Christopher Sorensen was born in Omaha, Nebraska. He earned a Bachelor of Science in physics from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1969. He was drafted and served in Vietnam in military intelligence. He earned his PhD in physics in 1977 from the University of Colorado. He joined the physics department at Kansas State University in 1977 as an assistant professor of physics; he was promoted to associate professor in 1982 and professor in 1986. He was named a university distinguished professor in 2000 and the Cortelyou-Rust University Distinguished Professor in 2009. He is also a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar at Kansas State University. He also is an adjunct professor in the department of chemistry at Kansas State University. He was named the Carnegie Foundation and Council for Advancement and Support of Education United States Professor of the Year for doctoral and research universities in 2007. His research interests include materials synthesis including graphene materials, light scattering, particulate systems, and soft matter physics. He is the author of more than 300 papers and holds seven patents including a method for graphene synthesis. He has directed the research of 20 master's recipients, 21 doctorate recipients, and 11 postdoctoral students. In 2007-2008 he served as president of the American Association for Aerosol Research. He is a fellow of the American Association for Aerosol Research, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society. He performs extensive outreach activities.
This book gives a good presentation of the subject areas related to the scattering and absorption of light by particles of arbitrary sizes, shapes and refraction indices. While earlier books have been published in this research field, the author has written this monograph from the viewpoint of diffraction phenomena. This is clearly relevant, since diffraction can be altered when the electromagnetic aspect of light interacts electromagnetically with the object, depending on the strength of the interaction. This book is well written and is a substantial addition to the literature. The target audience for this text is clearly graduate students in optics and photonics, but anyone concerned with light scattering will profit from reading this book. Christian Brosseau, Optica, February 2023 -- Christian Brosseau