The Board of Trustees of the International Space Science Institute in Beijing (ISSI-BJ) has elected Professor Richard de Grijs from Netherlands to head the Institute as its Executive Director since July, 2023. ISSI-BJ is an Advanced Study Institute that invites space scientists from all over the world to contribute to the achievement of a deeper scientific and technological understanding of future space missions as well as of the scientific results from current and past missions through multidisciplinary research.
Richard de Grijs obtained his PhD from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) in 1997, and subsequently held two postdoctoral positions (at the University of Virginia, USA, and the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK), before being appointed to a permanent post at the University of Sheffield (UK) in 2003. He joined the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University in September 2009 as a full professor, where he actively contributed to the Institute's development (until February 2018). Since March 2018, he has been a Professor of Astrophysics and Associate Dean (Global Engagement) at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
ISSI-BJ was inaugurated as a new institute on July 16, 2013 and is a close cooperative partner of ISSI in Bern. Richard de Grijs will lead ISSI-BJ in its formation and in promoting space sciences research by worldwide collaborations using similar tools to those used by ISSI in Bern.
