An asteroid discovered by a Chinese observatory has been named
after physicist Zhu Guangya, a leading scientist in China's nuclear
program.
Premier Wen
Jiabao attended a ceremony and workshop held on Sunday, at
which Zhu accepted the certificate for his nominal possession of
the asteroid from Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of
Sciences (CAS).
Participants praised Zhu for his remarkable contributions to the
country over the past five decades.
The asteroid, bearing the international code number 10388, was
discovered on December 25, 1996, by scientists at the Xinglong
Station of Beijing Astronomical Observatory, about 180 kilometers
northeast of Beijing. China has been active in the study of
asteroids since the mid-1990s.
Zhu, a physicist, was one of the leaders and organizers of
China's development programs for the A-bomb and the H-bomb. He also
helped create the country's long-term defense technology
strategy.
A member of the CAS, Zhu also served as the first president of
the Chinese
Academy of Engineering (CAE), established in 1994, and guided its
development into a top technological consulting agency and academic
think-tank.
He has also been an active promoter of China's nuclear power
development, urging the construction of more nuclear power plants
to boost the proportion of nuclear power output to the country's
total power generation.
Born in 1924 in Wuhan, Hubei
Province, Zhu graduated from Southwest Associated University in
1945. In 1946 he was accepted into a physics doctoral program at
the University of Michigan in the US. He obtained his degree in
1950 and returned to China, where he began working at Peking University.
(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn December 27, 2004)