Fang Daining, a leading and at times controversial figure in China’s hypersonic weapons research, died earlier this year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) confirmed in an obituary released on Tuesday.

Fang, who held China’s highest academic title in science and technology as a CAS member, died of an illness on February 27, the premier national research institution said. He was 68.

Fang was scheduled to speak at the African Conference on Computational Mechanics at the University of Cape Town that afternoon, according to the event programme.

The CAS announcement on its website confirms a report by the South China Morning Post in March about Fang’s death.

Online discussions earlier included claims that Fang had suffered an unexpected medical episode during a work trip to South Africa. The obituary did not provide any details on the cause or circumstances of his death.

Fang drew public attention in 2022 after a video of a young woman repeatedly kissing his face during a live-streamed academic meeting went viral, later prompting disciplinary action by his university and CAS.

In its obituary, CAS described Fang as a comrade who had “long been devoted to research in advanced materials and structural mechanics” and a pioneer “in China’s field of advanced structural technologies”.