Dr. Miyoung Chun, Executive Vice President of Science Programs at the Kavil Foundation, and Dr. Christopher Martin, Science Program Officer, visited the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University (KIAA-PKU) on April 17th-18th, 2014. Dr. Chun congratulated Prof. Luis C. Ho and Prof. Xue-Bing Wu on their appointments as the new director and associate director of KIAA-PKU. Both Kavli Foundation officers had extensive discussions on KIAA’s development, faculty recruitment, and team building with KIAA faculty members. They also exchanged opinions with the director of Department of Astronomy (DoA), Prof. Fukun Liu, on how to enhance the cooperation between KIAA and DoA and promote their mutual development.On the morning of April 18th, the Vice President of Peking University, Prof. Shiyi Chen met Dr. Chun and Dr. Martin at KIAA. Via a video-conference system, Prof. Chen, Dr. Chun and Dr. Martin had an one-hour video meeting with the President of The Kavli Foundation, Dr. Robert W. Conn. They conducted a sincere and extensive discussion on how to further strengthen the collaboration between Peking University and the Kavli Foundation, with the goal of building KIAA into a first-rate astronomy institute.In the afternoon, Dr. Chun and Dr. Martin visited the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). They talked with the leaders of NAOC on how to enhance further collaborations between KIAA and NAOC. During the visit, they also met CAS Academician, the former director of DoA, Prof. Jiansheng Chen, who offered his comments and suggestions on KIAA’s operation and daily management. Photo: Shiyi Chen (left center) and Miyoung Chun (right center) with Luis Ho (center), Xuebing Wu (left), and Chris Martin (right). PKU News link (中文).
