Deng Xuejun was born in 1937 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He studied dynamics of interaction system between cars and the ground since 1964. He has published more than 130 papers in domestic and foreign journals and academic conferences, together with 10 monographs, textbooks and translations.
After graduating from Department of Civil Engineering of Nanjing Institute of Technology in 1960, he stayed on as a teacher. In 1981, he went to University of Kentucky to study abroad. After returning to China in 1983, he was served as the director of Teaching and Research Section of Southeast University, the director of the Institute, and the vice president of School of Transportation. He was also the conveyor of Transportation Engineering Discipline Review Group, which belongs to the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council.Now he is a professor and doctoral tutor. In May 2017, the Second Transportation Research Conference (TRC) awarded him Lifetime Achievement Award for his unparalleled reputation in the field of road traffic in China. He is also regarded as the leading figure of rigid pavement, asphalt pavement structure and materials research in road and bridge industry.
In the high-end interview session of the “2017 China (Nanjing) Green Road Technology and Management Workshop” sponsored by the Highway Doctors College, Deng was asked “what makes you most proud of in your life”, and he said, Reviewing my life,the thing that made myself most proud of is that I have cultivated 2 academicians, 44 doctors and 78 masters. Now through their own efforts, they have grown into the backbone of China's transportation industry. This is what I am most proud of as an ordinary teacher!” Huang Wei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Lai Yuanming, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are his students; the construction of Nanjing South Railway Station, the largest transportation hub in Asia, was under the guidance of an expert group headed by him; countless students majored in transportation are still learning the materials he has written... However he merely said: I am just an ordinary teacher.
During the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan period, China's transportation development is in the transitional period of supporting the comprehensive construction of a well-off society and the key stage of optimizing the network layout together with upgrading equality and efficiency. In viewing of entering a new stage of modernization in the promising future, Deng has his own opinions on the technological development direction of the industry. Some of Deng’s high-rise insights have been specially excerpted as below.
“Highway construction itself is a social issue, not a mere technical issue. It involves all aspects and all-encompassing.”
“In the field of traffic construction in China, after more than 30 years of exploration and practice, the norms have been quite perfect and constantly updated, but the actual implementation of the provinces in accordance with the requirements of the norms is very different.”
“There are three problems: lacking of responsibility; the promotion of technology is not strong enough; and the supervision of the system is not strict and perfect.”
“The weak part of engineering education in China is in practice.”
“In China, the real power of research is in business. The central government has always emphasized the strength of scientific research and the real promotion of productivity in the enterprise, rather than relying solely on research. The enterprise itself is the first line of production and it knows what to study in the first line and what problems to solve. Therefore, it is vital to study with the enterprise and research.”
“Road maintenance technology should be continuously improved, as president Xi said greatly, reform has no end. Reform is constantly improving.”
“The US road economy, road construction and scientific research are indeed very advanced, but they were not the most developed at the beginning. Around 1920, the most developed road technology was in France, Europe, and the United States did not develop this field at that time. Then they sent people to France for studying, and after introducing the French experience, they added their own research and many new achievements were made under a large number of practices.”
“China is now in the midst of the United States in the 1930s and 1940s – a large number of roads, building and actively helping to build roads abroad. In the future, the Highway Science and Technology Center is in China. This is inevitable, not a dream.”
“In the clothing, food, housing and transportation which is inseparable for the common people, the field we are engaged in is transportation. As one of them, everyone should be proud because we are using our own efforts to continuously promote the progress of human development.”