Charles Shank

Charles Vernon "Chuck" Shank (born July 12, 1943) is an American physicist, best known as the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 1989 to 2004.

Early life and education Charles Vernon (Chuck) Shank was born in Mount Holly, New Jersey, on July 12, 1943. He entered the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in 1965, his Master of Science (M.S.) in 1966, and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 1969, all in electrical engineering, writing his doctoral thesis on "Nonlinear Wave Interaction Spectroscopy", under the supervision of Steven E. Schwartz.

Career After graduation, Shank joined the staff of the Bell Laboratories as a researcher. He would remain there for 20 years,

Accolades Over the years, Shank received a number of accolades and awards. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1984, the National Academy of Engineering in 1983, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the Optical Society of America. He was awarded the Optical Society of America's R. W. Wood Prize in 1981, the Franklin Institute's Edward Longstreth Medal in 1982, the IEEE's Morris E. ds Award in 1983 and David Sarnoff Award in 1989), the University of California's Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award in 1990, the International Society for Optical Engineering's Edgerton Award in 1990, and Arthur L. Schawlow Prize in Laser Science in 1997, the Optical Society of America's Charles Hard Townes Award in 2002, and the United States Department of Energy's Enrico Fermi Award in 2014.

Patents