Professor Jiafu Xu, a pioneering researcher and educator of software technology in China, CCF Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and the Founding Director of ICS, passed away at home in Nanjing on January 16 2018. He was 94.

Professor Jiafu Xu was a leading scientist of computer software and a pioneer of Chinese software, and was widely recognized by his contributions to the first ALGOL system in China, the system programming language XCY, and contributions to the software automation.