Pan Chengxiao, born in Wu County, Jiangsu Province, was a celebrated expert of Automobile and Internal Combustion Engine in China, one of the founders of China’s Internal Combustion Engine and Automotive Engineering Education and the National first-class professor. Pan Chengxiao was enrolled in the Department of Mechanics of Tangshan College of Railways and Mines in 1915 and went to the United States for further study in 1922. He studied in Cornell University and University of Wisconsin successively and received Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering.
He returned to China in January 1927 and taught in Shenyang Fengyong University and Northeast University. After the “9/18 Incident” in 1931, he served as Professor and Dean of Department of Mechanics in the school of Engineering in Peking University. When the Anti-Japanese War broke out, he went to Shanxi Province and continued to hold posts of Professor and Dean of the School of Engineering in Temporary University and United University, and later Professor and President of Northwest College of Technology (1943-1946). In October 1948, he worked as Professor of Mechanics in Peiyang University. He served consecutively as Professor, Provost of Tianjin University and President of Hebei Technical Institute after 1949.
He was also the Executive Director of Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and the Honorable President of SAE-China (the Society of Automotive Engineering of China). He served as Deputy of the 3th to 6th National People’s Congress, member of the 2nd CPPCC and the Central Standing Member of Democratic Progressive Party.