Shanghai Astronomical Observatory Astrophysics Colloquium

Title：The past and future of radio astronomy in Japan, and the future of Japanese VLBI research

Speaker：Hideyuki Kobayashi（NAOJ, SHAO）

Time：10:00 am Dec.26th (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：930-460-435 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Abstract：

Japanese radio astronomy community became active from the 1970s and constructed Nobeyama 45-m millimeter wave telescope in 1980s, which is the first world competitive telescope in Japan.  Japan has participated in the construction of ALMA, and has produced many science results by it. In the field of VLBI, Japan has jointed millimeter-wave VLBI observations with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope in 1980s, carried out of the VSOP in 1990s, the world's first space VLBI, and realized VERA array in 2000s, which specializes in astrometry. Based on these achievements, there is now a lot of discussion about future plans for radio astronomy in Japan. I would like to summarize these past plans, introduce the future plans that are being considered, and discuss the possibilities for future research collaboration between China and Japan.

CV：

Prof. Hideyuki Kobayashi is a Professor of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). He served as the Director of Mizusawa VLBI Observatory of NAOJ from 2002 to 2010, the Deputy director-general of NAOJ from 2010 to 2018 and led the SKA1 study group of NAOJ from 2018 to 2024. He is now a PIFI visiting professor at Shanghai Astronomical observatory since July 1st, 2024.

Prof.Hideyuki Kobayashi has fruitful experiences in the field of radio astronomy. As Science lead of HALCA satellite, led the development of radio astronomy system of the satellite and achieved the success of first VLBI satellite and space VLBI observation with ground radio telescopes in the world. And as a project manager of development VLBI correlator in Japan, led the development of first large VLBI correlator in Japan and the operations for the VLBI Space Observatory Program (VSOP) with HALCA and more than 20 ground radio telescopes. As Lead of construction of VERA and director of Mizusawa VLBI Observatory, led the construction of four 20-m radio telescopes and achieved 10-micro-arc-sencond accuracy measurements of annual parallaxes for Galactic maser objects. As a vice-director of NAOJ, led the funding for Japanese ALMA commitments and the construction of Japanese contribution for ALMA. As Chair of East Asia VLBI consortium, led the organization of East Asian VLBI network with Chinese, Korean, and Japanese VLBI stations for astronomy, which is a largest VLBI array in the world. As Lead of SKA1 project of NAOJ, led the establishment of the project in NAOJ and organize fund raising to join SKA project from Japan.

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