Renowned Chinese physicist and former president of the prestigious Nankai University, Mu Guoguang, passed away at the age of 81, the university announced Friday.

Mu died of unspecified causes in Tianjin on Thursday, according to an obituary posted on the official website of the Tianjin-based Nankai University.

Mu had long engaged himself in the studies of imaging science, optical design and optical information processing techniques. In 1983, he succeeded in using black and white film to refract color images. He was also well known as the author of the book, Optics.

Mu was born in Jinxi, northeast China's Liaoning province, in 1931. He graduated from Nankai's Department of Physics in 1952 and became the fifth president of Nankai University in 1986.

He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, former vice president of the Chinese Optical Society and a member of the Optical Society of America.

A farewell ceremony will be held in Tianjin on April 16, the university said.

(Source: Xinhua)