Zhang Qinglian was a chemist. He was a native of Changshu, Jiangsu Province. Zhang was a member of the Communist Party of China. He graduated from the Department of Chemistry of Kwang Hua University in Shanghai in 1930. The year 1934 saw his graduation from the Graduate School of Tsinghua University. In 1936, he received his doctoral degree awarded by the Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany. He served successively as an associate researcher of the Institute of Chemistry of the Central Research Institute, a professor of Kwang Hua University, the National Southwest Associated University, Tsinghua University and Peking University. He concurrently worked as the director of the Department of Chemistry of Peking University, the deputy director of the Department of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first president of the Chinese Society of Mass Spectrometry, and the leader of the Stable Isotope Group of the State Commission of Science and Technology. Zhang was a pioneer and founder of chemical studies on heavy water and stable isotopes in China. He long engaged himself in inorganic chemistry, especially the chemical studies of isotopes and heavy water. Most of his research results were summarized in “Fifty Years’ Research of Isotopic Chemistry” (1985) and “Another Decade’s research of Isotopic Chemistry” (1996), which made significant contributions to the research and production of various light isotopes in our country. Wang conducted systematic precise measurement of atomic weights since the 1990s. Nine atomic weights Wang and his team determined, including that of antimony, have been recognized as the new international standard data (1991—2001) by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. His honors included a second prize of the National Natural Science Award, a first prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award issued by the State Education Commission, and a Science and Technology Progress Award issued by the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation. He was the chief editor of the book series “Inorganic Chemistry” and published Collected Essays of Zhang Qinglian. In 1955, Zhang was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Member of the CAS).