Astronomical Distance Determination in the Space Age

Prof Richard de Grijs is the Associate Dean (Global Engagement) of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Macquarie University in Sydney (Australia). He obtained his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) in 1997and held postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Virginia (USA) and 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 (China) in September 2009 as a full professor, actively contributing to the Institute's international development until his relocation to Macquarie University in March 2018. His research focuses on improved calibrations of the astronomical distance scale as well as on star cluster physics.
Prof Maurizio Falanga received his university degree for Theoretical Physics and Astronomy at the University of Basel, Switzerland and his PhD degree in astrophysics from the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy. He received the venia docendi in physics from the University of Basel in 2013. His scientific background is in high-energy astrophysics (hot universe and compact objects). Since 2009, he has been the Science Program Manager at the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) in Bern, Switzerland. Between 2013 and 2018 he was appointed as the founding Executive Director of the International Space Sciences Institute in Beijing, China. He is author and coauthor of about 200 published papers and editor of several books in his research fields.