Shou-Cheng Zhang, a Shanghai-born Chinese-American physicist at Stanford University, who graduated from Fudan University in Shanghai, died at age 55 on Saturday, Digital Horizon Capital said in an email on Thursday.

He was identified as one of the top candidates for the Nobel Prize by Thomson Reuters in 2014. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Science of the United States in 2015. He was also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Family members of Zhang did not disclose the cause of death.

Zhang was a co-founder of Digital Horizon Capital, a Delaware registered, Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund, promoting education, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The fund is operating as normal.