Abstract: To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Physics, a brief review is presented of the research on shock wave and detonation physics in the Academy. Concepts and applications are introduced first, followed by a brief review of some typical advances in the past years. We focus on the recent breakthroughs in experimental technology, theory, modeling and simulation. In particular, shock temperature measurements and melting diagnostics, the equation of state (EOS) of high density gases, the unified EOS of solid materials, the constitutive relationship of high pressure, dynamic damage evolution and fracture, propagation and acceleration of detonation, and the initiation and formation of hot spots for heterogenous explosives are explicitly described. Finally, we put forward some suggestions for future research.