Li Di, chief scientist of China’s FAST telescope, wins Marcel Grossmann prize
- Chinese radio astronomer Li Di has been named co-winner of the prestigious physics prize, alongside US astrophysicist Christopher Fryer
A Chinese radio astronomer has been named co-winner of this year’s Marcel Grossmann Award, making him the first recipient of the prestigious prize whose research is mainly conducted in China.
Li, who left Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2012 to join the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing as a full-time researcher, led the FAST team to “make precise measurements of the interstellar magnetic field and advance the field of fast radio bursts into a high-statistics era,” the awards committee said.
Yang Ji, Li’s colleague at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, noted that Chinese radio astronomers now have the opportunity to compete for international awards using cutting-edge telescopes they designed and built on their own.
“We have every reason to believe this is just the beginning for FAST to make groundbreaking discoveries in years to come,” Yang said.
The Marcel Grossmann Awards are seen as one of the most important accolades in physics. Named after the late Swiss mathematician who made major contributions to the development of general relativity alongside Albert Einstein, the awards recognise individuals and institutions for their outstanding work in the field of relativistic theory and experimentation.
Since 1985, the awards have been given out by the International Centre for Relativistic Astrophysics in Italy every three years. This year’s ceremony will be held in Rome next Tuesday.