Zhi-Xun Shen (; born July 1962) is a Chinese-American experimental and solid state physicist who is a professor at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. He is particularly noted for his

ARPES Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is an experimental technique used in condensed matter physics to probe the allowed energies and momenta of the electrons in a material, usually a crystalline solid. It is based on the photoele ...

studies on

high-temperature superconductor High-temperature superconductors (abbreviated high-c or HTS) are defined as materials that behave as superconductors at temperatures above , the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. The adjective "high temperature" is only in respect to previ ...

Life

Shen was born in July 1962 in

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

, China. He graduated from

Fudan University Fudan University () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...

with a B.S. in 1983, and went to the United States through the

CUSPEA CUSPEA (China-U.S. Physics Examination and Application,李政道奖学金) was an examination and admission system used by the physics departments of some American and Canadian universities for graduate school admission from People's Republic of Chi ...

program organized by T. D. Lee. He earned his M.S. degree in 1985 at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. In 1989 he received a PhD in applied physics from

. In 1991 he became assistant professor, in 1996 associate professor, and in 2000 full professor at Stanford University. Since 2010 he is chief scientist at

SLAC SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Departm ...

(at the

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (formerly Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory), a division of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is operated by Stanford University for the Department of Energy. SSRL is a National User Fac ...

, SSRL), and since 2006 he is founding director of the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES). Furthermore, 2005 to 2008 he was director of the Geballe Laboratory for Advance Materials.

Research

He developed several precision instruments, e.g. for

synchrotron radiation Synchrotron radiation (also known as magnetobremsstrahlung radiation) is the electromagnetic radiation emitted when relativistic charged particles are subject to an acceleration perpendicular to their velocity (). It is produced artificially in ...

sources, helium lamps for UV and

angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is an experimental technique used in condensed matter physics to probe the allowed energies and momenta of the electrons in a material, usually a crystalline solid. It is based on the photoelec ...

(ARPES), and he used these to study high-temperature superconductors. For example, his group in 2010 obtained convincing evidence that the ''

pseudogap In condensed matter physics, a pseudogap describes a state where the Fermi surface of a material possesses a partial energy gap, for example, a band structure state where the Fermi surface is gapped only at certain points. The term pseudogap wa ...

'' phase of the cuprate high-temperature superconductors, which was discovered in the mid 1990s, indeed is an independent phase (independent from the metallic and superconducting phases), which reaches into the superconducting phase. Besides ARPES techniques in the UV regime, he also employs x-ray diffraction methods. He developed near-field microwave microscopy (scanning microwave impedance microscopy) based on

atomic force microscope Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the diffr ...

s for studies on mesoscopic length scales, e.g. nanostructured materials. Using this, he addresses applications such as new techniques for solar collectors (Photo Enhanced Thermionic Emission, PETE).

Awards

In 1999 he gave the APS Centennial lecture and in 2003 was elected fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

(APS), In 2000 he received the

Kamerlingh Onnes Prize The Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Prize was established in 2000, under the sponsorship of Elsevier, by the organizers of the International Conference on the Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity (M2S). The prize is named in honor of Heike Kamerli ...

and in 2009 the

Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award The Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award was established in 1959 in honor of a scientist who helped elevate American physics to the status of world leader in the field. E. O. Lawrence was the inventor of the cyclotron, an accelerator of subatomic parti ...

, and 2011 together with Peter Johnson the

Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize The Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize is an annual award given by the American Physical Society "to recognize and encourage outstanding theoretical or experimental contributions to condensed matter physics." It was endowed by AT&T Bell Lab ...

. In 2015 he was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. In 2017, Shen was elected as a foreign member of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

References

External links

Homepage in Stanford

Oliver Buckley Prize

Further Homepage of Shen
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shen, Zhi Xun 1962 births Living people 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Chinese emigrants to the United States Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Fudan University alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Educators from Wenzhou Experimental physicists Physicists from Zhejiang Rutgers University alumni Scientists from Wenzhou Stanford University alumni Stanford University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize winners