Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) builds Joint Laboratory for Spectroscopic Detection of Matter Composition in Deep Space with Macau University of Science and Technology (M.U.S.T.) that was officially announced on a scientific cooperation agreement signing ceremony held through video connection and joined by highest executives of the two on October 19.
LIU Jianguo, President of HFIPS and Chair Professor Joseph Hun-wei LEE, Vice-Chancellor and President of the other side addressed the signing delivering best wishes to their long-expected collaboration.
According to the agreement, the Joint Lab was established firstly, under collaborative framework but on a practical level, as a concrete support for long and stable collaboration based on which proceeding on science, technology and engineering for deep space detection could be facilitated in a long-term manner.
Besides the good starting, the two organizations wanted a well-continued connection, hence senior executives of the two had a deep discussion on the joint lab’s administration to form with consensus the first management committee who appointed Professor LIU Wenqing, member of Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Chair Professor ZHANG Keke, Director of the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences as the lab directors.
The joint lab was set up as an outstretch of a well-ongoing collaboration that HFIPS and M.U.S.T. are working closely in manufacturing water molecular detector aboard the Leaper of Chang’e 7, a planned robotic Chinese lunar exploration mission expected to target the lunar south pole. The project was kicked off last May in Hefei where HFIPS who leads the project is based.
"Like other collaboration at anywhere else", according to LIU Jianguo, "the shared scientific interest brings us to the agreement that joint activities will be carried out to promote bilateral academic exchange, sci & tech collaboration, and talent training in a wide range from deep space detection to environment science, medical research to artificial intelligence,” added LIU.
M.U.S.T. has rapidly developed into the largest multi-disciplinary university in Macao since its founding in 2000 and is ranked among the Top 20 Universities in Greater China. The State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences was built by Ministry of Science and Technology of China and is based at the M.U.S.T. It represents the first State Key Laboratory specializing in the field of astronomy and planetary sciences in China. The key lab started to participate, with its scientific foundation in planetary science, in China Lunar Exploration Project in 2005, involving data analysis and scientific research.
HFIPS was one of largest CAS institutes based on Science Island. With years of development, HFIPS has advanced a cross-disciplinary study field that arrays of advanced detection instruments are manufactured on cutting-edge spectroscopic technology. Based on the expertise in manufacturing of instrument for multi-applications, HFIPS has completed many development tasks for observational payloads aboard the satellites.
