Experience

Employment

• Chair, Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University, 04/2019-Present
• Director, Tsinghua Center for Astrophysics, Tsinghua University, 10/2014-8/2019
• Researcher, National Astronomical Observatories of China, 10/2010-07/2018
• Professor of astrophysics, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Univ. of Manchester, 08/2006-07/2019
• Reader in astrophysics, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Univ. of Manchester, 10/2002-07/2006
• Lecturer in astrophysics, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Univ. of Manchester, 1/2000-10/2002
• Long-term postdoctoral fellow, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 9/1995-12/1999
• Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow, 9/1992-8/1995

Education

• PhD, Princeton University, 9/1988-8/1992
• BsC, University of Science and Technology, 9/1984-8/1988

Awards

• Paczynski scholar, August 2015 (Princeton University)
• Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award , April 2007
• China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application (CUSPEA) , 1987

Board membership & editorship

• I am on the board of the Thirty Meter Telescope (2010-) and the Science Advisory Committee at the nearby KIAA (2015-)
• I am an editor of Science in China G and New Journal of Physics
• Associate chair, Educational Guidance Board for Astronomy, Oct. 2018 -
• Referees for the Astrophysical Journal, Monthly Notices, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Science, Nature etc, and a number of international funding agencies

Teaching

Current Courses

• Fall 2017-2019, 2021: Galactic Dynamics (graduate course) (星系动力学, 32 lectures)
• Fall 2015-, annually: Frontiers of Astrophysics (undergraduate) [天文学前沿] (32 lectures)
• Fall 2015-, annually: Roaming between Physics and astrophysics (undergraduate) [漫游在物理和天文的交叉领域] (16 lectures)
• Fall 2019-, annually 天问：宇宙之美 Inquiries of Heavens: The beauty of the Universe (undergraduate, 通识课) (16 lectures)
• Spring 2016-2020, Discovering the Universe (undergraduate@ucas) [发现宇宙@国科大] (3 lectures)

Past PhD students, undergrads and postdocs

PhD/Master : Martin Smith (2000-2003; professor@SHAO); Alex Wood (PhD, 2002-2006; industry); Dandan Xu (2006-2010.1; staff@Tsinghua); Szymon Kozlowski (2004-2007; staff@Warsaw); Richard Long (2005-2009; researcher@NAOC); Sarah Bryan (2007-2010; industry); Matthew Penny (2008-2011; Sagan Fellow@Ohio State); Jian Wang (2010-2012; industry); Ling Zhu (2010-2014; a faculty at SHAO); Qiran Xia (2011-2016; banking); Hongyu Li (2014-2018; industry [Baidu AI]); Yunpeng Jin (2014.9-2020.1; postdoc@SHAO); Shunsheng Li (Master, 2016.9-2019.9; PhD@Leiden); Li Ma (Master, 2016.9-2019.9; high school teacher); Rui Guo (PhD, 2013.9-2020.9; postdoc, Shanghai Jiaotong) Chao Li (PhD, 2014.9-2020.9; postdoc, Tsinghua); Shengdong Lu (2016.9-2020.9; postdoc, Tsinghua); Weicheng Zang (2017.9-2022.6; CfA fellow, Harvard-Smithsonian)
Undergrads (selected) : Benedikt Diemer (2007-2008@Manchester; PhD@Chicago, 2015; postdoc@Harvard, 2016); Weichen Wang (2015-2016; PhD@John Hopkins); Wei Zhu (2013-2014; PhD@Ohio State, postdoc@CITA); Ruizhu Chen (Jan. 2011, visiting undergrad; PhD@Stanford); Sizheng Ma (2015-2017, Tsinghua undergrad; PhD@caltech); Xiaohan Wu (2016-2017, PKU undergrad; PhD@Harvard); Luchuan Liu (2017-2018, Tsinghua; PhD@USTC); Yunchong Wang (2016-2019; PhD@Stanford); Xinlun Cheng (2017-2019; PhD@Virginia); Tianshu Wang (2016-2019; PhD@Princeton); Yan Liang (2018-2019; PhD@tsinghua); Hongjin Yang (2018-2019, Xiameng; PhD@tsinghua); Yawei Su (2018-2021, Tsinghua); Xiaohan Wang (2019-2021, PhD@Tsinghua); Boyi Ding (2019-2022, Tsinghua); Youquan Fu (2019-2022, 4th year, Tsinghua); Zerui Liu (2019-2021, PhD@NAOC); Jiyuan Zhang (2021-2022, PhD@Tsinghua).
Postdocs (selected) : Kyu-Hyun Chae (2001-2003) (Professor, Sejong University/South Korea); Nick Rattenbury (2004-2009) (Rutherfellow, New Zealand); Zheng Zheng (2014-2017, staff@NAOC); Xiaojia Zhang (2016-2018, postdoc@Hong Kong), Yiping Shu (2015-2017, now a staff member at MPO; currently at Cambridge); Xiaolei Meng (2016.12-2018.7); Junqiang Ge (2013-2019); Roberto Jaimes (2018.9-2019.1)

Current (or recent) students and postdocs

Master and PhD students : Tianjun Gan (2018.9-); Hongjin Yang (2019.9-); Renkun Kuang (2020.1-); Jiyuan Zhang (2022-); Youquan Fu (2022-).
Undergrads : Yunyi Tang (2022-, 3rd year, Tsinghua); Ruochen Zai (2022-, 2nd year, Tsinghua); Yuqian Gui (2022-, 2nd year, Tsinghua).
Postdoc and fixed-term staff : Xiaocheng zheng (2016-2021), now at Beijing Planetarium.