China's "Most Handsome Scientist", Now 82, Looked Like Daniel Wu When He Was Young

Those in the engineering scene may respect academic Wang Demin for his contribution to China's petroleum industry, but the Internet seems to be loving him for a purely superficial reason.

Recently, the 82-year-old professor of the School of Petroleum Engineering under Northeast Petroleum University found himself making the news all thanks to his good looks when he was young. 

There were even comments praising the Pan-Asian prof for looking like American-Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu, 49. 

Needless to say, with a face like that, Demin, who also founded the stratified development of petroleum and chemical flooding technology in China, had many girls fawning over him back in the day. 

In fact, there were so many girls after him that he described them as an "unbearable disturbance". 

In order to get rid of his suitors, Demin laid out these conditions for those hoping to be his girlfriend: 1) He would not have time to take walks in the park together after marriage, and 2) The girl must not disturb him while he's reading. 

And while his good looks, courtesy of his Chinese-European mum, may seem like a blessing to many, it apparently wasn't of much use when Demin tried to apply for the Tsinghua Xuetang Talents Program.

On the flip side, the school rejected him because of his mixed heritage. 

Thankfully, another door opened up for Demin when the China University of Petroleum sent him an acceptance letter. 

It's why he always says: "I'm not the one who chose petroleum, petroleum chose me."

Demin eventually came up with the formulae, named the "Songliao method", for formation pressure in the Daqing oilfield in the early '60s.

He had also invented China's first eccentric injection mandrel and production mandrel, which effectively improved oil production efficiency in the field.

In 2016, Demin even had an asteroid (no. 210231) named after him.

How cool is that.