Sunney Ignatius Chan (; (Chén Zhǎngqiān) October 5, 1936 – May 5, 2025) was an American biophysical chemist. His work primarily focused on the use of various magnetic resonance spectroscopic and other physical chemical techniques in the analysis of various biochemical and biological problems.

Early life and education

Chan was born on October 5, 1936, in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

to immigrant parents originally from Southern China. He received secondary education in Hong Kong, returning to the United States to attend the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

. Shortly afterwards, he transferred to the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, where he earned a bachelor's and doctoral degree in chemistry. He completed his doctoral work under the supervision of physical chemist William Dulaney Gwinn and was awarded his PhD in 1961.

Career

After receiving his doctorate, Chan completed a one-year post-doctoral fellowship in the laboratory of the Nobel laurate physicist

Norman Ramsey Norman Foster Ramsey Jr. (August 27, 1915 – November 4, 2011) was an American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the separated oscillatory field method (see Ramsey interferometry), which had importan ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and later returned to California to join the chemistry faculty at

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

. He began teaching at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

in 1963. Five years later, he was awarded a

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. Chan received several honors throughout his career at Caltech, among them fellowship into the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

(1987) and

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

(1992), as well as membership of

Academia Sinica Academia Sinica (AS, ; zh, t=中央研究院) is the national academy of the Taiwan, Republic of China. It is headquartered in Nangang District, Taipei, Nangang, Taipei. Founded in Nanjing, the academy supports research activities in mathemat ...

(1988). He was appointed Caltech's first George Grant Hoag Professor of Biophysical Chemistry in 1992. Chan retired from Caltech in 1997, for a position as distinguished research fellow at

. Subsequently, Chan was named vice president of

under

Yuan T. Lee Yuan Tseh Lee (; born 19 November 1936) is a Taiwanese chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1986 for his contributions to the development of reaction dynamics. Lee is a professor emeritus at the University of California, Be ...

. Caltech granted emeritus status to Chan in 2002. Upon Chan's retirement as vice president of Academia Sinica in July 2003, Lee inaugurated the Sunney Chan Lecture in Chan's honor. He remained affiliated with Academia Sinica as a research and visiting fellow until 2015. In his later career, Chan held distinguished chair and research professorships at

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

and

National Chung Hsing University National Chung Hsing University (NCHU; ; lit. National Resurgence University) is a comprehensive research university in South District, Taichung, Taiwan. Currently, NCHU is among the four universities of the Taiwan Comprehensive University Sys ...

Death

Chan died May 5, 2025, at the age of 88.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chan, Sunney 1936 births 2025 deaths Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area Members of Academia Sinica Fellows of the American Physical Society University of California, Riverside faculty University of San Francisco alumni UC Berkeley College of Chemistry alumni Academic staff of the National Taiwan University Academic staff of the National Chung Hsing University Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American people of Chinese descent TWAS fellows American expatriates in Hong Kong American expatriate academics American expatriates in Taiwan 20th-century American chemists 21st-century American chemists