The first time I came to China was in 2013, at the beginning of my PhD, for the International Astronomical Union meeting in Lijiang. During that same trip I also had the opportunity to visit the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO, CAS) and the group in which I am now working.

SHAO is located in a tall building in the city centre, an awesome site for an astronomical observatory. Because I love both astronomy and big cities, I knew Shanghai would offer me the perfect work-life balance experience, so I applied for a post-doctoral position here in 2015.

The research of the Shanghai group was very related to my PhD research and I already knew two faculty members and three postdocs in the group, therefore moving to China felt like the obvious choice for my career path. I was already in Shanghai in 2016 when I received the PIFI and was of course very glad I had the opportunity to extend my stay here, and with a much better salary.

My work focuses on the study of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. At the center of our galaxy there is a large population of stars which form “the Bulge”. Together with the Galactic Dynamics group in SHAO, we have worked on studying the distribution and motion of stars in the Bulge. It has been a privilege to work in this group because of the expertise of my SHAO host and the hard work of a few very dedicated PhD students.

For me perhaps one of the biggest rewards was seeing the PhD students grow, become independent and start taking initiative. But the rewards have been numerous:

- having articles published in prestigious astronomical journals

- making new contacts both inside China and abroad while traveling for conferences

- establishing new collaborations with visitors, who love to visit our institute

- collecting new data from world-class telescopes using the Chinese TAP services

- reaching out to the wider Chinese public through science competitions and the Astronomy Open Day at the Shanghai History Museum

And, personally, I have made many local friends who work in other fields, some of whom are now my best friends. And in my first week in 2016 I adopted a cat called Kinu, who has been living with me since.

Iulia Simion

Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,

Chinese Academy of Sciences