Beijing Snares Top UK Physicist to Assist With Hypersonic Weapons Research

The U.S. Department of Defense launches a sounding rocket from NASA's launch range at Wallops Flight Facility carrying hypersonic weapon experiments that will inform the development of the hypersonic class of weapons, on Wallops Island, Virginia, on Oct. 26, 2022. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Beijing has reportedly lured one of the United Kingdom’s (UK) top physicists and leading experts in the fields of multiscale gas, liquids, and solid systems—critically important for hypersonic research.

Zhang Yonghao, who worked in the UK for more than 20 years in leading universities, also held the Weir Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics chair position at the University of Strathclyde.