Steven Chu facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Steven Chu
FREng ForMemRS HonFInstP
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Chu in 2024
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| 12th United States Secretary of Energy | |
| In office January 21, 2009 – April 22, 2013 |
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| President | Barack Obama |
| Deputy | Daniel Poneman |
| Preceded by | Samuel Bodman |
| Succeeded by | Ernest Moniz |
| Personal details | |
| Born | February 28, 1948 St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | Lisa Chu-Thielbar (divorced) Jean Fetter
(m. 1997) |
| Children | 2 |
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| Relatives |
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| Education | University of Rochester (BA, BS) University of California, Berkeley (MS, PhD) |
| Profession | Physicist |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Atomic physics, biological physics, polymer physics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Observation of the Forbidden Magnetic Dipole Transition 62P1/2→72P1/2 in Atomic Thallium (1976) |
| Doctoral advisor | Eugene D. Commins |
| Doctoral students | Michale Fee |
| Chinese name | |
| Chinese | 朱棣文 |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhū Dìwén |
Steven Chu (born February 28, 1948) is an American scientist and a former government official. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics and served as the 12th United States Secretary of Energy. Currently, he is a professor at Stanford University, teaching physics and molecular and cellular physiology.
Chu is famous for his work on cooling and trapping atoms using laser light. He shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for this important discovery. His research was done at Bell Laboratories and Stanford University.
From 2009 to 2013, Chu was the U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Barack Obama. Before this, he was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He also directed the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. There, he studied tiny biological systems. After leaving his government role, he returned to Stanford.
Chu strongly supports renewable energy and nuclear power. He believes moving away from fossil fuels is key to fighting climate change. He has even suggested a "glucose economy." In this idea, glucose from plants would be shipped globally, much like oil is today.
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Early Life and School
Steven Chu was born on February 28, 1948, in St. Louis, Missouri. His family came from China. He went to Garden City High School in New York.
He earned two degrees from the University of Rochester in 1970. He received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and a Bachelor of Science in physics. In 1976, he earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Chu comes from a family of highly educated people. His father, Ju-Chin Chu, was a chemical engineer who taught at universities. His mother studied economics. His grandfather was a hydraulic engineer and a university president. Many of his relatives are also doctors, lawyers, or scientists.
Career and Discoveries
After getting his Ph.D., Chu worked at Bell Labs. There, he and his team made their Nobel Prize-winning discovery: laser cooling. This method uses lasers to slow down and cool atoms. This allows scientists to study individual atoms very precisely. It can also help build super accurate atomic clocks.
In 1987, he became a physics professor at Stanford University. He led the physics department there for several years. At Stanford, he helped start the Bio-X program. This program focuses on combining different science fields to study biology and medicine.
In 2004, Chu became the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This is a major U.S. Department of Energy lab. Under his leadership, the lab focused on biofuels and solar energy. He led the Helios project, which aimed to use solar power for transportation.
Chu's research also expanded into biological physics. He studied how enzymes work and how proteins and RNA fold. He used special tools like optical tweezers to study tiny molecules.
Awards and Honors
Steven Chu won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997. He shared it with two other scientists, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Daniel Phillips. They were honored for developing ways to cool and trap atoms with laser light.
He is a member of many important science groups. These include the United States National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Many universities have given him honorary doctorates. These include Boston University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Harvard University. In 2011, he became an international fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. In 2014, he became a Foreign Member of the Royal Society.
U.S. Secretary of Energy
On January 20, 2009, the U.S. Senate approved Steven Chu to be the Secretary of Energy. He was sworn in the next day. Chu was the first person in the U.S. Cabinet to have won a Nobel Prize. He was also the second Chinese American to join the U.S. Cabinet.
In February 2009, Chu visited China. There, he and China's Minister of Science and Technology announced the US–China Clean Energy Research Center. This center works on clean energy solutions together.
Chu continued his scientific work even as Secretary. He published papers in science journals. In 2011, he said that regulators should not delay approving new nuclear power plants in the U.S. This was after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan.
He also supported a report on reducing environmental risks from natural gas drilling. This report called for better data collection and strict pollution rules. It also asked for companies to share the chemicals used in drilling.
Chu resigned from his role on April 22, 2013. In his resignation message, he warned about the dangers of climate change. He said, "the Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones; we transitioned to better solutions."
Energy and Climate Change
Steven Chu is a strong supporter of research into renewable energy and nuclear power. He believes that moving away from fossil fuels is very important to fight climate change and global warming. He has spoken to students about their future role in protecting the environment.
Chu has warned that global warming could harm farms in California. He joined the Copenhagen Climate Council. This group works to build support for international climate change meetings.
In 2015, Chu signed the Mainau Declaration 2015 on Climate Change. This declaration was signed by many Nobel Laureates. It was given to the French President to support the COP21 climate summit in Paris.
Chu has suggested a global "glucose economy." In this idea, special plants would grow in warm places. Their glucose would be processed and shipped around the world, just like oil is today. This would be a way to have a low-carbon economy.
He has also suggested painting building roofs and roads white or light colors. This could reflect sunlight back into space. This might help to slow down global warming. He said this could have a big effect, like taking all cars off the road for 11 years.
Personal Life
In 1997, Steven Chu married Jean Fetter, who is also a physicist. He has two sons, Geoffrey and Michael, from a previous marriage.
Chu enjoys sports like baseball, swimming, and cycling. He taught himself tennis and pole vaulting when he was younger. He never learned to speak Chinese because his parents always spoke to their children in English.
See also
- United States Department of Energy
- Energy policy of the United States
- University of Rochester
