Forty years ago today, on June 11, 1985 (April 23, 1985, the lunar calendar), Zou Bingwen, a China agriculturalist and educator, passed away. Zou Bingwen (1893-1985), originally from Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, was a pioneer in plant pathology education in China. He received a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Cornell University in the United States in 1915 and returned to China in 1916. In the autumn of 1927, he was appointed as the principal of Henan Public Agricultural Specialized School. In 1946, the University of Michigan awarded an honorary doctorate. He has successively served as Professor of Plant Pathology and Botany at Jinling University, Director of Agriculture at Nanjing Normal University and National Southeast University, Dean of the School of Agriculture at Nanjing Central University, Director of Shanghai Commodity Inspection Bureau, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Commercial Bank, Acting Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Finance of China, First Chief Representative of China to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Vice Chairman of the Preparatory Committee of FAO, Senior Advisor and Representative of the Ministry of Agriculture of Nanjing Government to the United States. Chinese head of the China-US Agricultural Technology Cooperation Group. 1942-1948 In 1929, he served as chairman of the Chinese Agricultural Society and initiated the establishment of China Plant Pathology Society. In 1948, he went to the United States to serve as chairman of Hechang Company in New York (operated by overseas Chinese). In 1956, at the call of Premier Zhou Enlai of the Government Council of the People's Republic of China, he returned to China and served as a first-level professor as an adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Higher Education. He devoted his life to the development of agricultural education and science and technology in China. He was the first professor in China to teach plant pathology and compiled textbooks for the first time. During his tenure as director of agriculture at Nanjing Normal University, he advocated that agricultural universities must establish a new system that combines teaching, research and promotion, and put forward important suggestions for agricultural education in China. He was also an important promoter of modern cotton planting and agricultural product inspection in China. He took the lead in establishing the Cotton Production Improvement and Promotion Committee at the Agricultural Science of Southeast University, established the Shanghai Commodity Inspection Bureau, and supported the national agricultural improvement agency with a large amount of bank funds. In 1949, he accepted the government's entrustment to purchase and transport a large number of excellent cotton seeds. He made important contributions to modern agricultural education, science and technology, and agricultural and livestock product inspection in China. As early as 1915, while studying in the United States, he and his classmates studying in the United States, Ren Hongjun, Guo Tanxian, Yang Xingfo, Mao Yisheng, etc. initiated the organization of the China Science Society and compiled and printed the (Science) Monthly, which is the earliest academic group and influential academic journal in natural sciences in China. During his lifetime, Premier Zhou Enlai praised him, Yang Xingfo and Mao Yisheng as the "Three Heroes of Southeast Asia"(the three of them were respectively directors of agriculture, commerce and engineering at Southeast University in the early years).