{{Short description|American engineer (1913–1973)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2023}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Lan Jen Chu | image = {{CSS image crop |Image = Portrait of Lan Jen Chu, c. 1952.jpg |bSize = 340 |cWidth = 220 |cHeight = 300 |Location = center |oTop = 30 |oLeft = 58 }} | caption = Chu {{circa|1952}} | birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|8|24}} | birth_place = Huai'an, Jiangsu, China | death_date = {{death date and age|1973|7|25|1913|8|24}} | death_place = Lexington, Massachusetts, U.S. | field = Electrical engineering | work_institution = Massachusetts Institute of Technology | alma_mater = {{plainlist| *Shanghai Jiao Tong University *Massachusetts Institute of Technology }} | known_for = {{plainlist| *Stratton-Chu integral equation *Chu–Harrington limit }} | doctoral_advisor = {{plainlist| *Wilmer Barrow *Julius Adams Stratton }} | doctoral_students = {{plainlist| *Frederic Morgenthaler *Hermann A. Haus }} | awards = Fellow of APS<br />Fellow of IRE | thesis_title = Transmission and radiation of electromagnetic waves in hollow-pipes and horns | thesis_url = https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/55048 | thesis_year = 1938 }}

'''Lan Jen Chu''' (August 24, 1913 – July 25, 1973) was a Chinese-born American electrical engineer and a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chu is noted for his work on the fundamental limitations for small antennas, also known as Chu–Harrington limit.

==Biography== Lan Jen Chu was born on August 24, 1913, in Huai'an in the Jiangsu province of China.<ref name="mtt_bio">{{cite journal | title = Biography - Lan Jen Chu | journal = IRE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques | volume = 6 | issue = 3 | pages = 249 | publisher = IEEE | date = July 1958 | doi = 10.1109/TMTT.1958.1124553 | bibcode = 1958ITMTT...6..249.}}</ref> He graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1934 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical power, and went on to receive Master of Science and Doctorate of Science degrees in electrical engineering from MIT in 1935 and 1938, respectively.<ref name="mtt_bio"/> Chu was with the Radiation Laboratory at MIT from 1942 to 1946 and with the Department of Electrical Engineering from 1947 to 1973.<ref name="museum_nom">{{cite web | title = MIT Museum Nomination | publisher = Massachusetts Institute of Technology | url = http://museum.mit.edu/nom150/entries/1297 | accessdate = 16 January 2014 | archive-date = April 21, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180421165809/http://museum.mit.edu/nom150/entries/1297 | url-status = dead}}</ref> He died on July 25, 1973, in Lexington, Massachusetts, and was survived by his wife Grace Feng and three children.<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |title=Dr. Lan Jen Chu, 59, M.I.T. Engineer Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/07/28/archives/dr-lan-jen-chu-59-mit-engineer-dies.html |work=The New York Times |date=July 28, 1973 |access-date=January 18, 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Obituary for Lan Jen Chu |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-obituary-for-lan-jen-ch/59702508/ |access-date=January 18, 2025 |work=The Boston Globe |date=July 27, 1973}}</ref>

During World War II, Chu supervised research at MIT of many special antennas for use in radar and telecommunication applications.<ref name="mtt_bio"/> In 1945, he acted as a United States Secretary of War and headed the advisory specialist group to United States Armed Forces in China. For his services, he received the President's Certificate of Merit.<ref name="nytimes"/> He has also authored three technical books, two of which were with Richard Adler and Robert Fano in the area of electromagnetics.<ref name="mitpress">{{cite web|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/contributors/lan-jen-chu|title=Lan Jen Chu|website=The MIT Press|accessdate=2018-09-08}}</ref> Lan Jen Chu was a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Radio Engineers,<ref name="mtt_bio"/> as well as a member of Academia Sinica.<ref>{{cite news |title=L.J. Chu |url=https://academicians.sinica.edu.tw/index.php?r=academician-n%2Fshow&id=386 |access-date=11 August 2021 |agency=Academia Sinica}}</ref>

==Publications== ===Books=== * Adler RB, Chu LJ, Fano RM, ''Electromagnetic Energy Transmission and Radiation'', MIT, 1968. * Fano RM, Chu LJ, Adler RB, ''Electromagnetic Fields, Energy, and Forces'', MIT, 1968. * Stratton JA, Morse PM, Chu LJ, Hunter RA, ''Elliptic Cylinder and Spheroidal Wave Functions: Including Tables of Separation Constants and Coefficients'', Wiley-MIT, 1941. * Stratton JA, Morse PM, Chu LJ, Little JDC, Corbató FJ, ''Spheroidal Wave Functions: Including Tables of Separation Constants and Coefficients'', MIT, 1956.

===Book chapters=== * Stratton JA, ''Electromagnetic Theory'', Wiley-IEEE, 2007, pp.&nbsp;464–470.

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chu, Lan Jen}} Category:1913 births Category:1973 deaths Category:Chinese electrical engineers Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society Category:National Chiao Tung University (Shanghai) alumni Category:Fellows of the IEEE Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States Category:American microwave engineers Category:20th-century Chinese engineers Category:Members of Academia Sinica Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:MIT School of Engineering faculty Category:Scientists from Huai'an Category:Educators from Huai'an Category:Chinese telecommunications engineers Category:American telecommunications engineers Category:20th-century American engineers Category:MIT Radiation Laboratory people