De Cat, Peter

Seminar presented at National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China on 2024-06-04

Abstract: As a little boy, I was already fascinated by the magnificent light show of the twinkling stars in the night sky. My scientific career started almost 30 years ago when, as a physics student at KU Leuven (Belgium), I prepared my master's thesis under the supervision of Conny Aerts. Thanks to her enthusiasm, I started to look into asteroseismology, where the stars reveal the secrets of their hidden interior through the way they vibrate. In this presentation I would like to demonstrate how my interest in stellar pulsations has led to the two projects that I consider my greatest scientific achievements to date, namely the close collaboration with colleagues from both China (via the LAMOST-Kepler project) and India (via the BINA project). The strength of these projects will be demonstrated by some scientific results in different domains. Recently, a new network has emerged involving some of my close collaborators from China and India. Hence the open question: are there opportunities to further the strengthen scientific ties between China, Belgium and India in the future?