The International Astronomical Union(IAU) honored a Chinese high
school boy by naming an asteroid after him, according to
Beijing Morning Post Thursday.
Zhu Ruochen, who graduated in 2006 from the high school attached
to Tsinghua University, took part in the Intel International
Science and Engineering Fair in May and his paper on gene cloning
won second prize in the microbiology contest and obtained first
grade scholarship from the American Phytopathological Society.
The asteroid which was known as 217311 was also named of Zhu
Ruochen.
Zhu's bibliography for his paper included more than 200 English
books and files and experts say it was at the master's thesis
level.
Zhu's school teacher Pan Feng says Zhu was a humble student who
seldom expressed his views. His English composition revealed he
wished to pursue his study at Stanford University in
California.
Asteroid naming is decided by a panel of professional
astronomers across the world organized by IAU.
(Xinhua News Agency November 10, 2006)