Ye Peijian
Ye Peijian (; born January 1945) is a Chinese aerospace engineer. He is the Chief Commander and Chief Designer of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. Career. Ye was born in Huzhuang Village, Taixing, Jiangsu, China, in January 1945. In 1962, he graduated from Huzhou Middle School in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. In 1967, he graduated from Zhejiang University with a degree in radio technology. Taking the advice of Yang Jiachi to avoid the United States because of American restrictions on sensitive technology, he studied at University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland and obtained his Ph.D. in 1985. Ye is a professor  both at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Harbin Institute of Technology. He is a research fellow and Chief Engineer at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (CAST). Ye joined the Communist Party of China in 1986. He became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003. Ye speaks English and French fluently. The inner main-belt asteroid 456677 Yepeijian, discovered by the PMO NEO Survey Program at XuYi Station in 2007, was named in his honor. Naming citation was published on 12 January 2017 ().