At Age 110, Is This Man the World’s Oldest Academic?

At the age of 110, Zheng Ji has been called the world’s oldest living academic.

The Chinese biochemist was recently misdiagnosed with cancer and fell ill following his treatment at a Nanjing hospital. That’s where he was when a delegation from Ohio State University stopped by for a visit on Friday, says Katherine Wolford, assistant to the president and director of operations at Ohio State.

Ms. Wolford accompanied President E. Gordon Gee and other university representatives to last week’s meeting with Mr. Zheng, who enjoyed a long career at Nanjing University before becoming an emeritus professor. Two Ohio State students from China — a rising sophomore and an entering freshman — have volunteered to tend the recuperating professor, who might be the university’s oldest alum.

The visit was the highlight of the trip for the Ohio State delegation, which was in China to connect with students and alumni and to strengthen the university’s ties to Chinese institutions, Ms. Wolford says.

Mr. Gee presented the professor, who earned his master’s degree from Ohio State in 1931, with the university’s Presidential Medal, an honor usually reserved for commencement speakers and honorary-degree recipients. In return, Mr. Zheng gave the president a photocopy of his diploma, along with photographs from his time at Ohio State.

Mr. Zheng is considered a father of biochemistry in China. His focus? Aging. He turned his research to the study of aging four decades ago, as a young man of 70-odd years. —Sophia Li

(Photo of Zheng Ji via his blog)