Ma Yuhua (1912-1996)
Ma Yuhua was born in 1912 in Haifeng County, Guangdong Province. In the spring of 1930, he came to Nanjing to study at the College of Agriculture in the University of Nanking. He majored in Agronomy and minored in Plant Pathology. On graduation, he remained at the university as a teacher. In 1945, he went to the University of Illinois in the United States to pursue his master’s and doctoral degrees. In 1950, in response to the call of his motherland, he broke through the resistance, returned to China and began his research at the Soybean Research Institute in Nanjing Agricultural University.
At the time, research on quantitative genetics abroad was more systematic than in China in terms of biostatistics and field trial techniques. He thus attempted to introduce these studies systematically to China by editing and publishing the state-compiled textbook for agricultural majors on Field Trials and Statistical Methods. He selected a number of new soybean varieties with high and stable yields by combining soybean germplasm resources with breeding for applied research.
Mr. Ma Yuhua often said, “A person’s ideological and moral character not only depends on one’s spirit of patriotism and love for the cause he is engaged in but also on his respect for the achievements of his predecessors, unity with his peers and willingness to help his juniors." As Academician Gai Junyi said, his patriotism, academic attitude and personality will always inspire future generations.
The statue of Mr. Ma Yuhua was erected in May 2002 and is currently located in the ground floor lobby of the Science Building. Mr. Ma was not only a famous crop geneticist and soybean scientist, but also a rigorous agricultural educator who made important contributions to the development of higher agricultural education and soybean science in China. For more than half a century, he worked hard in the field of soybean research, producing not only fruitful research results, but also generations of agronomic talents.