Province Sichuan | ||
Address Youxian, Mianyang, Sichuan, China | ||
China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP) (Chinese: 中国工程物理研究院, nicknamed 九院) is founded in October, 1958. It is the research and manufacturing center of Chinese nuclear weapons.
CAEP was initially located in Beijing. Its major departments were later relocated to Qinghai Province. In 1970, the major components moved to Sichuan Province. The Academy was formerly named Ninth Institute of Second Ministry of Mechanical Industry, and Ninth Institute of Ministry of Nuclear Industry. It was later renamed CAEP. In China, the Ninth Institute is still well recognized.
Its headquarters is in the 839 area of Mianyang, which covers a land area of 5 km2. It's nicknamed Scientific Town. It has multiple branches in Beijing, Jiangyou, Chengdu and Shanghai.
The Academy currently has 12 research institutes and 15 national key laboratories. Its research areas include shock wave and explosive physics, nuclear and plasma physics, engineering and material sciences, electronics and photo-electronics, radioactive chemistry and chemical engineering, computer science and computational mathematics, etc.
CAEP has over 8,000 researchers and technicians. Some prominent Chinese scientists used to be leaders of the academy, including Yu Min, Wang Ganchang, Deng Jiaxian, Zhu Guangya, Chen Nengkuan, Zhou Guangzhao, Guo Yonghuai, Cheng Kaijia, and Peng Huanwu. It currently has 9 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and 7 academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and a number of outstanding scientists.