(Yicai Global) Dec. 6 -- Renowned Chinese-American physicist Zhang Shoucheng passed away at the age of 55 on Dec. 1.

Zhang, also the founding chairman of Danhua Capital died suddenly on Dec. 1, the venture capital firm said in an email to media, adding the company is running normally. Zhang's family did not reveal the cause of his death and the firm was unaware of this.

Born in Shanghai in 1963, Zhang earned his PhD at the State University of New York, Stony Brook in 1987 and joined the Department of Physics at Stanford University in 1993. Science magazine declared the quantum spin hall effect he and his team proposed one of the world's top 10 scientific breakthroughs of 2007.

In addition to his career as a scientist, Zhang founded Danhua Capital with his student Dr. Andrew Gu in 2013. The firm expanded its scale from USD20 million to nearly USD100 million half a year after its formation to become the fastest growing venture capital firm in the US Silicon Valley.

The company has thus far invested in 113 projects spanning blockchain, enterprise applications and financial technology, with 34 of these blockchain-related, public data show.

Danhua Capital has invested about CNY188 million (USD27.3 million) in blockchain technology, blockchain applications and digital currency, including exchange projects such as FCoin, Hydro, SFOX,Bgogo.com and CoinPark, per data from the website of market analytics firm China Venture Investment Consulting.

Zhang had always valued his persona as a scientist more than any other, though he also excelled in venture capital investment.

"As a scientist, you can talk to nature and rush to the front to discover some cutting-edge technologies, such as quantum effects," was how Zhang explained the pleasure of science in an interview with Yicai Global last year.

Editor: Ben Armour