Yang's statue is based on a photo of him.
Faculty and students at Fudan University bid farewell to Yang Fujia, well-known Chinese nuclear physicist, educator and academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, on Thursday at a cemetery in Qingpu District with statue of him was unveiled.
Yang died of illness at the age of 86 last month.
Born in June 1936, Yang had successively been president of Fudan University, chancellor of the University of Nottingham in the UK and the founding president of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, the very first Sino-foreign University in the country.
Fudan University said he had made great contributions to China's development in applied physics and made great achievements in areas arranging from nuclear energy spectroscopy to nuclear decay analysis and ion beam study.
It also said he had made outstanding contributions in China's higher education development and international exchanges in education.
The photo of Yang which the statue is based on.
"My philosophy of life is the pursuit of excellence," he said.
The farewell ceremony was simple but solemn with mourners at the Fushouyuan Cemetery recalling his life and achievements.
As solemn music played, they bowed and laid flowers at Yang's tomb.
His statue stands in front of physicist Xie Xide and biochemist Cao Tianqin, both academicians at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Xie was president of Fudan University from 1983 to 1988, and Yang from 1993 to 1999.
The statue is based on a photo of Yang in which he looks into the distance, full of encouragement and expectation for his students, with a tablet part the statue, symbolizing Yang's honorable character.
Mourners commemorate Yang at the Fushouyuan Cemetery.
