Frank Shu (
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 徐遐生) (born June 2, 1943), is an astrophysicist,
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
of
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
and
University of California, San DiegoThe University of California, San Diego is a public research university located in La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States...
and the
university presidentUniversity president is the title of the highest ranking officer within the academic administration of a university, within university systems that prefer that appellation over other variations such as chancellor or rector...
of the
National Tsing Hua UniversityNational Tsing Hua University is one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan,Republic of China. The university owns strong reputation in the studies of science and engineering. Many Taiwanese business and academic elites received their education in NTHU. There are now 7 colleges, 17...
.
Shu's
hometownIn Chinese culture and society, hometown or ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family. It may or may not be the place where one is born...
is
Yongjia CountyYongjia County is a county in the prefecture-level city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China....
, in
WenzhouWenzhou is a major city in southeastern Zhejiang province of the People's Republic of China. The prefecture under its jurisdiction, which includes 2 satellite cities and 6 counties, had a population of 7,645,700 in 2007. About 1,423,600 residents live in Wenzhou's city proper...
of
ZhejiangZhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
. Shu's father,
Shien-Siu ShuShu Shien-Siu , 1912–2001, was a Chinese/Taiwanese mathematician, engineer and educator.-Biography :...
(S.S.Shu, 徐賢修), was a
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
and former President (1970-1975) of the
National Tsing Hua UniversityNational Tsing Hua University is one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan,Republic of China. The university owns strong reputation in the studies of science and engineering. Many Taiwanese business and academic elites received their education in NTHU. There are now 7 colleges, 17...
. Shu completed his BS in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
in 1963 at the
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
. While still an undergraduate, he developed (with
Chia-Chiao LinChia-Chiao Lin is a mathematician and Institute Professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Biography:...
) a theory governing spiral arms in galaxies, known as the spiral density wave theory.
Frank Shu (
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: 徐遐生) (born June 2, 1943), is an astrophysicist,
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
of
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
at the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
and
University of California, San DiegoThe University of California, San Diego is a public research university located in La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States...
and the
university presidentUniversity president is the title of the highest ranking officer within the academic administration of a university, within university systems that prefer that appellation over other variations such as chancellor or rector...
of the
National Tsing Hua UniversityNational Tsing Hua University is one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan,Republic of China. The university owns strong reputation in the studies of science and engineering. Many Taiwanese business and academic elites received their education in NTHU. There are now 7 colleges, 17...
.
Biography
Shu's
hometownIn Chinese culture and society, hometown or ancestral home is the place of origin of one's extended family. It may or may not be the place where one is born...
is
Yongjia CountyYongjia County is a county in the prefecture-level city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China....
, in
WenzhouWenzhou is a major city in southeastern Zhejiang province of the People's Republic of China. The prefecture under its jurisdiction, which includes 2 satellite cities and 6 counties, had a population of 7,645,700 in 2007. About 1,423,600 residents live in Wenzhou's city proper...
of
ZhejiangZhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
. Shu's father,
Shien-Siu ShuShu Shien-Siu , 1912–2001, was a Chinese/Taiwanese mathematician, engineer and educator.-Biography :...
(S.S.Shu, 徐賢修), was a
mathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with particular problems related to logic, space, transformations, numbers and more general ideas which encompass these concepts...
and former President (1970-1975) of the
National Tsing Hua UniversityNational Tsing Hua University is one of the most prestigious universities in Taiwan,Republic of China. The university owns strong reputation in the studies of science and engineering. Many Taiwanese business and academic elites received their education in NTHU. There are now 7 colleges, 17...
. Shu completed his BS in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
in 1963 at the
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
. While still an undergraduate, he developed (with
Chia-Chiao LinChia-Chiao Lin is a mathematician and Institute Professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Biography:...
) a theory governing spiral arms in galaxies, known as the spiral density wave theory. He later received his PhD in
astronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
in 1968 at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
.
