His research focuses on nanophotonics, nanoscale energy transport and conversion, nanofabrication and advanced manufacturing, and their applications in thermal management, light sources and devices, thermal emission control, solar or thermal energy conversion, infrared sensing and detection, multifunctional materials, and others.

Shen is a recipient of NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Director’s Fellowship, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and Elsevier/JQSRT Raymond Viskanta Award for Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer. He also received the CMU Dean’s Early Career Fellowship, the Philomathia Foundation Research Fellowship in Alternative Energy Research from UC-Berkeley, a Hewlett-Packard Best Paper Award from ASME Heat Transfer Division, and a Best Paper Award in Julius Springer Forum on Applied Physics.