Steven Chu is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. From January 2009 until April, 2013, Dr. Chu served as the 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy under President Barack Obama.
As the longest serving Energy Secretary, he began several initiatives, including ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy), the Energy Innovation Hubs and the Clean Energy Ministerial meetings. During his tenure, the deployment of renewable energy in the U.S. doubled.
From 2004-2009, he was the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California Berkeley. Earlier, he was the Theodore and Francis Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. During this time at Stanford (1987 – 2004) he was twice chaired the Department of Physics and helped start Bio-X, a multi-disciplinary initiative that brings together the physical and biological sciences with engineering and medicine. From 1978 – 1987, he worked at AT&T Bell, including four years as Head of the Quantum Electronics Research Department.
Chu has devoted much of his recent scientific career in search of new solutions to the energy and climate challenges. He has also been active in atomic physics and laser spectroscopy, including the development of methods to laser cool and trap atoms and atom interferometry. Using the optical tweezers, Chu introduced methods to simultaneously visualize and manipulate single bio-molecules. He continues to develop and apply optical methods to study the biological systems from the single molecule to cellular system level.
The holder of 10 patents, Dr. Chu has published ~250 scientific and technical papers. He has been awarded many honors, including named co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997. He received an A.B. in mathematics, and a B.S. in physics from the University of Rochester, and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley and 23 honorary degrees.