Very recently, a mid-term evaluation meeting was held at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics (MPA) for the Partner Group “Hydrodynamic simulations and galaxy formation”, led by Prof. Xiaohu Yang on the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) side and by Prof. Volker Springel on MPA side.

The meeting was carried out to evaluate the science achievements and collaborations between MPA and SHAO within the Partner Group ever since its establishment in August 2006. The international evaluation committees consist of the world well known astronomers, including Prof. Shude Mao (University of Manchester, UK), Prof. Matthias Bartelmann (University of Heidelberg, Germany) and Prof. Houjun Mo (University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA).

  The evaluation committees carefully listened to and reviewed the reports on running the Partner Group during the past three years by the two group leaders, Prof. Xiaohu Yang and Prof. Volker Springel. After the discuss section with the group members and a closed session within themselves, the evaluation committees concluded that the performance of the Partner Group during the past three years, especially the collaborations, were very successful, and significant achievements were obtained in both modeling and simulation of galaxy formations.

During the past three years, about ten collaboration papers have been published in high impact international journals and most of them received considerable citations. Upon these successful collaborations and original work of each (also junior) member of the group, the evaluation committees recommend the extension of the Partner Group to its full 5 year term. The MPG will continue to provide the financial support and wish the Partner Group to be successful in the future collaborations. Note that the current Partner Group is the second one has ever been established between SHAO and MPA. Since its establishment in 2006, prominent progresses have been made in scientific researches, graduate student education and international collaborations, etc.