16 Jan 2023, National Science Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Dr. Saran Poshyachinda, NARIT Executive Director delivers his first talk in 2023 at the Global Malaysian Astronomers Convention (GMAC) 2023.  The talk is part of the meeting’s plenary session where prominent figures in the field of astronomy and astrophysics giving their thoughts how to drive forward the development of astronomy in Malaysia. Various plenary speakers voice their views based on their experiences and perspectives to encourage the already existing and strong community to come up with a concrete plan for tangible progress of the discipline and related sciences, especially where there are other associated aspects of development whilst accelerating the buildup of astronomy, such as technology development and human capacity building.
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The NARIT Executive Director reiterates that the idea of having a national research institute who covers the work of national development of astronomy in Malaysia will help boost its competitiveness in human capacity building and technology development, enabling knowledge and technology transfer to local industries and startups. In return, the society as a whole will benefit economically in the long run. “Malaysia has the advantage of the critical mass in the area of the quantity of qualified astronomies in the country and across the world. What you need is a group of passionate people to put forward the project of establishing a national research institute and pick the most appropriate narrative that fits the needs for such institute in which astronomy can fulfill, I think Malaysia will be able to achieve it”, adds Dr. Saran Poshyachinda.
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GMAC was first convened in 2020 just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. This is the first gathering after the pandemic era. More than 150 Malaysian astronomers convene in this event sharing their research work and studies ranging from solar physics and space weather, stellar evolution, star formation, black holes, to galaxy evolution and cosmology. Individual expertise includes astronomical observations and instrumentation at radio to high energy wavelengths, multi-messenger astronomy, big data and numerical simulations. GMAC 2023 is held during 16-18 January 2023.