physics

Sheldon Schultz

Sheldon Schultz is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sheldon Schultz rather than just read about it. In short: Sheldon "Shelly" Schultz (January 21, 1933 – January 31, 2017) was an American physicist, who was a professor at University of California, San Diego. Best known for his contributions to the discovery of metamaterials and negative-index media, he served as the Director of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at UCSD from 1990 to 2000.

Key takeaways

Sheldon Schultz belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sheldon Schultz to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sheldon Schultz from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sheldon "Shelly" Schultz (January 21, 1933 – January 31, 2017) was an American physicist, who was a professor at University of California, San Diego. Best known for his contributions to the discovery of metamaterials and negative-index media, he served as the Director of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at UCSD from 1990 to 2000.

Biography Sheldon Schultz was born on January 21, 1933 in New York City. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School, he received bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1954. He pursued his doctoral studies in physics at Columbia University under the supervision of Polykarp Kusch and William Lichten, receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1960. In the same year, he joined the Department of Physics at University of California, San Diego as one of the founding faculty members. Having received a Sloan Research Fellowship in 1964, he became a full professor in 1971 and continued as a research professor until 2013. He also served as the Director of the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at UCSD from 1990 to 2000. He died at his home in La Jolla on January 31, 2017 from complications due to Parkinson's disease, being survived by his wife, three children and grandchildren. He was a Fellow of the IEEE and American Physical Society, and was the president of the nanotechnology company, Seashell Technology LLC. Schultz is best known for his work on metamaterials and negative-index of refraction, which he and his research group have demonstrated experimentally in 2000 for microwave frequencies. His work on metamaterials, though controversial at the time, was listed as "Top Ten Breakthroughs in 2003" by journal Science and one of these publications was selected among "PRL Milestones" by Physical Review Letters. In 2009, he was included in the Clarivate Citation Laureates list of potential future winners of the Nobel Prize in Physics along with and John Pendry and David R. Smith, latter of whom was a post-doctoral researcher in Schultz's group. His other work included the design and fabrication of subwavelength antennas, localized surface plasmon-based optical transducers for biochemical and medical applications, and Kerr near-field scanning optical microscopy, as well as applications of magnetic field–modulated microwave spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance.

Selected publications Journal articles Schultz, Sheldon; Dunifer, Gerald (1967). "Observation of spin waves in sodium and potassium". Physical Review Letters. 18 (8): 283–287. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.18.283. Dalichaouch, Rachida; Armstrong, J. P.; Schultz, S.; Platzman, P. M.; McCall, S. L. (1991). "Microwave localization by two-dimensional random scattering". Nature. 354: 53–55. doi:10.1038/354053a0. Schultz, Sheldon; Smith, David R.; Mock, Jack J.; Schultz, David A. (2000). "Single-target molecule detection with nonbleaching multicolor optical immunolabels". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 97 (3): 996–1001. doi:10.1073/pnas.97.3.996. PMC 15499. Smith, D. R.; Padilla, Willie J.; Vier, D. C.; Nemat-Nasser, S. C.; Schultz, S. (2000). "Composite medium with simultaneously negative permeability and permittivity". Physical Review Letters. 84 (18): 4184–4187. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.84.4184. Shelby, R. A.; Smith, D. R.; Schultz, S. (2001). "Experimental verification of a negative index of refraction". Science. 292 (5514): 77–79. doi:10.1126/science.1058847. Shelby, R. A.; Smith, D. R.; Nemat-Nasser, S. C.; Schultz, S. (2001). "Microwave transmission through a two-dimensional, isotropic, left-handed metamaterial". Applied Physics Letters. 78: 489–491. doi:10.1063/1.1343489. Mock, J. J.; Barbic, M.; Smith, D. R.; Schultz, D. A.; Schultz, S. (2002). "Shape effects in plasmon resonance of individual colloidal silver nanoparticles". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 116: 6755–6759. Smith, David R.; Schurig, David; Rosenbluth, Marshall; Schultz, Sheldon; Ramakrishna, S. Anantha; Pendry, John B. (2003). "Limitations on subdiffraction imaging with a negative refractive index slab". Applied Physics Letters. 82: 1506–1508. arXiv:cond-mat/0206568. doi:10.1063/1.1554779. Mock, Jack J.; Smith, David R.; Schultz, Sheldon (2003). "Local refractive index dependence of plasmon resonance spectra from individual nanoparticles". Nano Letters. 3 (4): 485–491. doi:10.1021/nl0340475. Smith, D. R.; Schultz, S.; Markoš, P.; Soukoulis, C. M. (2003). "Determination of effective permittivity and permeability of metamaterials from reflection and transmission coefficients". Physical Review B. 65 195104. arXiv:physics/0111203. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.65.195104. Patents Plasmon resonant particles, methods and apparatus (US20090161104A1) Left handed composite media (US20010038325A1)

References

External links Sheldon Schultz at Center for Memory and Recording Research

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sheldon Schultz

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sheldon Schultz claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sheldon Schultz before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sheldon Schultz ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sheldon Schultz

In research: Sheldon Schultz appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sheldon Schultz in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sheldon Schultz is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1933 births, 2017 deaths, 20th-century American inventors, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sheldon Schultz outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Sheldon Schultz in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sheldon Schultz means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sheldon Schultz out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sheldon Schultz in simple terms?

Why does Sheldon Schultz matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sheldon Schultz?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sheldon Schultz.