Steven Chu

Steven Chu in 2009

Steven Chu (born February 28, 1948) is an American physicist and former government official. He is a Nobel laureate and was the 12th U.S. secretary of energy. He is currently the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University. He is known for his research at the University of California, Berkeley, and his research at Bell Laboratories and Stanford University regarding the cooling and trapping of atoms with laser light, for which he shared the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics with Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and William Daniel Phillips.

Quotes

• The atoms become like a moth, seeking out the region of higher laser intensity.
  • As quoted by James Gleick in Lasers slow atom for scrutiny, The New York Times, July 13, 1986: Explaining how atoms are cooled.

• I'm the least-educated person in my immediate family. My two other brothers have multiple advanced degrees, and I only have one. [...] Actually, now that I've got a Nobel Prize, I feel equal.
  • Interview by Spencer Michels, The NewsHour, PBS, 2 May 2007 [1]

• I called my mother up when they announced the Nobel Prize, waiting until 7 in the morning. She said, “That’s nice — and when are you going to see me next?”
  • NY Times, April 16, 2009 [2]