AWARDEE OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES PRIZE

XU ZHIZHAN

Abstract

Xu Zhizhan, Physicist, was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province in December, 1938.  He graduated from the Fudan University in 1962 and the Postgraduate College of Beijing University in 1965.  From then on he has been working in the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has served as the director of the institute since 1992. He was elected  Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991. Prof. Xu is vice president of the Chinese Optical Society, and a fellow of the Optical Society of America, Editor in Chief of Acta Optica Sinica.  He is also a member of the Standing Committee, the National Political Consultative Conference.
Prof. Xu has been mainly engaged in the research on laser science and optical     physics, and made outstanding contributions in particular to the fields of laser fusion, high power lasers, laser-matter interaction, X-ray lasers, laser plasma and strong field laser physics.  He led laser fusion research for a long time and was a leading sponsor and researcher of the related experimental systems and physical schemes in different periods. He made great contributions and obtained significant achievements in realizing neutron emission (1973) and pellet compression (1977), developing the computer simulation code (1976) and establishing the six-beam high power laser system (1976).  In the field of laser-plasma interactions, he conducted extensive and pioneering work both experimentally and theoretically, and made systematic achievements on the study of nonlinearity and instability processes.  In the field of X-ray laser physics, he observed the population inversion and found a new inversion region in 1981. Eight new wavelengths of X-ray laser were obtained for the first time at low laser pumping power by recombination schemes of Li-like and Na-like ions, and the shortest wavelength was down to 46.8. As a chief scientist, he achieved important progresses in the field of strong field laser physics, especially in the studies of ultrashort intense laser interactions with electrons, atoms, molecules and clusters, intense laser driven particle acceleration schemes and novel femtosecond ultra-intense laser systems.  He has published about 350 scientific papers in important foreign and domestic journals.  In recent years, he has presented about 20 invited papers at international conferences.
For his important contributions in laser science and optical physics, Prof. Xu was awarded over ten national class awards or Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) class    awards, including Second Class National Natural Science Prize (1995), Third Class    National Natural Science Prize (1989), First Class Natural Science Prizes, CAS (1988, 1992), First Class Scientific and Technological Advancement Awards, CAS (1982, 1993) etc.
Professor Xu is a concurrent professor of Beijing University, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University and Chinese University of Science and Technology etc. He served as the CLEO Chinese Subcommittee Chair (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996), a member of CLEO/Pacific Rim Steering Committee (1995, 1997, 1999), and a member of the International Advisory Board, International Conference on X-ray Lasers (1994, 1996, 1998) etc.  He served as the chairman of many international conferences such as the International Symposium on Laser-Plasma Interactions in 1992, the World (Chinese) Optical Conference in 1993 and the 13th International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy in 1997 etc.