Samuel S.P. Shen (born 12 August 1960) is a Chinese American climate mathematician. He is a Distinguished Professor at San Diego State University and Research Mathematician at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Early Life

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Samuel S. P. Shen was born on 12 August 1960 in a peasant family in a remote mountain village named Banjiuling, Huoshan County, Anhui Province, China. The Banjiuling Village had about 100 people. Its extended village is named San Miaoling with about 1,000 people. His birth nickname is Huangzi, meaning starvation kid, because 1960 was in the midst of a severe three-year starvation period in China when millions were starved to death. At age 6, his father gave him a school name Shanpu, meaning kind and ordinary. He adopted his biblical name Samuel after he received his Ph.D. because he did not want to be known as Dr. Shampoo. He then used his Chinese name Shanpu as the middle name, or S. P. as the middle name initials.

His mother Jin Xianying was illiterate. His father Shen Gaowu went to school for only two years, but allowed Shanpu to finish high school. After high school, Shanpu was a school teacher for one year followed by his university education. He received a B.S. in engineering mechanics from East China Engineering Institute in 1982 and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1987.

Academic Career

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Shen is a climate mathematician and teaches mathematics, statistics, and climate science. His research focuses on the visualization, and delivery of climate data. His research includes uncertainty quantification for climate data through error estimation, reconstruction of historical climate data, computer visualization of climate data for the general public, and the method development for applied mathematics and statistics. He encourages mathematicians and statisticians to engage in climate science research. A focus of his research lab is the instantaneous delivery of climate data to classrooms in both schools and universities for teaching and learning. He has published more than 140 journal papers and five books, including A Course on Nonlinear Waves[1] (Springer, 1993), Hilbert-Huang Transform and Its Applications[2] (co-edited with Norden E. Huang, World Scientific, 2005), Climate Mathematics: Theory and Applications[3] (co-authored with Richard C.J. Somerville, Cambridge University Press, 2019), and Statistics and Data Visualization in Climate Science with R and Python[4] (co-authored with Gerald R. North, Cambridge University Press, 2023).

References

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  1. ^ A Course on Nonlinear Waves. Nonlinear Topics in the Mathematical Sciences. Vol. 3. 1993. doi:10.1007/978-94-011-2102-6. ISBN 978-94-010-4932-0.
  2. ^ Hilbert-Huang Transform and Its Applications. Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences. Vol. 5. 2005. doi:10.1142/5862. ISBN 978-981-256-376-7.
  3. ^ https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/earth-and-environmental-science/climatology-and-climate-change/climate-mathematics-theory-and-applications?format=HB
  4. ^ https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/earth-and-environmental-science/climatology-and-climate-change/statistics-and-data-visualization-climate-science-r-and-python?format=HB&isbn=9781108842570

1. "Publications and Research Lab of Samuel Shen[1]". Retrieved 6 August 2024.

2. "Samuel Shen's website at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography[2]". Retrieved 6 August 2024.

3. "The website of the book entitled Climate Mathematics[3]". Retrieved 6 August 2024.

4. "The website of the book entitled Statistics and Data Visualization in Climate Science with R and Python[4]". Retrieved 6 August 2024.

5. "4DVD: 4-Dimensional Visual Delivery of Big Climate Data[5]". Retrieved 6 August 2024.

6. Coleen L. Geraghty, "Scaling mountains, then move them[6]". San Diego State University, News Center, 6 August 2024.

7. KUSI TV News, a live interview by KUSI Meteorologist Mark Mathis, "Weather History Time Machine.[7]" San Diego, 6 August 2024.

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Samuel Shen's Homepage

San Diego State University

Samuel Shen's SDSU Homepage

Scripps Institution of Oceanography