On May 1-2, 2017, the KIAA Science Advisory Committee (SAC) held a two-day face-to-face meeting at KIAA. In attendance were SAC chair Simon D. M. White (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics), Tom Abel (Kavli Institue for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University), Richard S. Ellis (California Institute of Technology), Martha P. Haynes (Cornell University), Robert C. Kennicutt (University of Cambridge), Shude Mao (National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, and Tsinghua University), Ramesh Narayan (Harvard University), new SAC member Paul T. P. Ho (East Asia Observatory), Luis C. Ho (KIAA, PKU), Xuebing Wu (KIAA, PKU) and Fukun Liu (DoA, PKU).
Luis C. Ho, Director of KIAA, gave a status report on KIAA, introducing the recent developments on administration, personnel recruitment, scientific achievements and progress on various projects, difficulties and challenges faced by KIAA, as well as future development plans. Fukun Liu, Chairman of Department of Astronomy, discussed the status of DoA and the collaboration between the DoA and KIAA. Xuebing Wu, Associate Director of KIAA, gave a financial report for KIAA. Science highlight talks were presented by faculty members Kejia Lee, Ran Wang, Linhua Jiang, and Yingjie Peng.
SAC members had separate lunch meetings with postdocs and students, and closed-door meetings with faculty and administrative staff to assess the performance of the institute and the management of the current leadership. The SAC is in the process of preparing a final report to be delivered to the KIAA Governing Board.
