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8th · Ningbo 2026

Past Meetings

Held alternately in China and Europe since 2009, the Galileo–Xu Guangqi Meetings are a standing platform for China–Europe exchange in relativistic astrophysics.

This edition

08
Ningbo, China · The Azure Ningbo, Vignette Collection
3–5 November 2026
Ningbo University, ICRA — International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics

Earlier

07
Pescara, Italy
7–11 July 2025

Held at ICRANet headquarters with remote participation.

Organised by:
ICRANet Headquarters

Meeting site

06
Hengyang, Hunan, China
19–25 April 2024

Held jointly with the 2024 annual meeting of the CPS Division of Gravitation and Relativistic Astrophysics, in hybrid format. The venue sits beside Mount Heng — in May 2021 the IAU approved Chinese names for eight lunar features near the Chang’e 5 landing site, among them Mons Heng and Xu Guangqi.

Organised by:
CPS Division of Gravitation and Relativistic Astrophysics, hosted by University of South China, with Lanzhou University, Hunan Normal University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Hunan University of Arts and Science and Purple Mountain Observatory (CAS)
Attendance:
about 550 participants including 25 international speakers
05
Chengdu, China
25–30 June 2017

Held jointly with the 2017 annual meeting of the CPS Division of Gravitation and Relativistic Astrophysics, covering gravitation theory, gravitational-wave physics, black holes, quantum gravity, experimental gravity, quantum field theory in curved spacetime, nuclear astrophysics, dark matter and dark energy, and cosmology.

Organised by:
Division of Gravitation and Relativistic Astrophysics (Chinese Physical Society) and ICRA/ICRANet, hosted by Southwest Jiaotong University
Committee chairs:
Rong-Gen Cai, Remo Ruffini; LOC chair Wen-Gui Zhang
Attendance:
over 380 participants

Meeting site

04
Beijing, China
4–8 May 2015

Held to mark the centenary of general relativity, with sessions on quantum gravity, numerical relativity, gravitational-wave detection, dark matter and dark energy. The 14th Marcel Grossmann Awards were presented at the opening ceremony to Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee.

Organised by:
Institute of Theoretical Physics (CAS), KITPC, ICRA/ICRANet
Committee chairs:
Rong-Gen Cai, Yue-Liang Wu, Remo Ruffini
Attendance:
over 200 participants

Meeting site

03
Beijing, China
11–15 October 2011

Sessions covered X-ray and gamma-ray astrophysics, gravitational waves, precision tests of general relativity, gamma-ray bursts, neutron stars and supernovae, astroparticle physics, cosmology and dark matter.

Organised by:
National Astronomical Observatories (CAS), with ICRANet, IHEP (CAS), Tsinghua University, Peking University and others
Committee chairs:
Tipei Li, Gang Zhao, Remo Ruffini, She-Sheng Xue
Attendance:
210 participants from 23 countries and regions

Meeting siteProceedings

02
Ventimiglia, Italy and Nice, France
12–18 July 2010

Topics ranged over black holes, neutron stars and dark matter, large-scale structure and the early universe, theories of gravitation, gravitational waves and precision tests of general relativity, gamma-ray bursts and ultra-high-energy sources, and space missions. The meeting launched the EU-supported IRAP PhD lecture programme.

Organised by:
University of Nice, Beijing Astronomical Observatory (CAS), ICRA/ICRANet
Committee chairs:
Remo Ruffini, Pascal Chardonnet
Attendance:
capped at 100 participants

Meeting site

01
Shanghai, China
26–30 October 2009

Convened for the International Year of Astronomy 2009, four centuries after Galileo first turned a telescope on the sky. The opening day was devoted to the history of Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci; the remaining three covered large-scale structure, galaxy formation, gravitational waves and general relativity, gamma-ray bursts, neutron stars and supernovae.

Organised by:
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (CAS), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ICRA/ICRANet
Committee chairs:
Yipeng Jing, Remo Ruffini
Attendance:
about 100 participants

Meeting site

Compiled from meeting documents and ICRANet’s public records. Corrections and additions are welcome — please write to the secretariat.