Obituary: Zhang Jikang (1959–2006) Lu Ding Professor of Economics, Sophia University, Tokyo and member of CIJ Executive Committee Born in 1959, the first year of the 3-year famine associated with Mao's ill-fated Great Leap Forward, Professor Zhang Jikang began his academic career in China's prestigious Fudan University, Shanghai after obtaining a Masters degree in economics there in 1988. When he was still writing his PhD dissertation, he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996. Three years after he was awarded the doctorate, he became a Full Professor in 2002. His promotion was well deserved. Between1992 and 2002, Zhang wrote ten books and published in academic journals and volumes at a rate of 8–10 articles per year. Meanwhile, he edited six books and translated an economics textbook from English into Chinese. Most of his research was related to foreign investment, international capital flows and banking-financial sector regulation. In recent years, using government research grants, he wrote on RMB exchange rate reform, making important contributions to Chinese public policy. Like other successful academics of his age in China today, Zhang was overloaded with heavy teaching and administrative duties. From 1996 onwards, he supervised over 70 Master-degree students and two PhDs, on top of introducing five new courses in financial economics. His main administrative duties at Fudan included Directorship of the Centre for European Studies and Deputy Directorship of two other Centres. Beyond academia, Zhang actively provided consulting services to governmental and business institutions. His non-academic attachments included Senior Adviser to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System and National Inter-bank Funding Centre, Vice Chairman of the Senior Advisory Commission for the Huaiyin City Bank, Senior Adviser to the Bank of Shanghai and Executive Standing Member of the Shanghai Centre for International Finance Studies. Zhang conducted these services whilst serving as a team-leader for 19 funded projects since 1997. Zhang spent one year, 1995/96, at St. Antony College, Oxford, as a Visiting Scholar. This proved to be very important in the development of his academic career. He subsequently visited and lectured in several universities around the world, including Glasgow Caledonia University (UK), University of Lille and SciencesPo Lille (France), International University (Japan), Lund University (Sweden), to name a few. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute in 2001 and 2004. Even after he was diagnosed with cirrhosis at the end of 2004, Zhang risked his health by continuing with his busy agenda. He strove to maintain the momentum of his work despite Fudan's relieving him of all his duties. The energetic scholar finally collapsed on 18 February 2006 during a trip to Britain. His sudden departure is a great loss to his colleagues and friends. They will remember him as an articulate and well-trained economist, always ready to cooperate with and help others.