In 1930, 28-year-old Tong Dizhou graduated from Fudan University and got an opportunity to study abroad. With the support of his brother and his new wife Ye Yufen, he resolutely boarded the train bound for Belgium. At the University of Brussels, the capital of Belgium, Tong Dizhou's life as a student studying abroad was very poor. The thin and thin man silently struggled in the world of biology. During that time, his mentor, Professor Duck, was conducting experiments on frog eggs and needed to peel off a layer of membrane outside the eggs. Under the microscope, Professor Darke and his assistants could not remove the film. Tong Dizhou said: Let me try. Tong Dizhou went to the microscope and pricked the egg membrane with a needle. The egg deflated and peeled off in one go. Professor Duck was extremely pleased with the biological talent displayed by this student. In the summer of 1931, he took his beloved student to the French Riviera Laboratory, a famous scientific research center. This time, he had to peel off the outer membrane of ascidian eggs with a diameter of less than one tenth of a millimeter. Tong Dizhou successfully completed it again , much admired by the international colleagues gathered here.

In 1934, Tong Dizhou obtained a doctorate with honors and made remarkable achievements in scientific experiments. Mr. Duck told him that if he waits for another year and writes a paper, he can get another special doctorate. But Tong Dizhou thought: "If you want to get a job, you should go back to your motherland; if you have achievements, why should you give them to other countries?" In this way, Tong Dizhou gave up his "special doctorate" degree and returned to his motherland resolutely. After returning to China, Tong Dizhou and his wife taught together at National Shandong University (the predecessor of Ocean University of China), embarking on the path of serving the country through science and rejuvenating the country through science.

Soon, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, and National Shandong University faced exile. Zeng Chengkui, a good friend who was doing research in Hong Kong, sent an invitation letter to Tong Dizhou, asking him to work as a professor in Hong Kong. Tong Dizhou wrote back and said: I can use local materials everywhere for my work, so I won’t go there. At that time, the war continued to spread, and Tong Dizhou and his wife and children began their fate of being displaced in the chaos of war. After the school closed down, Tong Dizhou was employed by Tongji University in November 1941. During these turbulent days, he made great breakthroughs in basic theoretical research on classical embryology, attracting international attention. Tong Dizhou and his collaborators revealed the polarity phenomenon of embryonic development. In their study of amphibian embryonic development, they found that the direction of ciliary movement is determined at the gastrula stage and the early neural plate stage, proving that the direction of ciliary movement in the ectoderm is determined by the mesoderm and endoderm, and that this sensing ability is important in individual development. It gradually weakens from head to tail along the anterior-posterior axis of the embryo, indicating the phenomenon of polarity in embryonic development. They also demonstrated that this sensing ability is caused by an unknown chemical that induces the direction of movement of embryonic cilia through cell-to-cell osmosis. Even the international academic community recognized Tong Dizhou as the world authority on vertebrate experimental embryology!

In August 1945, Tong Dizhou and the people of the country ushered in the long-awaited victory in the Anti-Japanese War. In 1946, National Shandong University was re-established in Qingdao. Tong Dizhou returned to Qingdao to participate in the re-establishment work and served as professor and head of the Department of Biology. His wife Ye Yufen taught in the same department. However, China, where civil war has broken out, still cannot place a peaceful test table. In June 1947, National Sun Yat-sen University students were dissatisfied with the Kuomintang's reactionary rule and launched an "anti-hunger and anti-civil war" demonstration and signature campaign. Tong Dizhou was the first to sign the protest, firmly siding with the students. Just outside his home, Tong Dizhou witnessed with his own eyes the atrocities committed by Kuomintang agents against students. Tong Dizhou was deeply angered. He organized professors to go to the security headquarters and demand that the students be released, otherwise they would stop teaching. Due to strong pressure from the outside world, the Kuomintang government had no choice but to release the arrested students. Someone told Tong Dizhou that he was blacklisted by the agents, but Tong Dizhou just smiled lightly. In the thick darkness, he eagerly looked forward to the early arrival of light.

In 1948, Tong Dizhou was invited by the Lowe Foundation to serve as a visiting researcher at Yale University. In 1949, on the eve of China's liberation, Tong Dizhou refused Yale University's offer of a high salary to stay. He said: "I am Chinese, and my greatest wish is to make China rich and powerful as soon as possible! Now that China has seen hope, I have to return home as soon as possible. Go!" He overcame all kinds of resistance and returned to National Shandong University amidst the roar of gunfire welcoming the founding of New China. On October 1, 1949, in Qingdao, Tong Dizhou heard the "National Anthem of the People's Republic of China" resounding throughout the world.

In 1950, Tong Dizhou proposed that the Chinese Academy of Sciences establish a marine biology research laboratory in Qingdao. This year, he was 48 years old. It has been 16 years since he returned to China from Belgium in 1934. His best years have passed in turbulent times. At nearly half a century old, Tong Dizhou finally has a peaceful laboratory. At that time, the Marine Biological Research Laboratory was located at No. 28 Laiyang Road, Qingdao City. The ten-square-meter office and laboratory in the building was Tong Dizhou's favorite place to stay. From the 1930s to the 1960s, he conducted a series of experimental embryology studies using Qingdao amphioxus, ascidians and fish as materials. He systematically studied the development rules of amphioxus eggs, a chordate that plays an important role in biological evolution, accurately mapped the distribution of materials intended to form organs, and proved that amphioxus blastomeres have a certain ability to adjust. In order to further determine The taxonomic position of amphioxus provides important evidence. These research results are still the best in scientific literature and have had a profound impact on domestic and foreign academic circles. They pioneered my country's "cloning" technology and Tong Dizhou became China's well-deserved "father of cloning."

In 1951, Tong Dizhou was appointed vice president of Shandong University. During this period, Tong Dizhou, who was responsible for heavy administrative and scientific research tasks, still insisted on teaching students. The classroom was full of students, listening quietly to Tong Dizhou's novel content, profound theories, and philosophical academic thoughts. . Tong Dizhou not only imparted scientific knowledge to students, but his brilliant academic thoughts, realistic scientific research style and rigorous academic attitude deeply infected every student and became an inexhaustible wealth in their lives. Mr. Tong has trained a large number of successors to his career. His students and students’ students are all over the world. They are at the forefront of their disciplines and carry forward Mr. Tong’s career.