Wang Shouguan

Wang was born in Fuzhou, Fujian, on January 15, 1923.^[1][2] His uncle worked in the Republic of China Navy.^[3] In 1936, at the age of 13, he entered Mawei Naval School [zh], he studied navigation at the beginning, but switched to shipbuilding later because of myopia.^[1][2][3] After graduating in 1943, he worked at a factory for a year.^[1][2] In 1945, he pursued advanced studies in the United Kingdom, where he studied at the Shipbuilding Class, Royal Naval College, Greenwich.^[1][2] In 1950 he switched to astronomy, and was hired as an assistant astronomer at the University of London.^[1][2]

Wang returned to China in 1953.^[1][2] He successively worked at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Xujiahui Observatory, and Beijing Astronomical Observatory.^[1][2] In 1981, he became deputy director of the Department of Mathematical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, rising to director in 1994.^[1][2] In October 1993, the asteroid with international code 3171 was named "Wangshouguan".^[1][2]

On January 28, 2021, he died of illness in Beijing, aged 98.^[1][2][4]

• 1980 Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)^[1][2]
• 1996 Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation
• 1998 Member of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences^[1][2]