served as President of BIPT. In April 1985, he published an article in the official journal Red Flag advocating the modernization of China's telecommunications industry. In 1988, Ye and fellow academician Zhang Xu published a report that advised the breakup of the monopoly that the Ministry of Posts and Communications held in China's telecommunications industry. It was highly controversial at the time and many thought it would threaten Ye's career, as the BIPT was directly controlled by the ministry. However, the Chinese government adopted their proposal and created shareholding companies to operate the country's telecommunications networks. With the support of Wang Daheng, Ma Dayou and other academicians, Ye successfully lobbied the national government to include telecommunications in the 863 Program, which funded the development of China's high-tech industries. Ye served as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from 1965 until 1993. Ye died on 16 January 2011 in Beijing, at the age of 95. Scientific contributions Ye oversaw the design and installation of China's first 100-kilowatt broadcast transmitter and its largest rhombic antenna network. He was the first Chinese scientist to research microwave communication in 1956, and later created China's first phase rectifier and direct coupling filter for microwave waveguide. In 1964, he pioneered the research of free-space optical communication in China. After 1978, he focussed on the research of fiber-optic communication and made a series of significant discoveries that reduced noise and interference in fiber-optic transmission. He published more than 400 papers and five monographs. Ye was a pioneering educator of telecommunications in China. Over a career spanning more than 60 years, he taught more than 5,000 students and advised over 70 doctoral and master's students. Two of his books were widely used as textbooks in Chinese universities. Honours and recognition In 1980, Ye was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1988 and an Outstanding Fellow in 1997. In 2000, he became an IEEE Life Fellow and was awarded the Third Millennium Medal of IEEE. He was elected Governor of the International Council for Computer Communications (ICCC) in 1993. Ye received numerous national and ministerial prizes for his research, as well as the Ho Leung Ho Lee Prize for Technological Sciences. He received an IEEE citation for "pioneering contribution to telecommunications engineering education in China" and an ICCC citation for "contributions made to international computer