Brief Account of Professor Zeng Zhaoxuan

Professor Zeng Zhaoxuan A portrait of Professor Zeng Zhaoxuan (drawn by Professor Hu Minggao, Dean of Department of Geography, McMaster University of Canada, the background is Mt. Danxia)

    Zeng Zhaoxuan was born in Dec. 1921. He obtained from Zhongshan University the degree of Bachelor of Geography in 1943, and the degree of Master of Anthropology in 1946. He was the Professor and Acting Dean in Guangdong Provincial College of Arts and Science, Dean of Geographic Department in South China Normal University, Guest professor in Zhongshan University, member of the 6th chinese people’s political Consultative Conference, member of a council in China Society of Geography, Ancient Capital Society, and Society of History of Natural Science, honorary member of a council in Coast and River Mouth Society, honorary president of Geomorphologic Research Society, permanent member of Geological Society of China, and honorary committee member of Quaternary Research Society of Chinese Academy of? Sciences.? He supervised the publication of an academic journal Tropical Geomor-phology for more than 20 years, and published more than 20 monographs of which 4 are in English, and exceeding 200 papers. He, is a specialist enjoying a Government Special Allo-wance every month.
    Prof. Zeng Zhaoxuan attaches due importance to the role played by material in geomorphologic develo-pment. He is the forerun-ner and representative in the Research ?field of petrographic geomor-phology in China.? Star-ting from the 1940s, he studied the red beds of northern Guang-dong and their geomorphologic
expressions from a geological and petrological point of view, and has published many papers in relation to red beds of southeas-tern China and to Danxia geomor-phology. In 1960, he published a book Rock Topography, and in 1981, cooperated with Huang Shaomin, he wrote the part "Red bed geomorphology, granite geomorphology" in a voluminous series? Natural Geography—Geomorphology of China, in which he deals systematically with? the rock features, tectonic disturbance and exogenetic action of China’s red beds and Danxia geomor-phology, classifies the Danxia geomorphology deve-loped in red sandstone into 5 basic types, and discusses ?the role played by rock structure and exogenetic action in the develop-ment of Danxia geomorphology, thereby opening up a new orientation in China for the research of Danxia geomorphology.? He is the chief founder of Danxia geomorphologic research in China.