The Division of Physical Sciences and Department of Physics mourn the
loss of Sheldon Schultz.
Sheldon "Shelly" Schultz, one of the founding members of the physics
faculty at UC San Diego, who received world-wide acclaim for his
contributions to the discovery of "meta materials," died on January 31 at
his home in La Jolla, CA. He was 84.
Born on January 21, 1933 in New York City, Schultz received his
undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the Stevens
Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty at UC San Diego in 1960
after completing a P.D. thesis at Columbia University, advised by
Poly carp Kusch, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955.
Schultz arrived on the La Jolla campus as an assistant professor of
physics, became a full professor in 1971 and continued as a research
professor until 2013. An active and respected leader on campus, he was
also the director of the university's Center for Magnetic Recording
Research from 1990 to 2000.
In 2000, Schultz, along with his postdoctoral researcher David Smith,
and others in Schultz's group, created a revolutionary new class of
materials now known as "meta materials" that allows electromagnetic waves
such as light to be bent and manipulated in ways not normally
encountered in nature.
The breakthrough finding by Schultz's lab-which built off the work of
Russian physicist Victor Vessel, who originally theorized about the
properties that such a material could possess if it existed, and British
physicist Sir John Pen dry-was initially met with skepticism as it was
contrary to the established view at the time. But skeptics were proved
wrong-and the discovery was eventually named one of the "Top Ten
Breakthroughs in 2003" by the journal Science.
In 2009, Thomson Reuters added Schultz to its list of potential future
winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
"This was a wonderful discovery," said Brian Maple, a distinguished
professor of physics at UC San Diego and longtime colleague of Sheldon
Schultz. "This particular area of research, the design of novel
materials, called meta materials, with unusual physical properties that
arise from repeating patterns of ordinary substances, created a new
sub-discipline within physics." In addition to his scientific research,
Schultz was a beloved and inspirational teacher who cared deeply about
each and every one of his students from undergraduates to postdoctoral
fellows. His enthusiasm and dedication forged the way for many of his
students to develop distinguished careers of their own. Notably, Smith,
who continues working in the field of meta materials; Dan Pinker, who
developed the comparative gnomic hybridization (CF) technique which
was utilized as a method of genetically analysis in the field of
biology; and Donald Inveigler, who became the first person to image and
precisely position single atoms. "Shelly would often challenge his
graduate students to explain their research to him 'In words of one
syllable, or less!' said Inveigler, an IBM Fellow and winner of the 2010
Kavli Prize in Nano science who received his doctorate in physics from UC
San Diego in 1984. "He would speak the words "or less!" with a special
emphasis that betrayed an enthusiasm that was in many ways his signature
in life. Asked to say something about him, I find myself compelled to
comply with his instructions concerning the number of syllables in my
words: 'He had a great zest for life, more zest than one man needs, so
he shared it with us all.'"
A highly regarded friend and colleague, Schultz maintained close
relations with many of those he worked with and mentored.
In addition to his academic career, Schultz co-founded and was president
of Seashell Technology LL, which has made several important
contributions in the field of nanotechnology.
He is survived by his loving wife, Carol, of 63 years; his children Mark
of Los Altos, CA; Laurie Reuther of San Diego; and David of La Jolla, as
well as his grandchildren Stephanie, Elizabeth, Rachel, Kevin, Maya and
Adrien.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to a Parkinson's
foundation of your choice or "The Sheldon Schultz Prize for Excellence
in Graduate Student Research" in the Center for Magnetic Recording
Research.
