National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) is joining forces with the Breakthrough Initiatives to launch a coordinated search for evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth, using some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Breakthrough Listen program at Green Bank Telescope in the US and the Parkes Observatory in Australia and NAOC’s brand-new 500m FAST radio telescope – the world’s largest filled-aperture radio receiver – will exchange observing plans, search methods and data – including the rapid sharing of promising new signals for additional observation and analysis. 

At a signing ceremony at NAOC headquarters in Beijing, the collaboration was announced via a joint statement by Prof. Jun Yan, Director General of NAOC and Pete Worden, Chairman of Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Executive director of Breakthrough Initiatives. They looked forward to a long and productive scientific collaboration.  

Dr. Yuri Milner, the founder of the Breakthrough Initiatives, and Dr. Leonid Solovyev, the Operations Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, attended the signing ceremony. At NAOC side, Prof. Rendong Nan, the Chief Engineer and Chief Scientist of FAST, and Profs. Di Li, Bo Peng, Ming Zhu, Chengjin Jin, Haiyan Zhang, Shude Mao, Lijun Gou, Yanchun Liang, and Dr. Ran Duan also join the signing ceremony.  

After the signing ceremony, Dr. Pete Worden gave a public talk at NAOC to introduce Breakthrough Initiatives and the Breakthrough Listen program. We expect the successful collaborations between NAOC and the Breakthrough Initiatives.