Honors ＆ Experience

• Golden Jade Fellow, Kenda Foundation, Taiwan
•  Honorary Associate Professor, Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong

Research Interests

I have a wide range of research interest in observational astrophysics. My current research focus is on multi-wavelength investigation of compact objects including black holes, neutron stars, and white dwarfs. These systems are laboratories for studying physics under extreme conditions and I am pursuing observing programs to understand the accretion processes in their vicinity. To this end, I have been very successful in gaining observing time on ground-based observing facilities and the Hubble Space Telescope for optical and infrared observations, as well as facilities spanning the electromagnetic spectrum from Gamma-ray (Integral and Fermi), X-ray (Chandra, XMM-Newton, Suzaku, and Swift), through to radio (ATCA) wavelengths. Furthermore, I am working on the next generation surveys including Pan-STARRS, Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) and Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam Surveys. A significant fraction of my research focuses on time domain astrophysics.

With the launch of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope in mid-2008, we have entered a new era of high-energy astrophysics. I am currently leading an initiative to organize a Fermi Asian Network (FAN) to promote Fermi science together with scientists from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea.

Selected Publications

• A.K.H. Kong et al., “Discovery of an Ultracompact Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsar Binary Candidate”, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 794, L22 (2014)
• A.K.H. Kong et al., “Optical Emission of the Black Hole X-Ray Transient MAXI J1659-152 during Quiescence”, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 760, L27 (2012)
• A.K.H. Kong et al., “Discovery of an Unidentified Fermi Object as a Black Widow-like Millisecond Pulsar”, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 747, L3 (2012)
• T.-N. Lu and A.K.H. Kong, “Radio Continuum Observations of 47 Tucanae and ω Centauri: Hints for Intermediate-mass Black Holes?”, The Astrophysical Journal, 729, L25 (2011)
• Y.-K. Chiang and A.K.H. Kong, “The long-term variability of the X-ray sources in M82”, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 414, 1329 (2011)
• A.K.H. Kong, Y.J. Yang, T.-C. Yen, H. Feng and P. Kaaret, “Swift Observations of the Ultraluminous X-ray Source Holmberg IX X-1”, The Astrophysical Journal, 722, 1816 (2010)
• A.K.H. Kong, C.Y. Hui and K.S. Cheng, “Fermi Discovery of Gamma-ray Emission from the Globular Cluster Terzan 5”, The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 712, L36 (2010)
• T.-N. Lu, et al. “X-ray Sources and their Optical Counterparts in the Galactic Globular Cluster M12 (NGC 6218)”, The Astrophysical Journal, 705, 175 (2009)
• A.M. Soderberg, et al. “An extremely luminous X-ray outburst at the birth of a supernova”, Nature, 453, 469 (2008)
• more......