Professor Steven Chu
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology in the Medical School at Stanford University
Professor Chu is an internationally renowned scientist who was named co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics alongside Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light". Over recent years he has focused on the search for new solutions to energy and climate challenges, both as US Secretary of Energy from 2009 to 2013 and, before that, as Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, where he explored alternative and renewable energy technologies.
Professor Chu has made important contributions in atomic physics, quantum electronics, polymer and biophysics including tests of fundamental theories in physics, the development of methods to laser cool and trap atoms, atom interferometry, the study of polymers and biological systems at the single molecule level, molecular biology, medical ultrasound imaging, nanoparticle synthesis, batteries and other applications in electrochemistry.
The holder of 20 patents, Professor Chu has published more than 300 scientific and technical papers. He is a member of numerous scientific societies including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Academia Sinica, the Korean Academy of Sciences and Technology, and is an honorary member of the Institute of Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Lifetime Member of the Optical Society of America and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He received an A.B. degree in mathematics, a B.S. degree in physics from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as 34 honorary degrees.