Steven Chu

Professor of Physics and Physiology / Stanford University

Professor Steven Chu is currently William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. He is also the Chair of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a non-profit organisation defending scientific freedom and encouraging a collaborative approach in order to serve humanity as a whole.

Professor Steven Chu served as Secretary of Energy under President Barack Obama from January 2009 through to April 2013. Before that, he was leading the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory as well as being professor of Molecular and Cell Biology, from 2004 to 2009, at UC Berkeley. Prior to this, he was the Francis and Theodore Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University for 22 years starting in 1987. During this period, Chu was a co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for his ground-breaking work in laser cooling and atom trapping

Professor Steven Chu is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts Sciences, and a winner of the Humboldt Prize.

Professor Chu earned his BA and BSc from the University of Rochester before receiving his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Chu has also received over 30 honorary degrees.