ACAMAR Visiting Fellowship – Success Stories

Associate Professor Jing Wang, from Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, recently visited ICRAR in Perth, Australia, as part of the ACAMAR Visiting Fellowship. During her visit, she had the opportunity to participate in daily academic activities at ICRAR, attend two workshops, interact closely with academic colleagues and extensively expand collaborations. During this time she was also able to expose her team of PhD students to international collaborations.

Visiting Fellowship Highlights – ICRAR

New Collaborations: Associate professor Jing Wang received the ACAMAR Visiting Fellowship to visit Australia before COVID-19 lockdowns began. As a result, her visit was delayed until 2023. Most of the project collaborations originally planned for her visit had already been conducted remotely with ICRAR by the time she arrived (including the ASKAP HI survey WALLABY, and an ASKAP-FAST synergetic program on the N4636 galaxy group – led by Jing). Fortunately, Jing was able to seek out new collaborations while in Australia – the timing of her visit was perfect for the start of WALLABY’s main survey and she also started an exciting observing program called FEASTS with the FAST telescope. Jing spent five weeks at ICRAR. In the end, the delay to her visit allowed Jing to cultivate longer and more fruitful collaborations than she originally expected, developing new research projects with Barbara Catinella, Luca Cortese, Biqing For, Lister Staveley-Smith, and other members of the ICRAR team. Please see here to read the article Jing and Lister wrote together for Contact (the SKAO magazine), a great result of these successful collaborations.

ACAMAR Workshops: During her ICRAR visit, Jing was on hand to assist with the ACAMAR themed workshop ‘Gas in Galaxies’ and the ACAMAR 9 workshop. She co-chaired Gas in Galaxies with Professor Lister Staveley-Smith and joined the Scientific Organising Committee for ACAMAR 9. Gas in Galaxies attracted more than 40 Australian and Chinese astronomers, with discussions of ionised, atomic, and molecular gases in galaxies (from low to high redshift) taking place during the workshop. Jing then presented a summary report of Gas in Galaxies during ACAMAR 9.

PhD student team: During her visit to ICRAR, Jing was joined by her team of three PhD students, two of whom actively participated in WALLABY as project members. Jing’s students were able to interact closely with ICRAR students throughout the visit, sharing office space and attending their daily activities. The students were also able to interact with staff from individual ICRAR faculties, introducing their research and asking for staff for suggestions. This experience was invaluable for Jing’s students, as they gained greater experience and confidence via their interactions with ICRAR staff, many of whom shared their research interests.