On December 15, Zhao Zisen, a fiber optical communications expert and a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician, died in Wuhan, Hubei Province at the age of 91.

With Shiqi, Zhongshan as his native place, Zhao was born in Shanghai on February 4, 1932. Between 1949 and 1953, he studied successively at the Department of Agrochemistry of National Chekiang University, the Department of Electrical Engineering of Utopia University, and the Department of Telecommunications of Chiao Tung University.

Zhao was the first to map out the correct technical route of "producing optical fibers with quartz, using semiconductor lasers as light sources, and making communicators by digital coding" in China, and had stuck to it ever since. In 1995, he was elected a CAE academician. He was a key founder and recognized pioneer of China's fiber optical communication technology, and was known as "the father of Chinese fiber optics".