· Resources with Additional Information · Interviews, Speeches, and Presentations  Photo Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Roy Kaltschmidt, Photographer Steven Chu was recently selected to be the Secretary of Energy by Barack Obama. Chu, Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and Professor in the Physics Department at the University of California, Berkeley was previously 'the Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. Professor Chu's research is in atomic physics, polymer and biophysics. His thesis and postdoctoral work at Berkeley … was the observation of parity non-conservation in atomic transitions in 1978. This experiment was one of the earliest atomic physics confirmations of the Weinberg-Salam-Glashow theory that unifies the weak and electromagnetic forces. While at Bell Laboratories he and Allen Mills did the first laser spectroscopy of positronium, the most fundamental atom (consisting of an electron and its anti-particle) in 1982. They went on to measure the 1s-2s energy difference of that atom to an accuracy of a few parts per billion, at that time, one of the most precise tests of quantum electrodynamics. They also made the first measurement of the corresponding transition in muonium, an atom consisting of m+ and an electron. Chu demonstrated that light pulses are able to propagate in absorbing medium where the velocity of the pulse can reach infinity and even become negative. (A negative velocity is defined where the peak of the pulse exits the sample before it enters the sample.) In 1985, he led the group that showed how to first cool and then trap atoms with light. The optical trap was also used to trap microscopic particles in water: these so-called "optical tweezers" are widely used in biology. … Using the optical tweezers, Chu invented methods to simultaneously visualize and manipulate individual bio-molecules in 1989.' 1 Steve Chu has been Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since August, 2004. Chu, an early advocate for finding scientific solutions to climate change, has guided Berkeley Lab on a new mission to become the world leader in alternative and renewable energy research, particularly the development of carbon-neutral sources of energy. 'Dr. Chu understands the significance of our energy and environmental challenges, and more importantly, understands the technical solutions necessary to address them.' 2 Chu was co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light". 1 Edited excerpt from Steven Chu
2 Edited excerpt from Statement by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman Regarding Selection of Steven Chu as Successor Resources with Additional InformationAdditional information about Steven Chu, laser cooling, atom trapping, optical tweezers, and atom interferometry is available in electronic documents and on the Web. Documents:Observation of the Forbidden Magnetic Dipole Transition 6{sup 2}P{sub ½} --> 7{sup 2}P{sub ½} in Atomic Thallium, DOE Technical Report, 1976 Three-dimensional Viscous Confinement and Cooling of Atoms by Resonance Radiation Pressure Physical Review Letters, Vol. 55, Issue 1; July 1985 Experimental Observation of Optically Trapped Atoms; Physical Review Letters, Vol. 57, Issue 3; July 1986 Atom-Interferometry Tests of the Isotropy of Post-Newtonian Gravity; Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 3; January 2008 Atom Interferometry with up to 24-Photon-Momentum-Transfer Beam Splitters; Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, Issue 18; May 2008 Additional selected Chu publications Additional Web Pages:Landmarks: Laser Cooling of Atoms, Physical Review Focus, April 2, 2008 Optical Tweezers Combined with Single-Molecule Fluorescence Imaging Growing Energy: Berkeley Lab's Steve Chu on What Termite Guts Have To Do with Global Warming Interviews, Speeches, and PresentationsStatement of Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy-Designate, before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate, January 13, 2009 Interview: Steven Chu, American Scientist, January - February 1998 Chu on Alternative Energy and Climate Change Energy Nominee Steven Chu on Climate Change, National Public Radio (NPR) |
