Monday, January 28, 2008

William Yen, Graham Perdue Professor of Physics, dies at 72

William M. Yen (right), 72, Graham Perdue Professor of Physics, died Jan. 17. Born in Nanjing, China, he grew up in Mexico City where his father was a diplomat with the Chinese government. At age 12 the family moved to Shanghai, China. In 1948 the family left mainland China, and his father became a diplomat for the government in Taiwan. Yen then went to school in Penang, Indonesia. At age 16 he and his older brother moved to Redlands, Calif., where his brother started college and Yen finished high school.

Yen received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Redlands in 1956 and his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1962. He then did post-doctoral research with Nobel Laureate Arthur Schawlow at Stanford University from 1961-65.

In 1965, he took a position on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1986 Yen was hired to fill the first Graham Perdue Chair of Physics position at the University of Georgia.

Yen was well known internationally as a leader in the field of optical properties of solids and was a pioneer in the application of lasers in the study of condensed matter.

He was the recipient of several awards including UGA’s Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award and the International Conference on Luminescence International Prize on Luminescence Research (2005); the Fulbright Senior Scholar (1995-96); the Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award (1985); and the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1979-80).

He was elected a Fellow in numerous professional societies including the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of ­Science and the Optical Society of America Electrochemical Society. Yen published 280 research articles and was the co-editor of 10 books and six conference proceedings.

Yen is survived by his wife, Laurel, his daughter Jane and her husband Javier Revollo, and an older sister, three brothers and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial celebration of life for Yen will be held Feb. 1 at l p.m. in the UGA Chapel. Friends are invited to share reminiscences.

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