Prof. Martin Smith

Martin Smith is a research professor at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) in Beijing, where he has been employed since September 2009. His main research deals with the analysis and interpretation of data from large spectroscopic surveys like SDSS/SEGUE and LAMOST. In particular he is interested in utilising such data sets to understand both the structure of the Milky Way and its formation. Prior to this he was a postdoc at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (2007-2009) and at the Kapteyn Institute in the Netherlands (2004-2007). Whilst at the Kapteyn Institute he worked mainly on the analysis of data from the RAVE survey, most notably producing a paper constraining the local escape speed of the Milky Way. He obtained his Ph.D from the University of Manchester (2000-2003) on the subject of gravitational microlensing.

Sakurako Okamoto is a Kavli Postdoctoral Fellow at KIAA. She gained her PhD from the University of Tokyo and then worked as postdoc at the University of Cambridge before moving to Beijing. She has extensive experience in the field of dwarf galaxies and has led a number of observational programs on the Subaru telescope.

Haibo Yuan is a LAMOST Postdoctoral Fellow at KIAA, having previously completed his PhD at Peking University. His research interests lie in wide-field surveys and his main efforts centre on the DSS-GAC survey.

Xiaowei Liu is a Professor at the Department of Astronomy in Peking University and acting director of KIAA. Having obtained his PhD from the Beijing Astronomical Observatory he was a postdoctoral researcher in University College London for a number of years before returning to Beijing.