On 8 August 2019, BAI Chunli, President of Chinese Academy of Sciences inspected the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory.
During the visit, President Bai visited the Microwave Receiver Technology Laboratory and EMC Technology Laboratory. MA Jun, Deputy head of Radio astronomy research division at XAO, introduced current situation of receiver technology development, and the associated reseach, at XAO. Dr. WANG Na, Director of XAO introduced the education campaign, themed "Staying True to Our Founding Mission”, scientific research and study, scientific platform construction, talents cultivation, cooperation and communication, which are being carried out by XAO.
On the 9th, President Bai inspected the construction site for the STeerable 110-m Aperture Radio Telescope (START) or QiTai radio Telescope (QTT), where he also had a meeting with the leaders from local government and XAO. Dr. WANG Na, introduced the overall plan for the site construction, infrastructure construction, radio frequencies protection and other related issues. JIN Zhizhen, governor of Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, MA Xudong, the secretary of the Party committee of Qitai county stated that they would spare no efforts to support the development of the QTT project.
President Bai fully affirmed the achievements made by Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory in scientific research and the preliminary work on the QTT project. He expressed his gratitude to the party committees and governments at all levels of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region for their strong supports of the project. He said that after nearly 10 years of hard work, the QTT project had been developed efficiently under the support of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the relevant departments, and the light of success will be seen before long. He also stated that, for such a major scientific project, it is hoped that the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory will make efforts on the radio frequencies protection and strengthen cooperation with the governments and relevant units. In addition, XAO should draw experience from previous major scientific project constructions and combining the strength and wisdom of CAS so as to lay a solid foundation for future project construction with forward-looking perspective. At the same time, XAO should also assist the local government in carrying out outreach education activities, improving the resident’s understanding of science, breaking superstitions, and making contributions to the development of Xinjiang.
The visit was carried out with the companions of the Director of Executive Office of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, QIAO Junlu; Deputy director of the Bureau of Science & Technology for Development Chinese Academy of Sciences, ZHAO Qianjun; President of Xinjiang Branch, ZHANG Xiaolei.
President Bai visiting the Microwave Receiver Technology Laboratory
President Bai inspecting the construction of Qitai Station
