About Me (email: sunmeng_at_nao.cas.cn)
I was born and raised in Beijing, China. While I’m not exactly a big-city person, I’m still very grateful that growing up in Beijing gave me access to excellent educational resources, which nurtured my early interest in astronomy. As a middle school student, I began exploring the night sky as an amateur astronomer and conducted my first hands-on research projects on the orbits of near-Earth asteroids and sungrazing comets. I remained an active amateur astronomer for nine years before coming to the University of Virginia for graduate school, where I finally had the chance to engage in full-time research. While many might have assumed I’d continue as an observer, I was increasingly drawn to theoretical work. During my PhD, I focused on modeling stellar and binary evolution, with particular interest in tidal interactions in late-type stars and their role in orbital dynamics.
I am also an amateur astrophotographer, and all the pictures on the front page were taken by me. You're welcome to view my flickr photo album. I also enjoy long-distance driving, especially the quiet moments on the road, which give me time to think