Academic career
Shu served as
chairA chair is a raised surface used to sit on, commonly for use by one person. Chairs often have the seat raised above floor level, supported by four legs. A chair without a back or arm rests is a stool, or when raised up, a bar stool or high chair . A chair with arms is an armchair and with...
of the astronomy department of UC Berkeley from 1984 until 1988, and has held faculty appointments at the
SUNY Stony BrookState University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
and UC Berkeley. He was president of the National Tsing Hua University from February 2002 until February 2006. He joined the faculty at UC San Diego as a distinguished professor of physics in 2006 and also holds the title of University Professor, a UC system-wide honor reserved for scholars of international distinction who are recognized as teachers of exceptional ability. He also is a university
professor emeritusA Professor Emeritus is a full professor who retires in good standing. While technically this is the term for a male and women are known as Professor Emerita, women such as Germaine Greer are known by the masculine title. This title is also given to retired professors who continue to teach and to...
at UC Berkeley.
From 1994 to 1996, Shu was the President of the
American Astronomical SocietyThe American Astronomical Society is a US society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The basic objective of the AAS is to promote the advancement of astronomy and closely related branches of science...
(AAS).
Research
Shu is known for pioneering theoretical work in a diverse set of fields of astrophysics, including the origin of
meteoriteA meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earth's surface. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
s, the birth and early
evolution of starsStellar evolution is the process by which a star undergoes a sequence of radical changes during its lifetime. Depending on the mass of the star, this lifetime ranges from only a few million years to trillions of years , considerably more than the age of the universe.Stellar evolution is not...
and the structure of spiral galaxies. One of his most highly-cited works is a 1977 seminal paper describing the collapse of a dense giant molecular cloud core which forms a
starA star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma that is held together by gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun...
. This model (commonly referred to as the ``inside-out" collapse model or the "singular isothermal sphere" model) helped provide the basis for much later work on the
formation of starsStellar evolution is the process by which a star undergoes a sequence of radical changes during its lifetime. Depending on the mass of the star, this lifetime ranges from only a few million years to trillions of years , considerably more than the age of the universe.Stellar evolution is not...
and planetary systems, although it has been criticized for its shortcomings. Shu has also performed calculations on the structure of planet-forming disks around very young stars, the jets and winds that these stars and their disks generate, and the production of chondrules, inclusions in meteorites. Much of this work has been done in collaboration with his postdocs and graduate students, many of whom have gone on to successful academic careers in their own right.
Honors and awards
- In 1977, The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy
The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical astronomy....
- In 1987, Member of the National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine."The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code....
in the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
- In 1990, Academician of the Academia Sinica
The Academia Sinica , headquartered in the Nangang District of Taipei, is the national academy of the Republic of China...
in TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
.
- In 1996, The Oort Professor/Lecture at Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by Prince William of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
, the Netherlands.
- In 1996, The Brouwer Award
The Dirk Brouwer Award, usually known as the Brouwer Award, is awarded annually by the Division on Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of dynamical astronomy...
- In 2000, The Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
The Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics is jointly awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society and American Institute of Physics for outstanding work in astrophysics. It is funded by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Heineman....
.
- In 2003, Member of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society is a discussion group founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin as an offshoot of his earlier club, the Junto...
.
- In 2008, The Centennial Medal from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
- In 2009 Frank H. Shu was awarded the Shaw Prize
The Shaw Prize, established by Sir Run Run Shaw , a leader in the media industry in Hong Kong and a long-time philanthropist, to honour "individuals, regardless of race, nationality and religious belief, who have achieved significant breakthrough in academic and scientific research or application,...
in recognition of his outstanding life-time contributions in theoretical astronomy.
- In 2009, The Bruce Medal
The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898...
.
- The Main-belt Asteroid 18238 Frankshu
18238 Frankshu is a Main-belt Asteroid discovered on September 29, 1973 by Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld. It was named after astrophysicist Frank Shu....
is named after him.
Publications
Shu is the author of several books, among them
Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy (University Science Books, 1982) which has become one of the standard textbooks for undergraduate
astrophysicsAstrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects such as galaxies, stars, planets, exoplanets, and the interstellar medium, as well as their...
courses all over the world, while the two volumes
The Physics of Astrophysics Vol. I: Radiation (University Science Books, 1991) and
The Physics of Astrophysics Vol. II: Gas Dynamics (University Science Books, 1992) are classical texts commonplace in astrophysics graduate curricula.
External links