Director General of Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and Deputy Director of Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) observatory, Prof. Rafael Rebolo López & Prof. Romano Corradi, visit Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology (NIAOT) on May 11, 2016. 

In the morning, they respectively give their academic presentation of ‘Astrophics in the Canary Islands’ and ‘Science with the 10.4m GTC’, and then visit some research departments with Deputy Director of NIAOT, Xuefei Gong, including Astronomical Spectral Technology Lab, Exoplanet Detection Lab, Optical Workshop, Vertical Test Tower and so on. 

On the afternoon, the IAC visitors and the NIAOT representatives hold the bilateral meeting to discuss about international cooperation between IAC and NIAOT. It contains the cooperative observation with LAMOST high resolution spectrograph and GTC, joint development of astronomical optical equipment, academic exchange activities. 

The NIAOT and IAC Directors, Prof. Yongtian Zhu & Prof. Rafael Rebolo López, express their optimistic and positive attitude to the prospect of this cooperation between NIAOT and IAC. 

Prof. Rafael Rebolo López, Spanish astronomer, Director General of IAC, is member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences and of the Max Planck Society, and DoctorHonorisCausa for the Politechnic University of Cartagena. 

He has been awarded several of the most important research prizes in Spain (Iberdrola Science and Technology Prize 2000, Jaime I Research Prize 2001, Canarias Research and Innovation Prize 2002) for his studies on the radiation from the Big Bang, for the discovery in 1995 of brown dwarfs (astronomical objects intermediate between stars and giant planets, billions exist in our Galaxy) and for his studies on the origin of elements and of stellar black holes. In 2015, he was awarded the Jules Janssen Prize (the most important award of the French Astronomical Society). 

Prof. Romano Corradi, Spanish astronomer, Deputy Director of GTC observatory, was researcher ofIAC and senior support astronomer of Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING), and member of several astronomical organizations, respectively ESO Observing Proposal Committee (OPC) in 2006, 2011 and 2012, the IAU “Working Group on Planetary Nebulae" starting from 2006.  

He has 25 years of active research in the fields of planetary nebulae, symbiotic stars, the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Also he has vast expertise in instrumentation and telescope management at the ESO and the ORM observatories. 

(Information source:Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics & Technology )