Professor Xiang-Tong Zhang (Hsiang-Tung Chang), academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Honorary Director of the Institute of Neuroscience, CAS, passed away at 15:45 hours on November 4th, 2007, in Shanghai at the age of 101.

Professor Zhang was born in Zhengding, Hebei Province and graduated from Department of Psychology of Beijing University in 1933. He received his graduate training in neurophysiology under Professor John Fulton at Yale University and received his Ph.D in 1946. He was a faculty member at Yale University (1948-52) and Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (1952-56), before joining Shanghai Institute of Physiology, CAS in 1957. He was the founding Director (1980-84) and Honorary Director (1984-99) of Shanghai Brain Research Institute of CAS.

Professor Zhang is a world-renowned neurophysiologist and a founding father of neuroscience research in China, and had trained a large number of students, who became leading neuroscientists in many Chinese institutions. He is internationally recognized for his pioneering work in the field of dendritic physiology, and for his research on the cortico-thalamic circuits, the representation map of body muscles in the monkey cerebral cortex, and the classification of afferent nerve fibers from the muscles. During 1960s-70s, Professor Zhang was also one of the leading scientists in the research of neural mechanisms underlying acupuncture analgesia and anesthesia in China.

A memorial service will be held at 10:00 AM on Sunday, November 11th, 2007 in Long-Hua Funeral Home. All telegrams, letters and telephones of condolences should be sent to the Office of Institute of Neuroscience:
Mr. Guo-Yang Xie, Mrs. Su-Rong Huang and Mrs. Ai-Qin Wang
320 Yue Yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China
Phone: 021-5492 1712；021-5492 1729；021-5492 1738
Fax: 021-5492 1735
E-mail：hsurong@ion.ac.cn