Yuen-Ron Shen

Yuen - Ron Shen ( born March 25, 1935 in Shanghai) is an American physicist.

Life and work

Shen graduated from the National Taiwan University with a bachelor's degree in 1956 from Stanford University with a master's degree in 1959 and in 1963 received his doctorate at Harvard University in solid state physics at Nicolaas Bloembergen. From 1964 he was assistant professor and in 1970 professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley. 1975 and 1981 he was Professor Miller there.

He is known for work in non-linear optics ( in which he self-focusing studied in the 1960s ) and the introduction of various spectroscopic methods for the solid-state physics, surface physics and molecular physics such as the use of sum frequency generation ( sum frequency spectroscopy ) and frequency doubling (second harmonic generation ) to the study of surfaces and interfaces. He initiated the application of nonlinear optics to liquid crystals. Recently, he turned sum frequency generation to study the chirality of molecules to (Chiral Microscopy) and examined nanostructures, plasmonics and metamaterials with optical spectroscopy.

He is a U.S. citizen.

Memberships and Honors

He holds honorary doctorates from the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the National Academy of Sciences ( 1995), the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1990). He is also a member of the Academia Sinica in Taiwan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

1966 to 1968 he was a Sloan Fellow and Guggenheim Fellow 1972-1973.

Writings

• The principles of nonlinear optics, Wiley 2002
• Published by Robert W. Boyd, Svetlana Lukishova self focusing: past and present, Springer Verlag 2008