Recently, HEU alumni YE Cong from the class of 2001 was nominated to be an Ocean Scholar.

This selection was jointly sponsored by the World Oceans Day and National Marine Awareness Day Organizing Committee, the Chinese Ocean News Agency, and China Network. The key purpose was to honour the remarkable specialists who have made outstanding contributions to developing China's maritime industries, promoting ocean history and culture, and helping to spread ocean awareness. The process took four months and resulted in 10 candidates after initial screening, online voting and review by the Evaluation Committee. The final results will be published on World Oceans Day this June 8th, also known as National Marine Awareness Day.

Personal Profile

Y    E Cong works at the 702 Research Institute of the China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, where he is the Deputy Director of Underwater Engineering Design. He has been working for 13 years in the maritime industry, and he participated in the first trial applications of the Jiaolong manned submersible in 2013.

From the beginning of the Jiaolong manned submersible project, Ye Cong was the chief designer, which meant he was responsible for the layout design both during construction as well as in testing. He also trained the first team of Jiaolong pilots. Over five years he took part in the unmanned trial applications of Jiaolong at ocean depths of 1000 meters, 3000 meters, 5000 meters, and 7000 meters. Onsite he was one of the commanders, the leader of the deep submergence department, and even a pilot. His deepest submersion reached 7035 meters below the surface. He has participated in a total of 47 submergences. In May 2013, China's Manned Submergence Commendation Congress was convened, where YE Cong won the honorary title of "China's Submersible Hero". This honour was awarded by the state's central committee and is certainly a great affirmation  and wonderful reward for his ten years of group research work on Jiaolong.