Yuen Ron Shen

LBNL Faculty Senior Scientist
Professor of Physics
Univ. of California, Berkeley

yrshen@berkeley.edu
phone: 510-642-4856

Education
B.S. Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University
Ph.D. Physics, Harvard University
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

Major Awards
1998 Isakson Prize
1996 Max Planck Research Prize
1996 elected foreign member, Chinese Academy of Sciences
1995 election to National Academy of Sciences
1992 Arthur L. Schawlow Prize
1990 election to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
1990 election to Academia Sinica
1986 Charles Hard Townes Award

General Research Interests
Our 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, we have 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. We initiated the field of nonlinear optics in liquid crystals and applications of nonlinear optics to characterization of liquid crystals. We pioneered the development of optical second harmonic generation and sum-frequency generation as powerful and versatile spectroscopic tools for surface and interface studies and their applications to many neglected, but important, areas of surface science. More recently, we have been developing optical sum-frequency generation as a novel sensitive spectroscopic technique for probing molecular chirality and for chiral microscopy. We are also engaging in optical characterization of nanostructures and studies of plasmonics and metamaterials.

MSD Research Projects:

Ultrafast Materials

Personal website: http://physics.berkeley.edu/research/faculty/shen.html
http://www.physics.berkeley.edu/research/shen/welcome.html