up with no achievements to my name," Zhou said. Zhou said that academician is an honorary title given by the nation and the people, but that does not necessarily mean that one's academic level and contribution to the country are greater than those of other people. "But there is no retirement for an academician. We study all our lives and work all our lives. There is nothing superior about an academician. He is only a scientist, just like other scientists," he said.

"All my passion has been devoted to science," he said, but added that "as I am from Shaoxing I love to watch Shaoxing opera."