Forty years ago today, on February 19, 1985 (December 30, 1984 in the lunar calendar), Chinese chemist Yang Shixian passed away. Yang Shixian, whose name was Shaozeng and his character was Yixing (1896-1985), was born in Hangzhou and his ancestral home was Huaining, Anhui. He studied at Cornell University in the United States at an early age. After receiving a master's degree in 1923, he returned to China and taught at Nankai University. He went to the United States again in 1929. In 1931, he received a doctorate from Yale University. He returned to China in the same year and served as a professor at Nankai University, a professor and provost of Southwest United University. From 1945 to 1948, he went to the United States for the third time. After returning to China, he served as a professor at Nankai University, director and president of the Institute of Organic Chemistry, vice chairperson of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, chairperson of the Chinese Chemical Society, member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, representative of the National People's Congress, and member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He mainly engaged in organic chemistry, especially pesticide chemistry research and teaching. He founded the Institute of Elemental Organic Chemistry and made pioneering contributions to the research of pesticide chemistry and organophosphorus chemistry in China. Under his guidance, more than a dozen new pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, etc. were successfully developed. His main publications include "Research on Organophosphorus Insecticides", "Progress in Organophosphorus Chemistry", "Inorganic Chemistry", "Organic Chemistry