After more than 20 years in Britain as a prominent physicist dedicated to unveiling the secrets of superfast fluids, Zhang Yonghao has joined China’s new national hypersonic laboratory in Beijing.

The Chinese government hired Zhang as a top-tier expert from overseas to lead an innovation team at the national key laboratory of science and technology on aerothermodynamics in hypersonic flight at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Mechanics.

According to the institute’s website, Zhang’s team will develop advanced computational methods and models for simulating gases’ behaviour at high speeds and temperatures crucial in making hypersonic vehicles more efficient and effective.

Their investigation into high-temperature aerodynamic and thermal effects on materials is crucial because hypersonic vehicles must withstand extreme temperatures and pressures during flight.

In 2022, the investigations led to a record number of scientists and postgraduate students being barred from working in Britain for national security reasons.

The Guardian reported in March that the Foreign Office’s vetting programme rejected more than 1,000 people in 2022, up from just 13 individuals in 2016.

While these measures are designed to safeguard research and development, they threaten to dampen scientific collaboration and innovation, particularly in areas where China is a leading player, warned some academics and experts in Britain.

Zhang graduated from an obscure college in southern China that trained students to repair agriculture machinery in the 1990s before working as a computational scientist at Daresbury Laboratory in Britain in the early 2000s.

He established himself as a leading expert in multiscale fluid mechanics. His research has focused on understanding multiscale and multiphysical flow physics through theoretical and computational studies, which is an area of growing importance in fields such as aerospace engineering, energy production and environmental science.

Zhang chaired the executive board of the International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics in 2018 as a chair professor at Strathclyde University.

By 2020, he was appointed chair professor at the University of Edinburgh.

In Britain, a chair professorship is typically the highest academic rank that can be achieved. It is a prestigious title awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to their field of research and who are recognised as leaders in their discipline.

It remains unclear why Zhang terminated his professorship in Edinburgh in less than two years, but some Chinese scientists believe the growing anti-China sentiment in Britain might not be the only reason for his return to China.

“It is not uncommon for established scholars to move between institutions or countries to pursue new research opportunities or advance their careers,” said a Beijing-based physicist who also studied high-speed fluids but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Westerners racists sabotaging themselves, love to see it. Also random Chinese guy graduates from backwater university and becomes one of the world's leading expert in his field 20 years later.