Imagine a childhood where becoming a carpenter felt like the ultimate dream. That was the world of Xie Yimin, a shepherd from Changzhou, China.
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His journey, however, propelled him to become a globally celebrated scientist and mechanical engineer in Australia, renowned for his Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (ESO) method that transformed global design.
After a stellar career spanning decades and earning Australia’s top accolades, Xie has chosen a homecoming: leaving Down Under to return to his roots in Jiangsu, spearheading China’s future technological advancements as dean at Hohai University.
Xie was born in a poor rural area of Changzhou, Jiangsu province in eastern China, in 1963.
“When I was a child, I was a shepherd,” he recalled in an interview in 2016. “My parents were rural teachers, and one of my father’s students was a carpenter. I thought at the time that the best thing that could happen to me in my entire life was to become his apprentice and become a carpenter myself in the future.”
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He never imagined that he would leave his hometown for university, pursue studies overseas and eventually return to Changzhou.
