Zhu Kezhen, also known as Liezu, or as he styled himself Oufang, was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. He was a prominent scientist, geologist, meteorologist and educator of China and founder of China's modern geology and meteorology.

Zhu had a sound grip of the formation, characteristics, natural divisions and transformation of China's climate and gained enormous accomplishments in meteorology, climatology, geography and history of natural sciences. In particular, he exerted his utmost efforts in the field of phenology.

Zhu devoted his life to China's science and educational causes. In 1963, he published his book Phenology, contributing a lot to China's agricultural development. His article "The Time and Place of the Origin of the 28 Lunar Mansions" basically settled the disputes in the past 100 years, winning high appraisals from academic fields both at home and abroad. In his late years, he published A Preliminary Study of Climate Changes in China over the Past Five Millennia, which was a collection of his outstanding research results all through his life and produced a sensation around the world. His works also included Literary Works of Zhu Kezhen, Selected Works of Zhu Kezhen on Popular Science and Zhu Kezhen Diaries. Zhu also advocated and organized China's phenological observation network, a significant symbol of a country's phenology development.

After the founding of the PRC, Zhu became vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thereafter, he also served as vice chairman of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, president of the Chinese Geographical Society, president of the Chinese Meteorological Society, etc. He was also member of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress.