The world's largest loess deposits are found in northern China's Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Over the past centuries, they have fed the local people with abundant resources, but they have also produced endless sandstorms. Meanwhile, Liu Dongsheng, a highly experienced scholar at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and geologist, has dedicated 60 years of his life to the research of loess soil. Liu is now 87 and shows no sign of quitting.

On February 20, Liu Dongsheng won five million yuan along with the Supreme Scientific and Technological Award, the top honor for scientists in China. At the awards ceremony, the host said that Liu had made remarkable contributions to a number of theories concerning the changes of the global environment resulting from his research of China's loess soil. His work has made China a world leader in the researches of Quaternary and environmental geology.

Geologists believe there are three reliable sources of past environmental information: deep-sea sediments, arctic ice cores, and fine-grained dust. Since 1804, there have been two explanations of loess formation: the Aeolian and the hydrogenic. Beginning in the 1950s, Liu Dongsheng conducted countless investigations in the wilderness. From this work and test analysis, he proposed a brand-new theory, called New Aeolian, in his books, The Loess Soil on the Middle Reaches of the Yellow River, and The Upbuilding of the Loess Soil in China.

"The Aeolian actually works during the whole process of the loess-soil formation," he says, "instead of on top of the loess plateau. It works at every step of the formation, including the origin, removal, deposit, and post-deposit."

This theory has laid a solid foundation for the studies in the environment. Liu and his team have tried all the methods available, such as ancient magnetic survey examination and isotopic analysis, to put the loess deposition in order. They have made comparisons with abyssal deposit order, thus linking China's loess soil with the environmental changes on earth and making it the most important data for the records of ancient climate changes.

"We have lived on the yellow earth for generations," Liu says, "and the land is a huge geological data base, collecting information on all environmental changes on earth, which can uncover many mysteries of nature." To let the loess soil talk, Liu has spent 60 years trekking across the Loess Plateau, hunting for answers in more than 1,000-kilometer-long section planes. It was not unusual to see Liu stay overnight in the wilderness, measuring gullies and ditches with his feet.

Since 1964, Liu has focused on the rise of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and environmental evolution in East Asia, opening a new path in environmental studies by joining the research of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Loess Plateau as well as the evolution of the lithosphere and that of the global surface sphere.

His research is well regarded by scientists around the world, and, his colleagues say, he deserves it. In 2002, Liu won the Tayler Environmental Prize, the top prize for scientists who have made major contributions to the discovery and solution of problems concerning the environment.

In 1991, 74-year-old Liu joined the Chinese scientific team investigating the South Pole, where he stayed for one month. Five years later, he went to Svalbard at the North Pole for glacier investigation. In 2001, 84-year-old Liu spent more than one month on a scientific ship on the South China Sea. In his home is a picture of Liu standing in front of the Potala Palace taken during his research in Tibet.

"I didn't mean to set a record for the investigation of natural sciences in China," Liu says, "but the geological features require my investigations on site. I won't stop until my legs can no longer carry me."

Background on the Supreme Scientific and Technological Award

The Supreme Scientific and Technological Award, China's national top science and technology award, is granted to no more than two scientists, in accordance with the National Awarding Regulations on Science and Technology. Each award winner receives a check for five million yuan. Candidates are strictly appraised by a committee consisting of 15 to 20 distinguished scientists, headed by the minister of Science and Technology. The election is conducted through a disclosed ballot, and it is not effective unless passed by two-thirds of the members in attendance.

Liu Dongsheng in a discussion with his colleagues.

In 1980, Liu Dongsheng led his investigation team in the Yarlung Zangbo River region on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

(China Pictorial April 23, 2004)