Chung Tang
About Optica
In Memoriam: Chung Tang, 1934 - 2022
31 May 2022
Chung Liang Tang, Optica Fellow and recipient of the Charles Hard Townes Medal Award 
passed away on 31 May 2022 at the age of 88. Widely recognized as an engineering educator, his commercial achievement was the development of the femtosecond optical parametric amplifier, with versions of it sold today across the globe. In addition, he was the first to predict, name, and observe the optical mutation effect.
Tang was born in Shanghai, China, on 14 May 1934. His family fled China during WWII. They moved to Taiwan when Mao-Tse Tung (Zedong) took power. In 1950, at the age of 17, he made his way to San Francisco with $100 in his pocket and a desire to pursue college.
At the University of Washington, he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1955 while working d in the university kitchens. He pursued a Masters of Science from the California Institute of Technology in 1956 and then a PhD from Harvard University in 1960.
After Harvard, he accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the Technical University in Aachen, Germany, where he was a principal research scientist at the Raytheon Research Division. In 1964, he joined the electrical engineering faculty at Cornell. In 2008, he became professor emeritus.
Tang was recognized with numerous awards, including being named Optica Fellow (formerly The Optical Society of America) in 1986 “for contributions to nonlinear optics, in particular the development of organic crystals, for nonlinear optical applications and electro-optic tuners for lasers.” He was also awarded the Charles Hard Townes Medal “for seminal and pioneering advances in the field of nonlinear optics and laser physics.”
In addition to his awards, he was an active volunteer and served as Chair of the RW Wood Prize Committee in 2004. From 1985 through 1995, he served as an Editor for Optics Letters. He also played a role in the Nonlinear Optics Advisory Committee in the early 2000s.
At Cornell, he advised and graduated over 30 PhD students, many of whom have prominent positions today.
Optica, his students and the scientific community mourn his loss.
