A materials scientist whose career took him from rural China to California is heading for a post in Macau after 30 years in the United States.

According to the University of Macau’s website, Pei Qibing has been appointed chair professor and director of the Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering.

Pei, an emeritus professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, began his studies in a very different world, attending a small rural school on an island in the Yangtze River in the central province of Anhui.

“Because the school did not have enough chairs, students needed to bring their own stools.

“Because the rural primary school did not have enough students to open a class for every year, Pei and his elder sister were in the same class,” former classmate Wang Xianglong told local media in the nearby city of Tongling two years ago.

Wang said Pei had been top of the class before going on to study chemistry at Nanjing University in 1981.