Professor Sandra M. Faber, renowned astronomer from the University of California, Santa Cruz, visited the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University and met PKU Vice-President for International Relations, Yansong Li. KIAA Director Luis C. Ho, KIAA Associate Director Xuebing Wu, and Department of Astronomy Chairman Fukun Liu were also in attendance. The group discussed plans to update an exchange program for undergraduate students between the University of California, Santa Cruz and Peking University.
Faber, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, is a leading authority on galaxy formation and evolution, stellar populations, and supermassive black holes in galactic nuclei. She has also made significant contributions to astronomical instrumentation on several major telescopes, from the Hubble Space Telescope, to the Keck 10m telescopes, and now to the planned Thirty-Meter Telescope, of which China is a partner. In 2013, she received the National Medal of Science from President Barack Obama. Faber is this year's recipient of the Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
