Sheldon Schultz

Dr. Sheldon “Shelly” Schultz, a professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), who received worldwide recognition for his contributions to the discovery of “metamaterials,” passed away at home on January 31, 2017 at the age of 84.

Born in New York City on January 21, 1933, Shelly, a graduate from Stuyvesant High School, received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in 1954 from Stevens Institute of Technology and his PhD in Physics in 1960 from Columbia University, where he worked under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Polycarp Kusch. In 1960, he joined UCSD as one of the founding members of the Physics Department. His professional career as a UCSD faculty member continued until 2016, and he served as the Director of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) at UCSD from 1990 to 2000. In addition, Shelly co-founded and was president of Seashell Technology LLC, which has made several important contributions in the field of nanotechnology, nanomaterials, and functional coatings.

A member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Shelly received many Academic Honors and Awards. He was a recipient of an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in 1964. In 2003, CMRR endowed a graduate student annual prize named “In Honor of Former CMRR Director Sheldon Schultz.” His co-discovery of metamaterials in 2000 in his laboratory at UCSD with several members of his research group [D. R. Smith, W. Padilla, D. C. Vier, S. C. Nemat-Nasser, and S. Schultz, “A composite medium with simultaneously negative permeability and permittivity,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 4184–4187 (2000)] was eventually hailed by Science Magazine as one of the “Top Ten Breakthroughs of 2003.” In 2009, Thomson Reuters added Schultz to its list of potential future winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics for this revolutionary discovery.

Shelly’s team at UCSD first reported the discovery of a “left handed,” or negative refractive index material, by creating a new class of artificially structured materials, known as metamaterials. This discovery, along with the first experimental demonstration of negative refraction, performed in Shelly’s lab, led to an explosion of interest in the physics and, ultimately, application of metamaterials. The two papers detailing these foundational experiments are pillars of the metamaterials field, both cited thousands of times, with the first publication selected as one of only four “PRL Milestones” by Physical Review Letters. These first two publications initially generated considerable skepticism and controversy within the physics community, prompting Shelly to become one of the staunchest and most eloquent defenders of the field. His dedicated efforts greatly publicized the discovery and contributed to the eventual widespread acceptance of negative refraction and metamaterials.

Shelly’s research interests in physics were broad. His most salient contributions included: (1) the first experimental demonstration of a negative index of refraction material; (2) design, fabrication and range testing of highly efficient sub wavelength antennas operating at 1-2 GHz; (3) Photonic Band Gap (BPG) structures; (4) Plasmon Resonant Particles (PRPs) as optical transducers for biochemical and clinical medical applications; (5) PRP based Kerr scanning near-field optical microscopy; (6) sub-micron magnetic particles; (7) advanced instrumentation; (8) use of magnetic field modulated microwave spectroscopy (MFMMS) for sensitive detection of high temperature superconductivity; (9) application of Conduction Electron Spin Resonance (CESR) to probe the nature of dilute-local moments, spin glasses, and superconductors; and (10) measurement of Landau Fermi Liquid parameters by Transmission Electron Spin Resonance, a variant of CESR of which Shelly was particularly fond.

Shelly was an animated and inspirational lecturer, no doubt due to his life-long penchant for showmanship (of the best kind) and flare for the dramatic. He especially enjoyed the excitement and drama of science, infusing his lectures and talks with puzzles and demonstrations that would quickly grab and keep the attention of his audience. Hundreds (if not thousands) of UCSD undergraduates had the remarkable good fortune to take their freshman physics course from him, a course which showed off his delight in experimental demonstrations and his not-so-well-hidden joy in revealing the beauty of physics to young minds.

This characteristic of Shelly’s was a theme throughout all of his academic life. Especially noteworthy was the way Shelly celebrated the PhD defenses of his students. Shelly and his wife, Carol, would hold very entertaining PhD party “roasts” at their home, complete with a mock PhD ceremony and a “Final Exam” in which the PhD student had to solve several of his physics related brain teasers in order to “pass” the exam. A few PhD students even managed to turn the tables on Shelly, effectively roasting him in return! Three of the authors below actually experienced taking Shelly’s mock PhD “Exam” firsthand!

During his long academic career Shelly supervised and mentored numerous doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars. He cared deeply about the members of his research group and his enthusiasm, leadership, and high standards brought out the best in them. He taught his doctoral students how to think physically and estimate on the spot. Within reason they were expected to learn how to conceive, design, build, and repair experimental apparatus. Many of his PhD students have gone on to have exceptional careers in research and teaching.

Shelly Schultz was an extraordinary individual, a superb scientist, and a loyal and reliable friend. He had a warm personality, a keen sense of humor, and seemed to have boundless energy. He will be greatly missed. He is survived by his wife, Carol, of 63 years: his children Mark of Los Altos, CA; Laurie Kreutz of San Diego; and David of La Jolla, as well as his grandchildren Stephanie, Elizabeth, Rachel, Kevin, Maya and Adrien.