in 1998, an honour that at the time was only endowed to 19 faculty members across the UC system. In 2002, Shu followed in his father's footsteps and went to Taiwan to take up the position of the President of the National Tsing Hua University, returning to the United States and joining the University of California, San Diego as a distinguished professor in 2006. Shu officially retired in 2009, becoming a University Professor Emeritus of the UC system, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (until 2015). Currently, Shu is also an Emeritus Senior Fellow at the Hong Kong Institute for Advanced Study of the City University of Hong Kong. Shu has written 3 textbooks: Physical Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, The Physics of Astrophysics Vol. I: Radiation and The Physics of Astrophysics Vol. II: Gas Dynamics. Research Shu is best known for his work in spiral galaxies and star formation. He, together with his PhD supervisor Chia-Chiao Lin, proposed the density wave theory to explain the structure of spiral galaxies. In 1977, he published a model, known as the "inside-out" collapse model or the "singular isothermal sphere" model, of star formation, whereby a star forms when a giant dense molecular cloud collapses. Honors and awards Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy (1977) Member of the National Academy of Sciences (1987) Academician of the Academia Sinica, Taiwan (1990) Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992) Brouwer Award (1996) Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (2000) Member of the American Philosophical Society (2003) Foreign Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society (2006) Member of The World Academy of Sciences (2006) Centennial Medal, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University (2008) Shaw Prize in Astronomy (2009) Bruce Medal (2009) The main-belt asteroid 18238 Frankshu is named after Shu. References External links Living people 1943 births American astronomers American science writers Chinese emigrants to the United States Educators from Yunnan Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni MIT Department of Physics alumni Members of Academia Sinica Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences People from Kunming Stony Brook University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, San Diego faculty Writers from Yunnan Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics Presidents of National Tsing Hua University Fellows of the