Research Areas:
Condensed Matter Physics, Materials Science

Prof. Shen Yuen-Ron is a pioneering scientist in nonlinear optics. He obtained his PhD degree at Harvard University in 1963, and has been on the Berkeley faculty since 1964 and a Principal Investigator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1967. He was awarded a Doctor of Science honoris causa from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 1997. He is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Academia Sinica. He received the Alexander von Humboldt Award in 1984, the C.H. Townes Award in 1986, the A.L. Schawlow Prize in 1992, the Max Planck Research Prize in 1996 and the F. Isakson Prize in 1998. His current research is in the broad area of interaction of light with matter comprising condensed matter physics, molecular physics, nonlinear optics, laser spectroscopy, and surface sciences. In particular, his research group has been active in search for understanding of nonlinear optical effects, developing novel linear and nonlinear optical techniques for material studies, and applying them to material science research.