From September 20 to 22, 2026, the International Workshop on Protoplanetary Disks and Exoplanets (PDEx2026) was held at the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA), Peking University, organized by Prof. Lile Wang. The workshop focused on simulations and observations of protoplanetary disks and exoplanets. The workshop brought together more than forty researchers from Japan, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and China.
Under the theme “the formation, evolution, and characterization of planetary systems”, a total of 35 presentations were delivered over the three days, covering star formation and protostellar disks; disk observations, dust, and structure; planet–disk interactions; dust microphysics, snow lines, chemistry, and planetesimal formation; disk winds, magnetohydrodynamics, and disk dynamics; as well as the detection, imaging, and dynamics of exoplanets. Professor Luis C. Ho, Director of KIAA, attended the opening ceremony and delivered the opening remarks.
Professor Luis C. Ho, Director of KIAA, delivering the opening remarks
Group photo of the participants
During the scientific sessions, participants engaged in in-depth exchanges on the multi-scale processes of planet formation, covering topics ranging from high-resolution observations and substructures of protoplanetary disks, the distribution and chemical evolution of dust and gas in disks, planet–disk interactions, and numerical simulations of disk winds and magnetohydrodynamic processes, to frontier methods for exoplanet detection and characterization; many young researchers and graduate students also presented their latest results. Most participants were in person, though researchers from the American Museum of Natural History, Northwestern University, the University of Hawaii, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy joined the workshop online across time zones.
Professor Kei Tanaka (Institute of Science Tokyo) presenting
Professor Daniel Price (Monash University) presenting
A KIAA doctoral student presenting
Ample time was reserved for discussion. After every talk, both on-site and online participants asked questions actively and engaged in lively exchanges with the speakers throughout the workshop.
Professor Kengo Tomida (Tohoku University) raising questions to a speaker
Beyond the scientific sessions, a conference banquet was held on the evening of September 20, and on September 23 some participants visited the Summer Palace together, providing further opportunities for face-to-face exchange.
At the closing ceremony, the workshop chair, Lile Wang of KIAA, expressed sincere thanks to all the speakers, participants, and members of the organizing team; the participants also put forward a number of concrete and feasible directions for future collaboration on the integrated study of planet formation and exoplanets, and looked forward to meeting again in the future.
The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) consisted of Lile Wang, Ruobing Dong, Feng Long, Gregory Herczeg, Xuening Bai (Tsinghua University), and Xuesong Wang (Tsinghua University); the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) consisted of Lile Wang, Suwei Wang, Fangzhou Ren, Shuyan Liu, Shuo Zhang, and Min Sun.
