BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Tu Guangchi, a renowned mineral and geochemical scientist, and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), died of illness on July 31 at the age of 88.

Tu, a native of Huangpi, in central China's Hubei Province, joined the CPC-led revolution in 1938. He studied at the University of Minnesota between 1946-49 and he joined the CPC in New York in August of 1949.

Between 1966 and 2007, Tu was a researcher, president and honorary president of the Geochemistry Institute of the CAS. In 1978, he founded the Chinese Society for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry. In 1980, he became a member of the CAS.

Tu was also a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Third World Academy of Sciences.

He was a deputy of the Fifth and Sixth National People's Congresses, and a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress of Guizhou Province, in southwest China.

President Hu Jintao and other leaders, both former and present, expressed their sympathy.