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北京大学英语新闻网/Peking University News
Planet Named Xuzhihong at Ceremony
for 50 th Anniversary of Astronomy
Department
PKU NEWS 2010--05--07
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=273466752
Peking University, Beijing, May. 7, 2010: On the afternoon of May 4, the 50 th
Anniversary of Astronomy, the 10 th Anniversary of the Department of Astronomy at
Peking University (PKU), and the Xuzhihong Minor Planet Naming Ceremony was
held at the conference hall of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at
PKU (KIAA-PKU). Teachers and students of the Department of Astronomy, the
researchers of KIAA, the alumni, and the some scholars of astronomy attended the
ceremony. Prof. Xu Zhihong, the former President of PKU and other academicians of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences also attended the ceremony. Nearly one hundred
people, including leaders of various astronomy research institutes, alumni, and
scholars in astronomy field, were invited to the ceremony. Prof. Wu Xuebing, the
Deputy Chair of Department of Astronomy emceed the ceremony.
During the ceremony, Prof. Chen Jiansheng delivered the welcoming remarks to the
attendees. In the lecture of Prof. Wu Xinji of Department Astronomy, he recalled the
history of PKU astronomy. In 1920s, when Cai Yuanpei was the president of PKU,
they once considered to set up a Department of Astronomy. The plan was put off due
to objective conditions, but astronomy courses were opened at PKU. In 1958, Mr.
Cheng Maolan of Beijing Astronomical Observatory advised PKU to set up an
Astronomy Division. The Astronomy Division in the Department of Geophysics was
finally established in 1960. With the hard work of several generations of
astronomers, the Department of Astronomy has gain heavy achievements during
these fifty years. Now, the department has a mature teaching and researching team,
and has trained hundreds of astronomers who are the backbone for China. They
finished large national astronomical projects several times, and have gained praise
from astronomers both at home and abroad. In June 2000, the Department of
Astronomy was formally established, and they invited Prof. Chen Jiansheng,
academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, to be the Chair of the
department. In 2006, the KIAA-PKU has been co-established by PKU and the Kavli
Foundation, and been put into operation in 2008.
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