BEIJING -- Winner of China's highest science award Ye Duzheng,a principal founder of China's modern meteorology, died on Wednesday at the age of 98 in Beijing.

Ye, born in North China's coastal municipality of Tianjin in February 1916, obtained his PhD in the University of Chicago in November 1948. He was a renowned member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS).

Ye was considered a pioneer in Qinghai-Tibet plateau meteorology and played a significant role in building China's meteorological service system.

The scientist was deputy head of the CAS, foreign member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, honorary member of the Royal Meteorological Society of the United Kingdom, and honorary member of the American Meteorological Society.

He was the winner of China's top science and technology award in the year of 2005 and received a prize of 5 million yuan ($820,000).