Brilliant Chinese engineer seals love with concrete engagement ring

A postdoctoral researcher whose invention was used at the site of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics was ridiculed for proposing to his future wife with an engagement ring made of cement.

Tsinghua University, one of China’s most prestigious universities, calls 36-year-old Yao Guoyou an outstanding alumnus.

As a doctoral student at the School of Civil Engineering from 2011 to 2016, Yao worked tirelessly to invent a nano-silicon ion material that improves the waterproofing and durability of the world’s most widely used building material.

The clever graduate sprayed the material on China’s South-North Water Diversion Project and many other hydraulic engineering projects to test and promote it.

“It was a great success,” Yao said.

In 2016, he received the Tsinghua Qihang Scholarship Gold Award for his invention. At the awards ceremony, he proposed to his girlfriend, now his wife, using a cement ring that he had made himself and sprayed with his invention.

“The ring symbolizes that our love will not decay or fade even in 100 years,” Yao said.

On social media in mainland China, many thought it was a romantic gesture, while others saw it as “cheap and insincere” and even nicknamed Yao “cement brother.”

“The material he invented could support dams and bridges, and he used it to make her a lifelong promise as strong as that cement. This science romance is so much more beautiful than silver and gold rings,” wrote one observer on Douyin.

“He should have given her his patent instead of a piece of cement. That would have shown how sincere he was,” joked another.

One woman accused Yao of being a narcissist: “Is the ring proof of his success or his love for her?”

“Why is the crystal structure of carbon valuable and romantic, but not that of nano-silicon ions?” said another, referring to the properties of diamonds.

In 2017, Yao founded his company Guardex, which specializes in the invention and application of cement-based waterproofing materials.

Its products were used on the National Speed ​​Skating Oval, also known as Ice Ribbon, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

He also advocated for the use of the material in impoverished areas that cannot afford to buy it.

In 2018, he donated some of them to a village in Guangxi Province in southern China and arranged for his staff to teach locals how to use them.

Yao is a corporate representative of 15 companies and holds about 60 patents.