2024 Annual Exchange Meeting of the National Key R&D Program Project 'Frontier Scientific Research Based on the 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope' Successfully Held

2024 Annual Exchange Meeting of the National Key R&D Program Project “Frontier Scientific Research Based on the 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope” Successfully Held

From March 14 to 16, 2025, the 2024 Annual Exchange Meeting of the National Key R&D Program project “Frontier Scientific Research Based on the 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope” (PI: Professor Xu Kong, School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, USTC) was successfully held in Hefei. The meeting adopted a hybrid format (both in-person and online), reviewing the project’s annual progress and planning the next phase of work. Professor Yongquan Xue, Associate Dean of the School of Physical Sciences at USTC, attended the meeting and delivered a welcome address on behalf of the host institution. The meeting was attended by the project expert group leader, Academician Yipeng Jing from Shanghai Jiao Tong University; expert group members Academician Shengcai Shi and Deputy Director Researcher Xuefeng Wu from the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Director Researcher Jifeng Liu from the National Astronomical Observatories, CAS; Professor Qiusheng Gu from the School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University; Professor Xiaofeng Wang from Tsinghua University; Professor Zigao Dai from USTC; and other project team members.

Professor Yongquan Xue, on behalf of the School of Physical Sciences at USTC, extended a warm welcome and sincere thanks to the attending experts. He fully acknowledged the diligent efforts of the project team members during 2024 and offered expectations regarding the project's阶段性成果 and future work.

Professor Xu Kong, the project leader, first reported on the 2024 operation and maintenance status of the WFST, and briefly introduced the progress made by each project sub-team in 2024. Subsequently, sub-team leaders Professor Lulu Fan, Professor Yongquan Xue (both from the School of Physical Sciences, USTC), Researcher Haibin Zhao, and Researcher Xianzhong Zheng (both from the Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS) delivered special reports on the 2024 progress of their respective sub-teams.

After listening attentively to the presentations, the project expert group provided guidance for the project's subsequent work. They hoped that the project team would leverage the National Key R&D Program to further optimize the WFST data processing system, thereby enhancing the efficiency of scientific output; continuously strengthen collaboration across various scientific sub-projects to produce more original results; and deepen domestic and international cooperation to increase the international influence of WFST, contributing to national scientific and technological development.

In the afternoon, representative members of the project team presented highlight reports on various topics: Progress on the WFST Cosmology Image Stacking and Quality Control Pipeline (Binyang Liu), WFST Globular Cluster Survey and Early Survey Results (Zhen Wan), WFST Observations of the Galactic Plane at Minute Cadence (Jie Lin), Detection and Follow-up of Optically Faint TDE Candidates (Ning Jiang), “First Anniversary” of WFST: Progress in Supernova Research (Ji’an Jiang), Research on Low-mass Lens Galaxies (Yiping Shu), Measuring the Black Hole-Halo Scaling Relation via Weak Gravitational Lensing (Wentao Luo).

Subsequently, attending experts and project team members engaged in thorough discussions on the presentation content. Based on the presentations and expert suggestions, Professor Xu Kong pointed out the need for the project to implement signed cooperation agreements and memoranda with domestic facilities, carry out relevant specific collaborative work, and further strengthen domestic and international cooperation by learning from the international collaboration experience of excellent domestic facilities to promote scientific output. Finally, Researcher Xuefeng Wu, Deputy Director of the Purple Mountain Observatory, CAS, and a member of the expert group, summarized the meeting. He affirmed the project’s annual progress and expressed the hope that the project team, while meeting project indicators, would fully leverage the capabilities of the 2.5-meter Wide Field Survey Telescope, strengthen cooperation with domestic and international institutions, conduct frontier exploration, enhance China’s research capacity in time-domain astronomy, and contribute to serving major national strategic needs.