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Steven Chu Wikipedia

Image:StevenChu.jpg|thumb|right|Professor Steven Chu giving a seminar at Chinese University of Hong Kong|The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Steven Chu (zh-tp|t=?????????|p=Zh?? D??w??n) (born February 28, 1948 in St. Louis) is a Chinese American physicist who, with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William D. Phillips, was awarded the 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics for their research in cooling and trapping atoms using laser light. He is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

In 2005 Chu proposed a theoretical and novel way to produce ethanol from wood to solve the world's energy problem by duplicating the digestive track of termites. Termites digest cellulose and convert it into ethanol via a carbon-neutral process of digestion. Even though Chu's announcement generated much media attention, the concept of a carbon-neutral energy source from termites had been previously suggested by several scientists.

He became a professor in the physics and applied physics departments at Stanford University in 1987 and went on leave 2004 when he took on the directorship of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Chu is married to Jean Chu (formerly Jean Fetter when married to another Stanford professor - Alexander Fetter), an Oxford-trained physicist and former physics professor at San Jose State University in CA, as well as Stanford dean of admissions.
Steven Chu's older brother is Gilbert Chu, Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine at Stanford University, and his younger brother is influential lawyer Morgan Chu of southern California.

Last Modified:   2005-11-07