Shao Lijing, researcher from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, introduces an image of a black hole at Peking University in Beijing, capital of China, on Nov. 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Yu Fei)

BEIJING, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Like Sheldon's character in the sitcom "The Big Bang Theory," Shao Lijing has a whiteboard in his office filled with abstruse physics formulas.

As someone who participated in gravitational wave detection and taking the first image ever of a black hole, Shao deems the universe a huge laboratory. He tests gravitational theory and explores unknown cosmic laws by studying extreme physical phenomena such as gravitational waves, black holes and pulsars.

The 35-year-old researcher from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University is considered to be one of the young leaders in gravitational wave research in China. A gravitational waveform template he developed in collaboration with his global counterparts has been used by international research teams in the search for binary black hole systems, leading to the discovery of dozens of new gravitational wave events.

Shao first read Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" in middle school and was immediately fascinated by the subject of black holes. "It's amazing that black holes exist not in fairy tales, but in the real world," he said.

With a keen interest in physics, he later became an astrophysicist and has focused his research on gravity since 2011. As a member of international research teams, he was involved in major discoveries including the merging of binary neutron stars in 2017, which is the first event of its kind detected by human beings, the first black hole image published in 2019, and the first image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way released in May last year.

Though he had already deduced what a black hole would look like, Shao was still amazed when he saw the first image of a black hole.

"The curved space-time theory may seem illusory, but it can actually predict very extreme phenomena in the real world," Shao said. "Confirming the prediction is a major breakthrough for humankind."

"Scientists plan to take better-quality pictures of black holes in the future and even film them to see how their shadow changes over time," he added.

Shao Lijing, researcher from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University, demonstrates how a radio telescope works at Peking University in Beijing, capital of China, on Nov. 1, 2022.(Xinhua/Yu Fei)

Shao shared the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics as a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team, and was also included in a list of the world's top 2 percent scientists of 2020 released by Stanford University.

"Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions in nature, and the most important force in the evolution of stars and the universe. The research on the nature of gravity once greatly promoted the development of physics and has always been a hot subject in theoretical physics and astrophysics," Shao said.

"We need to study dark matter, dark energy and other issues that can't be well explained by Einstein's theory of general relativity alone so far. We hope to discover new physics through gravity research," said Shao, who is actively participating in scientific research projects related to pulsars, gravitational waves and black holes.

Shao is conducting pulsar-related theoretical pre-research and training young scientists for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest astronomical device under construction, of which China is one of the sponsors and a prominent member.

He also demonstrated the scientific objectives for China's Taiji and Tianqin space gravitational wave detection projects, and studied the possibility of using space gravitational wave detection to search for exoplanets, among others.

He designed a brand-new astrophysical experiment together with his collaborators to study the properties of dark matter through pulsar orbit changes.

Shao hopes that more people will understand and appreciate astrophysics, which he believes can add a new dimension to a person's life and make him more open-minded.

"Studying astrophysics taught me that human beings are so tiny in the universe," Shao said. "But such a tiny creature can understand the vastness and depth of the universe, and in this sense, human beings are great."