Education

B.S., Physics, National Taiwan University, 1956
M.S., Physics, Tsinghua University, Taiwan, 1958
M.S., Nuclear Science, University of Michigan, 1962
Ph.D., Physics, McMaster University, Canada, 1964

Research Interests

Thermal Neutron Spectroscopy of Soft Condensed Matter
Small angle neutron and x-ray scattering techniques are being used to investigate the structure-phase behavior relationship of microemulsions, micellar systems, protein solutions, protein surfactant complexes in solutions, and counterion distribution around cylindrical polyelectrolytes, including DNA molecules in solution. A combination of inelastic and quasi-elastic neutron scattering and neutron diffraction techniques are being used to study the dynamics and structure of water in the super-cooled state, in porous materials, and in the vicinity of surfaces. The latter also includes the study of water of hydration in protein molecules. The neutron scattering work uses facilities located at various national laboratories including NIST Center for Neutron Research and Intense Pulse Neutron Source at Argonne. At MIT, a complementary photon correlation spectroscopy equipment has been set up in NW13-205 for the structural arrest transition studies. More recently, a high-resolution inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy is also being applied to measure phonon damping and phonon dispersion relations in oriented lipid bilayers and in aligned liquid crystalline DNA films. This work is being done at the Advance Photon Source (APS) in Argonne and at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France.

Teaching Interests

Scattering Theory, Thermal Neutron and X-ray Scattering Spectroscopy and Laser Photon Correlation Spectroscopy, Statistical Thermodynamics of Simple and Complex Liquids.

Selected Publications

1. S-H. Chen and M. Kotlarchyk, Interaction of Photons and Neutrons with Matter, second edition, World Scientific Pub. Co. (2007), 400 pages. ISBN 10 981-02-4214 X.
2. S.-H. Chen, L. Liu, E. Fratini, P. Baglioni, A. Faraone, and E. Mamontov, “Observation of fragile-to-strong dynamic crossover in protein hydration water,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 9012-9016 (2006).
3. S.-H. Chen, F. Mallamace, C.-Y. Mou, M. Broccio, C. Corsaro, A. Faraone, and L. Liu, “The violation of Stokes-Einstein relation in supercooled water,” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 103,12974-12978 (2006).
4. L. Liu, S.-H. Chen, A. Faraone, C.W. Yen, C. Y. Mou, “Pressure Dependence of Fragile-to-Strong Transition and a Possible Second Critical Point in Supercooled Confined Water, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 117802-1-117802-4 (2005).
5. Yun Liu, Emiliano Fratini, Piero Baglioni, Wei-Ren Chen, Sow-Hsin Chen, “Effective long-range attraction between protein molecules in solutions studied by small angle neutron scattering,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 118102-1-118102-4 (2005).
6. S-H Chen, W-R Chen, and F. Mallamace, "The Glass-to-Glass Transition and Its End Point in a Copolymer Micellar System," Science, 300: 619-622 (2003).
7. Chen, S.H., C.Y. Liao, H.W. Huang, T.M. Weiss, M.C. Bellissent-Funel, F. Sette, “The Collective Dynamics in Fully Hydrated Phospholipid Bilayers Studied by Inelastic X-ray Scattering,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 740-743 (2001).
8. S-H. Chen, D.D. Lee, K. Kimishima, H. Jinnai and T. Hashimoto, "Measurement of the Gaussian Curvature of the Surfactant Film in An Isometric Bicontinuous One-Phase Microemulsion," Phys. Rev. E 54, 6526-6531 (1996).
9. D.D. Lee and S-H. Chen, "Local Geometry of Surfactant Monolayers in a Ternary Microemulsion System," Phys. Rev. Lett. 73, 106-109 (1994).
10. S-H. Chen, J. Rouch, F. Sciortino, and P. Tartaglia, "Static and Dynamic Properties of Water-in-Oil Microemulsions Near the Critical and Percolation Points," J. Phys. Condensed Matter 6, 10855-10883 (1994).

All Publications

• Publications (pdf)