Mao Yisheng is a famous bridge expert, educator, social activist in China. The Qiantangjiang Bridge designed under his guidance is the first dual-purpose road-and-railway bridge designed and built by the Chinese themselves, he also participated in the construction of China's first modern bridge---Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge.

Mao Yisheng went to study in the United States when he was young, his doctoral expertise titled "secondary stress on frame construction" , which was honored " Mao's Law". He came back to the motherland in 1921. In the 1930s, Mao's achievements in the engineering technique used in Qiantangjiang Bridge made his foreign counterparts look upon China's bridge engineers in a different light. In the 1950s, during the construction of Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, Mao Yisheng served as chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee composed of more than 20 foreign and Chinese bridge experts, he solved 14 related difficult problems. In 1959, in the construction of the "ten major buildings" of the capital, he acted as a leader of the inspection group examining the structure of the Great Hall of the People, contributing his technique, experience and wisdom to this historic, important structure. He is a very important founder in China's bridge engineering.

As an educator, he had, over a period of 20 years, acted as presidents of two universities, professors of five universities and presidents of two institutes. He advocated popular science education, and wrote "On Bridge", "China's Arch Bridges" and many other popular science articles.