Education Experiences:

Sept. 1990 – June 1993, Nanjing University, astrophysics, doctorate

Sept. 1987 – June 1990, Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, nuclear physics, master’s

Sept. 1983 – June 1987, National University of Defense Technology, radiation protection

Work Experiences (Research and Academic Experiences):

2003-present, Chang Jiang Distinguished Professor, deputy chair of Chinese Astronomical Society, chair of Jiangsu Astronomical Society, a member of the disciplinary review panel of physics and astronomy  under disciplinary review panels of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council

March 1999 – present, Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, professor

March 1996 – Feb. 1999, Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, associate professor

June 1995 – Feb. 1996, Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, lecturer

July 1993 – May 1995, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, post-doctorate

Theoretical Astrophysics (for undergraduate students)

Physics of Neutron Star (for undergraduate students)

Physics of Compact Objects (for graduate students)

His research focuses on neutron stars, Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), fast radio burst, super-luminous supernovae, and cosmology. Together with his collaborators, he published 234 SCI papers (as of October 2019), including 2 papers in Science, 4 papers in Nature Physics and other Nature-branded journals, 3 papers in Physical Review Letters, and most of the others in core international journals of astronomy. These papers were cited over 8,300 times (according to ADS) and have made him listed as one of ESI (or IOP) top cited authors for five consecutive years.

Major Achievements:

(1)  In GRBs, he put forward a new way of studying its source and central engine by revealing from the stellar wind that the long GRB originated from the collapse of massive stars. He predicted the afterglow light curve platform and revealed that the central engine of GRBs was “the millisecond pulsar with a strong magnetic field.” One of his paper in Science argues that late-time X-ray flares in the short GRB were produced from the magnetic reconnection mechanism on the surface of the millisecond pulsar after the combination of a neutron star pair.

(2)  In cosmology, he put forward a new way of studying dark energy and intergalactic magnetic fields by using GRBs to discover the parameter range of dark energy’s state equation, and thus acquired the secondary gamma spectrum on which  intergalactic magnetic fields are dependent.

(3)  He established a pulsar-asteroid belt collision model for repeating fast radio bursts and a combination model of a neutron star pair for  non-repeating fast radio bursts.

These achievements were not only cited for many times by ten review papers in world famous review journals such as Reviews of Modern Physics, Physics Reports, and Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, but were also highly appraised by many internationally authoritative specialists including academicians of American Academy of Science such as Roger Chevalier. Besides, they were even verified by a large number of observations and widely applied and extensively written into textbooks published by Springer and Cambridge.

Professor Dai was supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars in 1998 and selected as Chang Jiang Distinguished Professor in 2002. He won the second prize (first on the awardee list) of the National Natural Science Award of China in 2003and the first prizes (both first on the awardee list) of the Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education in 2002 and 2010. He received the Eighth China Youth Science and Technology Award in 2004 and the “Huang Runqian Astrophysics Basic Research Award” of the Chinese Astronomical Society in 2017.

Of the doctoral students he supervised, four of them won the National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, one was funded by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, and three others were supported by the National Excellent Young Scientists Fund.

He led the first Creative Research Group in astronomy supported by the National Natural Science Fund and the GRB 973 Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology. He served as a vice chair of Chinese Astronomical Society (three terms in total) and chair of Jiangsu Astronomical Society.

Research Projects and Talent Programs Having Led or Participated in:

(1) A project supported by the Young Scientists Fund of China (19503001), “A study on neutron star states and observation”, Jan. 1996 – Dec. 1998, project leader.

(2) A project supported by the National “Climbing” Program, “Multi-band observation and study of celestial intense activity,” Jan. 1997 – Dec. 2001, sub-project leader.

(3) The National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, NKBRSFG19990754), “The formation and evolution of galaxy,” Jan. 2000 – Dec. 2004, sub-project leader.

(4) The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (19825109), Jan. 1999 – Dec. 2002, project leader.

(5) The Fund for National Creative Research Groups (10221001), “High energy process in astrophysics,” Jan. 2003 – Dec. 2008, project leader.

(6) The State Key Program of National Natural Science of China (10233010), “The observation and theoretical research on GRBs and their afterglow,” Jan. 2003 – Dec. 2005, project leader.

(7) The National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2007CB815404), “The observation of universal high redshift,” Sept. 2007 – Aug. 2011, sub-project leader.

(8) General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10873009), “Research on GRB’s afterglow, high energy Gamma radiation, and energy source in the Swift and Fermi era,” Jan. 2009 – Dec. 2011, project leader.

(9) The State Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (11033002), “Research on GRBs and relevant astrophysics issues,” Jan. 2011 – Dec. 2014, project leader.

(10) The National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2014CB845800), “Research on GRB and relevant frontier physics,” Jan. 2014 – Aug. 2018, project leader.

(11) General Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11573014), “Research on transient sources of rapidly rotating magnetars,” Jan. 2016 – Dec. 2019, project leader.

(12) National Key Research and Development Project (2017YFA0402600), “CRAFTS,” Jan. 2018 – Dec. 2022, participant.

(13) The Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (11833003), “Research on short GRBs and their astrophysics issues,” Jan. 2019 – Dec. 2023, project leader.