Allen G Shenstone was born and raised in Canada. A member of the Princeton faculty for 37 years and Chairman of the Department of Physics from 1949 until 1960, Professor Shenstone retired in 1962, but continued his research under grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA. He had been called to Princeton in 1925 as an assistant professor, was promoted through the ranks to Professor, and in 1938 was named first incumbent of the Class of 1909 Professorship.

A combat veteran of World War I, during which he received the Military Cross and participated in most of the major battles on the British front, he was in World War II Special Assistant to the President of the National Research Council of Canada, first as liaison officer between the Council and American scientific organizations and subsequently in a similar capacity, residing in London, as liaison officer between the Council and British scientific organizations.

Holding three Princeton degrees as well as two from Cambridge University, Dr. Shenstone was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, OSA, and the Physical Society of London and a member of the Association of Physics Teachers and the Athenaeum Club of London.

He received the 1971 William F. Meggers Award from OSA. His analyses of atomic spectra in work covering a period of more than forty-five years show such originality, completeness, reliability, elegance, and intuition as to place him among those who have most brilliantly exploited optical spectra to yield new insight into atomic structure. Read more about his work the presentation of this award here.