Yuen-Ron Shen () is a Chinese physicist. He is a professor emeritus of

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, known for his work on

non-linear optics Nonlinear optics (NLO) is the branch of optics that describes the behaviour of light in ''nonlinear media'', that is, media in which the polarization density P responds non-linearly to the electric field E of the light. The non-linearity is typica ...

. He was born in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

and graduated from

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard under physicist and Nobel Laureate

Nicolaas Bloembergen Nicolaas Bloembergen (March 11, 1920 – September 5, 2017) was a Dutch-American physicist and Nobel laureate, recognized for his work in developing driving principles behind nonlinear optics for laser spectroscopy. During his career, he was a p ...

in 1963, and joined the department of physics at Berkeley in 1964. In the early years, Shen was probably best known for his work on

self-focusing Self-focusing is a non-linear optical process induced by the change in refractive index of materials exposed to intense electromagnetic radiation. A medium whose refractive index increases with the electric field intensity acts as a focusing lens ...

and

filament propagation In nonlinear optics, filament propagation is propagation of a beam of light through a medium without diffraction. This is possible because the Kerr effect causes an index of refraction change in the medium, resulting in self-focusing of the beam. F ...

of laser beams in materials. These fundamental studies enabled the creation of ultrafast

supercontinuum In optics, a supercontinuum is formed when a collection of nonlinear processes act together upon a pump beam in order to cause severe spectral broadening of the original pump beam, for example using a microstructured optical fiber. The result is ...

light sources. In the 1970s and 1980s, he collaborated with Yuan T. Lee on the study of multiphoton dissociation of molecular clusters. The molecular-beam photofragmentation translational spectroscopy that they developed has clarified much of the initial confusion concerning the dynamics of infrared multiphoton dissociation processes. In the 1980s and 1990s, Shen developed various nonlinear optics methods for the study of material surfaces and interfaces. Among these techniques,

second-harmonic generation Second-harmonic generation (SHG, also called frequency doubling) is a nonlinear optical process in which two photons with the same frequency interact with a nonlinear material, are "combined", and generate a new photon with twice the energy o ...

and

sum frequency generation spectroscopy Sum frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG) is a nonlinear laser spectroscopy technique used to analyze surfaces and interfaces. It can be expressed as a sum of a series of Lorentz oscillators. In a typical SFG setup, two laser beams mix at an in ...

are best known and now widely used by scientists from various fields. He has collaborated with Gabor Somorjai on the use of the technique of

Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy Sum frequency generation spectroscopy (SFG) is a nonlinear laser spectroscopy technique used to analyze surfaces and interfaces. It can be expressed as a sum of a series of Lorentz oscillators. In a typical SFG setup, two laser beams mix at an in ...

to study catalyst surfaces. He is the author of the book ''The Principles of Nonlinear Optics''. Shen belongs to the prolific

J. J. Thomson Sir Joseph John Thomson (18 December 1856 – 30 August 1940) was a British physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics, credited with the discovery of the electron, the first subatomic particle to be discovered. In 1897, Thomson showed that ...

academic lineage tree. Currently, Shen works in U. C. Berkeley and

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 ...

in Shanghai.

Awards and honors

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, member 1990 * National Academy of Sciences, member 1995 * Academia Sinica (Taiwan), member 1990 *

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 Republi ...

, member 1996 * American Physical Society, fellow *

Optical Society of America Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...

, fellow * American Association for the Advancement of Science, fellow *

Sloan Research Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

, 1966–68 *

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the a ...

, 1972–73 * Miller Professor, 1975, 1981 * Alexander von Humboldt Award, 1984 * C. H. Townes Award,

, 1986 * Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science, 1992 * Max Planck Research Prize, 1996 * Frank Isakson Prize for Optical Effects in Solids, 1998 * International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, China 2008 * DOE Award for Outstanding Scientific Accomplishments in Solid State Physics, 1983 * DOE Award for Sustained Outstanding Research in Solid State Physics, 1987 * DOE Award for Significant Implications for DOE-Related Technologies, 1997.

References

External links

UC Berkeley Physics Dept. Faculty Page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shen, Yuen-Ron Living people Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Academic staff of Fudan University Nanyang Model High School alumni Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Members of Academia Sinica Fellows of Optica (society) Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences National Taiwan University alumni Physicists from Shanghai Sloan Research Fellows University of California, Berkeley faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Physical Society