Huang Xuhua was born in Shanwei, Guangdong Province. In July 1945, he placed first in the shipbuilding department at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, marking the beginning of his dream to build vessels and fleets to defend against foreign aggression. After graduating with a degree in shipbuilding, he began to establish his lifelong connection with submarines.

"Foreign countries are extremely protective of nuclear submarine technologies, so nobody could help us," Huang said. "We were completely on our own." Drawing inspiration from news coverage, scientific journals and even toy models, Huang and his team managed to work out a basic understanding of the sub, but building one remained a monumental challenge. "We had no computers, so all calculations were done by hand and abacus, and we used platform scales to weigh and test the center of gravity," he said. In December 1970, China launched Long March I - becoming the fifth nation to have a nuclear submarine.

In 1988, Huang dived the sub to maximum depth to test its limit, a task so dangerous that many crew members wrote farewell letters to their families to be delivered in the event of their deaths.

For more than three decades, Huang's work remained top secret.  In 1987, the Shanghai Wen-Hui Monthly published an extensive article titled "A Glorious but Obscure Life," which depicted Huang Xuhua's life experiences, causing a sensation.

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Huang Xuhua donated 11 million yuan ($172,000) of prize money to establish a fund for scientific research. At the donation ceremony, Huang said the fund was created to motivate more young scientists to make innovations in research and contribute to the country's overall development."Independent innovation is an inevitable path for us to ascend the peak of science and technology. I hope to draw more attention and support to the country's scientific research, education and popularization work through my donation," he said.