Jin Hongguang was born in Changchun, Jilin Province on May 9, 1957.
Despite the language barriers, he was admitted to Northeast Electric Power University.
[1][2] After graduation in 1982, he became a researcher at Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and completed his master's degree there from August 1986 to January 1990.
In 1991, he went to Tokyo Institute of Technology with a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) scholarship, and obtained his doctorate in 1994.
He returned to China next year to lead Program 973 research projects.