Steven Chu, Director,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Photo by Linda A. Cicero/ Stanford News Service

Steven Chu is the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and a professor of Physics and Cellular and Molecular Biology of the University of California, Berkeley. Previously, he held positions at Stanford University and AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Professor Chu's research in atomic physics, quantum electronics, polymer and biophysics include tests of fundamental theories in physics, the development of methods to laser cool and trap atoms, atom interferometry, and the manipulation and study of polymers and biological systems at the single molecule level.

While at Stanford, he helped start Bio-X, a multi-disciplinary initiative that brings together the physical and biological sciences with engineering and medicine. Chu has received numerous awards, including co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics (1997). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academia Sinica, and is a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Korean Academy of Science and Engineering.

Chu also serves on the Boards of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Rochester, NVIDIA, and the (planned) Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. He has served on numerous advisory committees, including the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Physics and Astronomy, the National Institutes of Health Advisory Committee to the Director, and the National Nuclear Security Administration Advisory Committee to the Director.

Professor Chu received A.B. degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Rochester, a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a number of honorary degrees.