A ceremony to name an asteroid after Wang Yinglai, the founding director of the Institute of Biochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1958, was held in Shanghai on Saturday. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

A ceremony to name an asteroid after Wang Yinglai, the founding director of the Institute of Biochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1958, which later became the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science of the CAS, was held in Shanghai on Saturday.

"We would like to announce that the asteroid discovered by this observatory and numbered 355704 internationally be named in honor of Wang Yinglai. It is hereby made known to the world and will go down in history forever," the Purple Mountain Observatory of the CAS stated in a certificate.

The International Astronomical Union has approved the naming of the asteroid to commemorate Wang's outstanding academic contributions to the field.

Wang was a renowned biologist, a founder of the country's modern biochemistry, and a pioneer of molecular biology in China. He was a CAS academician who mainly focused on enzyme chemistry and nutrition metabolism research. Wang was also an outstanding decision maker and leader in China's biochemical research work.

Under his organization and leadership, Chinese scientists completed two major foundational works, artificial total synthesis of crystalline bovine insulin with biological vitality and yeast alanine transfer ribonucleic acid, in 1965 and 1981 respectively.