Dr. Chow Minchen (Chinese: 周明镇, 1918－1996）was born in Shanghai, China, and graduated from Chongqing University in 1943. He received a MSc degree from the University of Miami in 1948 and a Ph.D. degree from Lehigh University in 1950. He became an associate professor at Shandong University and in 1952 joined the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing where he remained until 1996. Dr. Zhou began research in China on the early tertiary strata and mammal faunas, and for 30 years under his leadership, paleocene epoch strata and vertebrate faunas, which were believed to be missing in China, were found and investigated. He and his co-workers achieved major breakthroughs in research on early tertiary mammal faunas and continental strata in China, including the establishment of combinations of typical profiles of different strata and mammals. He was the leader from the Chinese side for the "Sino-Soviet Expedition" to northwestern China in 1959–1960 and in 1979, became a Honorary Member of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. He became an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980 and in 1993, was awarded the Romer-Simpson Medal for "sustained and outstanding scholarly excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate paleontology". He was an advocator of "Cladistics" in China since the early 1980s and a promotor of "Abroad study or academic training" for young Chinese paleontologists in the 1980s and 1990s.