2016 MERAC Prize to Yingjie Peng
The 2016 MERAC Prize of the European Astronomical Society for the best doctoral thesis in observational astrophysics goes to Dr Yingjie Peng, who obtained his PhD at ETH Zurich in 2013.
Yingjie Peng, now a Youth Qianren Research Professor at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Beijing, joined the PhD programme in observational cosmology at ETH Zurich in 2007 under the supervision of Prof. Simon Lilly and obtained his PhD in 2013. He was awarded the ETH Medal for his outstanding PhD thesis on the simplicity of the evolving galaxy population and the origin of the Schechter form of the galaxy stellar mass function.
He has now received one of the three 2016 MERAC Prizes for best doctoral thesis. The MERAC Prizes are awarded by the European Astronomical Society, to recognize and support young European astronomers.
The Fondation MERAC (Mobilising European Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology) is a non-profit foundation with headquarters in Switzerland, and sponsors since 2013 every year three MERAC Prizes of 20,000 Euros, for the three categories theoretical astrophysics, observational astrophysics and new technologies. The prizes alternate by year for best early-career researchers and for best doctoral thesis.