Yuan was born in Shangyu, Zhejiang province in 1924. He graduated from the National College of Pharmacy (now China Pharmaceutical University) in 1948 and received a Degree for Candidate for D.Sc from the All-Union Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, in Moscow in 1955. He worked at the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences after returning to China. He led a research team for nuclear fuel extractants since 1958.[1] In 1997, he was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He died on 9 January 2018.[2]
