Academician Sow-Hsin Chen passed away in the United States on June 26, 2021. He was 86 years old.

Dr. Chen was a recognized authority on neutron,
x-ray and laser scattering as well as the physics of complex fluids and soft condensed matter. In 1964, he earned his doctorate from McMaster University in Canada under the supervision of Nobel laureate B. N. Brockhouse. He joined the faculty of the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering in 1968, and became a professor emeritus in 2009.

Dr. Chen, the world’s leading expert on the dynamic properties of supercooled and interfacial water, discovered a second low-temperature critical point in water at about 200 K in 2006. He has contributed significantly to theoretical and experimental research on the dynamics of water molecules in biological and nano-structures. As a pioneer in applying small-angle scattering techniques to soft matter such as colloids and microemulsions, his novel contributions have fundamentally changed the field. Over the course of his career, Dr. Chen published more than 450 scientific articles, and has been dedicated in mentoring the next generation of scientists.

Dr. Chen was a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the Neutron Scattering Society of America (NSSA). He received the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering’s 2002 Career Achievement Award; NSSA’s highest academic award, the Clifford G. Shull Prize (2008); and the International Union of Crystallography’s Guinier Prize (2015). Dr. Chen was elected Academia Sinica Academician in 2006.